Obsessive Pursuit: Place and its Purpose

This evening is one of a series of three, part of Estuary Live Lounge, curated by Gareth Evans.

Wednesday 26 May:  7pm - 9pm
On the Obsessive Pursuit: Place and its Purpose
FREE
Book your ticket HERE 

Two long-time collaborators and friends, the acclaimed writers Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair come together to talk about the impact of place and how it shapes our understanding of ourselves, our past and our present. They have both written extensively about the Thames Estuary and East London and have enjoyed many a walk together through these landscapes.  On this occasion however, they are both currently working on new projects that are concerned with the connections between our own shores and those in distant lands.

Since 2014 Rachel has made multiple trips to the Caribbean Island of Barbados, researching the little known Jewish history of this place, which dates back to 1654. Her work to date explores the Ashkenazi Jewish population who settled on the island from the 1930s onwards, escaping persecution in Europe, as well as Sephardi settlers who arrived in the seventeenth century. She will share with us, records from the archives, oral history recordings and the results of four years of archaeological excavations in the coastal town of Speightstown.

Iain Sinclair’s project includes both a book and a film that connects the Thames and the Amazon.  The Gold Machine locates narrative momentum from separate streams. In separate continents. In separate times. Times that miraculously cohere. Or refuse to cohere. Challenging ancestors.  Attending to WB Yeats: 'The living can assist the imagination of the dead.'