First installed in 1997, Lemn Sissay’s poem Flags stretches a little under a mile down Tib street – running from Market Street up toward Swan Street.
Originally part of the Tib Street art trail, created to draw people back into the Northern Quarter when it was in serious decline, Flags has long been a part of the area’s fabric.
Over the years, some of the poem’s stones have disappeared: leaving us to guess the missing letters and marvel at the way a simple act of feet treading the pavement has, over time, changed the meaning of the Chancellor of the University of Manchester’s words.
On his blog, academic Dr. Tony Shaw calls it “living poetry, uncertain poetry” – where “sometimes you have to kick aside cigarette ends to read more clearly, or wait for a momentarily parked car to move.”
And for the past 24 years, that’s exactly how it has been: A piece of urban poetry slowly eroding under our feet, the very meaning of the art changing as stones disappear, wear away or – as artist Tim Rushton notes – are taken home as souvenirs.
In a bold move, the full work has been immortalised in a new ‘cast iron’ rendering – restored on Tib Street in full, with a new version of the poem written especially by Sissay for the occasion.
Supported by Manchester City Council, Bruntwood, and the Arts Council, Sissay was able to work once again with artist Rushton – who designed the original poem’s font back in 1997 – on the new installation.
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Rushton had designed a special font called cypher for the piece back in the ’90s, which is used again on the new rendering.
“In the last couple of years it has become obvious that Lemn Sissay’s poem Flags on Tib Street has finally become past reasonable repair,” said Tim, reflecting on how the poem on the pavement has changed over the years.
“General wear and tear, scaffolding pole drops and souvenir hunting has rendered [the original poem] very patchy.”
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Sissay’s poetry can be found across Manchester. In fact you’ve probably noticed one of his most famous, Rain, painted on a wall above Gemini takeaway near the Oxford Road university campus.
Lemn Sissay’s poem Rain can be found above Gemini Takeaway on the Oxford Road corridor / Image: Gerald England
Now an internationally respected poet with work recognised across the globe, Sissay has come a long way from using his unemployment benefit to self-publish his first poetry pamphlet Perceptions of the Pen.
The official poet of the 2012 London Olympics and Chancellor of the University of Manchester since 2015, for this year’s Manchester International Festival Sissay has also co-curated an exhibition at HOME with Hans Ulrich Obrist.
On display until 30 August, it’s called Poet Slash Artist and is all about forging new links across cultures, continents, languages and generations – joining up poets and visual artists to connect words and images across gallery walls and city streets.
Just like the Tib Street poem, it’s not all found in the gallery: Rather, the new exhibit has spilled out onto the streets of Manchester: creating a new trail that runs from Deansgate to Whitworth Street West.
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A full map of the locations for these new works of living art can be found here.
Flags by Lemn Sissay – the original poem (deciphered by Dr. Tony Shaw) versus the new edition:
The original 1997 poem:
These pavement cracks are the places where Poets pack their warrior words
These pavement cracks are the places where sleeping shadows of moving bridges stole
Where dying dust of dreams slides where the slits silt turns to food
Where home truths trickle home and confide Where the silent forests brood
Where spines bent?? the bridges arches where they vaulted with asice(?) to ? speak
And unity sown on to the sun of alll trades perhaps they’re a script words of the street
Perhaps these pavement cracks are the places awhere flattened flags lies solidified waves
The telling lines within a sea of faces where sufferers take cover of street caves
The telling lines within a sea of faces Where sufferers take cover of street caves
Where wander the wayward and lost Where the runaway can chart his journey back home
Where the water runs as the world defrosts The street breathes beneath this stone
And perhaps the pavement cracks are the pattern of concrete butterflies
Where thoughts carefully cultivated waiting to waken grow wings and fly
Like us they hold the people of a modern earth This world between the windswept flags
Where pavement cracks are the places where sleeping shadows of moving bridges stole
The cold
The updated 2021 poem:
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Pavement cracks are the places
Where poets pack warrior words
Verses to catch the surfeit of faces
Where seeds slip from bitter birds
Trip and fall between the ledges
Where sweeping silent rivers run
Hidden roughened toughened edges
Where darkness swallows the sun
Pavement cracks are the places
Where shadows of bridges roll
Where water falls water races
Heat crouches beneath the cold
The dust of the city slides
And secret silent worries wait
Home truths trickle home
Cracks are the lines of fate
These pavement cracks are patterns
of concrete butterflies
A perfectly positioned parallax
Waiting to wake grow wings and fly
And perhaps these pavement cracks
Hold the Manchester myriad———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
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The cracks the cracks the cracks!
The world between the windswept flags
Art & Culture
Science and Industry Museum reveals CGIs of iconic Power Hall that’s been closed for years
Daisy Jackson
One of the Science and Industry Museum’s most iconic attractions will reopen this summer – and the beloved museum has revealed a sneak peak of how things will look.
The museum has shared CGIs of the reimagined Power Hall: The Law Family Gallery, where visitors will be able to explore a lively working gallery full of engines and rail vehicles.
The popular part of the museum closed for urgent repairs in 2019 and has since been undergoing conservation work and a new look created by award-winning designers Studio MUTT.
The sounds, smells and sights of Manchester’s past and present industry will be brought to the Power Hall when it reopens.
Visitors will soon again be able to rediscover objects and learn the stories behind those who powered Manchester’s industry.
There’ll be three main themes within the Power Hall – Making More, which will explore how engines helped people make more, faster, with steam engines installed at factories and mills.
Then there’ll be Powering Lives, which will examine how engines power the electricity network we all plug into every day.
And also Connecting Places, which looks at how locomotives have connected communities around the world, starting at the site of the museum which sparked a transport revolution in 1830.
Science and Industry Museum reveals CGIs of iconic Power Hall that’s been closed for years
Kate Chatfield, Interpretation and Content Manager at the Science and Industry Museum, said: “Power Hall: The Law Family Gallery will be a must-see Manchester experience – a living gallery that showcases a unique collection of historic 19th and early 20th century working engines to tell the story of Manchester as an epicentre for the engine-driven ideas and industry that shaped the world as we know it today.
“Our most iconic objects will be available to explore like never before as we bring to life the people behind the power through stories of the engineers, makers and technicians who use their skills and senses to create and care for engines, both today and in the past.”
The work on the Power Hall is part of a multi-million-pound regeneration project across the Science and Industry Museum, which is conserving and reimagining these historic buildings.
The Power Hall has been future-proofed in the six years it’s been closed to the public, including urgent roof and timber repairs.
Further information about what to see and do and the Power Hall’s opening date will be announced in the coming weeks. Sign up to the museum’s mailing list to be among the first to hear more.
Power Hall: The Law Family Gallery project has been made possible with support from The Law Family Charitable Foundation, the Wolfson Foundation, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Headley Trust, Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, Atmos International, The Beaverbrooks Charitable Trust, The Zochonis Charitable Trust and other donors who choose to remain anonymous.
Special thanks to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for their significant contribution to the gallery, and to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for funding the decarbonisation of the Power Hall through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, delivered by Salix Finance.
Featured image: Supplied
Art & Culture
A charity auction is selling memorabilia from the ACTUAL Peaky Blinders set
Thomas Melia
Peaky Blinders super-fans get ready, because there’s a charity auction is currently open and items worn by the stars of the iconic TV seriesare up for grabs.
This exclusive event gives bidders the chance to own a piece of modern-day TV history in the form of not just merchandise but authentic memorabilia.
Let’s be honest, we’ve all wanted to pull on a flat cap and pretend we were a gangster at one point in our lives, and what better way to do so and relive your Peaky Blinders fantasy than by doing so with one from the show? Especially since you know your money is going towards a good cause.
Whether you want to look as dapper as Tommy Shelby, or you just want to add a culture-soaked collector’s item to your, well, collection, you might want to check this one if you’re a big Peaky fan.
Maybe you could own something from this very picture at the Peaky Blinders charity auction event.Walk away feeling dapper as ever with exclusive merchandise up for grabs at the Peaky Blinders charity auction event.Credit: BBC
Anyone planning on going to the Peaky Blinders charity auction event can bid in person or even register to bid online now if you won’t be free during the proceedings.
As for what is on the table, you could raise your virtual paddle for everything from a full suit worn by Cillian Murphy himself to Sam Claflin’s homburg hat, a pair of Michael Gray (Finn Cole) shiny shoes and much more.
And where else to hold said event and than Manchester’s very own Peaky Blinders bar on Peter Street just off the main Deansgate strip, where the action will culminate in a flamboyant and free-to-all event.
Those attending in person will be greeted with a welcome drink before being encouraged to join in with the final day of the auction – guests are encouraged to turn up in ‘true Shelby style’ of course.
All the funds raised will go towards the much-loved NHS foundation and specialist hospital, The Christie, Europe’s largest cancer centre, right here in Manchester.
Peaky Blinders bar on Peter St in Manchester city centre.Everyone knows the Peaky Blinders like a drink.
Tickets for this event cost nothing, but there is an option to add an additional donation if you wish, and bidding on items taken from the cult favourite TV show is open to everyone.