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Articles by Jess Berry
Locking antlers: the great Christmas market debate
The Dispatch is three years old this month! To celebrate, we’ve unlocked the archive. That means for the next few weeks you can read Birmingham’s quality, independent journalism entirely for free. Hurray! Jess, unimpressed by German sausage. Have you ever seen the Christmas wheel being put up? Seriously. Have you stood in Centenary Square, swaddled against the harsh November winds, and taken it all in?
A pig-headed search for Cannock’s strangest myth
THIS IS DANCE features new show blending truth, illusion, and reality November sees an exciting series of new dance performances as part of THIS IS DANCE autumn season. Now in its second year, this ambitious partnership brings together venues, festivals, producers, and dance companies, to present performances by local, national, and international artists. First up is Jo Bannon’s eye-opening performance The Dirty Work at the Hippodrome on 7 November.
Stockport stroke survivor to take on daring walk in aid of the ward which helped his recovery
A local stroke survivor is raising funds for the stroke ward at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust by tackling a 3km walk for the Stockport NHS Charity. It was Christmas Day, 2022, when Andy Shaw collapsed in the early hours of the morning with a stroke that would render him unable to move the left side of his body. He had gone to bed to "wait for Santa" with a blinding headache, before collapsing and waking his wife, Bernadette, who called an ambulance.
Bin trouble in Marple following delays in waste collection
Residents in Marple have voiced their complaints online as bin collections have faced delays. Information on Stockport Council's website detailed that brown bin collections were missed for 34 streets in Marple at the start of the week. Collection was scheduled for Tuesday 18th August, and then pushed back once more to the next working day. Locals took to Facebook to call out the continued missed collections as a 'joke', adding that regular services have faced several disruptions over recent weeks.
Ten-day festival returns to Stockport this Autumn
A ten day programme of music and art returns to Stockport this September, promising 'biblical' gigs in the heart of the town. From 17-26 September, over 40 artists are taking to Stockport's best independent venues - including St Mary's Church, Stockport Market Hall, Thread and Bask - as part of the Mercury Climbing Festival. Headline artists include The Twilight Sad, BC Camplight and The Orielles, with no shortage of local talent filling the stages by way of The Rolling People and Darcy Hope.
Stockport families invited to take on town centre sticker trail this summer
If you're looking for a fun family activity this summer, look no further than the Stockport Sticker Trail 2026. Designed by Stockport-based illustrator Emily Flanagan, the trail hides ten unique sticker designs around the town, all at independent local businesses. It's part of the Totally Stockport Krazy Races celebration, launched at the beginning of August, inviting locals to make their very own Krazy Race. Each sticker is blank, designed for you and the kids to create your Krazy masterpiece.
Road closures, teams, timings, and more - everything you need to know for this weekend's Krazy Races event
The Krazy Races event - which will see around 30 teams of soapbox racers speed around Stockport town centre - is just around the corner. The race takes place on Sunday 9 August, beginning in St Peter's Square. Teams will whizz through Mersey Square, past The Plaza, and down towards Stockport Air Raid Shelter, relying on gravity and a big push to soar past the finish line. The event is free for visitors, with racers hoping to raise money for their selected charities.
Discover your dream home at Taylor Wimpey's exclusive summer events
Taylor Wimpey Southern Counties is inviting househunters to its summer events taking place at its developments across the Southern Counties this July. Attendees will have the opportunity to discover their dream home while enjoying a bite to eat and a drink. There will be exclusive deals and offers available for potential buyers who attend, as well as the opportunity to explore the homes available.
green and red ceramic tiles clad sculptural daybed by uchronia at hôtel plaza athénée, paris
Uchronia’s Daybed Installation Transforms Hôtel Plaza Athénée In the Cour Jardin of the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Paris, France, Univers Uchronia has unveiled Daybed, a large-scale installation that reinterprets the hotel’s garden through materiality, color, and form. The temporary work, on view until 11th November, 2025, functions as both sculptural object and inhabitable space, establishing a dialogue between contemporary design and the historic setting of the Plaza Athénée.
UK set to introduce digital ID to fight small boat crisis
Kier Starmer has today confirmed plans for a digital ID card scheme that is set to combat illegal working in the UK. The ID will prove individual’s right to work, with Starmer saying that people will be unable to work without a valid digital card. The plans were laid out at the Global Progress Action conference in London, with roll-out expected to take place by the end of the Parliment.
Taylor Wimpey site managers scoop prestigious award
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Earth Prayers with Carol Ann Duffy and John Sampson @ HOME review – The sublime, apathy and wind instruments - aAh! Magazine
As part of the annual Manchester Literature Festival, HOME hosts Carol Ann Duffy and John Sampson to read from ‘Earth Prayers’. The festival celebrates ‘imagination, ideas, stories and voices’ from across the globe, bringing together people with a passion for language. In her latest works, Duffy collates ‘encounters with poetry in the natural world’, a wonderful collection spanning across years and voices.
Budget-friendly spots to study and chill
Featured image: Sarah Beck You definitely don’t need to lock yourself on the second floor of the library to be productive. Set your semester up right by exploring our top picks to study or kick back and relax — where even the more pricey options offer a bargain. The Grove ££ @mcrmetfood The Grove in Grosvenor East is a fantastic laid-back spot on campus to get some work done, grab a bite to eat or catch up with mates.
Taylor Wimpey begins work on new 186 home Bovingdon development
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Flow4Equality: New social enterprise aims to combat period poverty and female isolation through community - aAh! Magazine
Featured image: Flow4Equality Manchester Met student Hannah Smith is launching Flow4Equality, a new social enterprise dedicated to fighting period poverty in the city. Their first event is a pop-up festival called ‘Painting Manchester Red’, which aims to support and empower women, with a focus on feminism and menstruation.
Flow4Equality: New social enterprise aims to combat period poetry and female isolation through community - aAh! Magazine
Featured image: Flow4Equality Manchester Met student Hannah Smith is launching Flow4Equality, a new social enterprise dedicated to fighting period poverty in the city. Their first event is a pop-up festival called ‘Painting Manchester Red’, which aims to support and empower women, with a focus on feminism and menstruation.
Burlesque Gala Night @ Manchester Opera House review
Featured image: Johan Persson Future-hit Burlesque The Musical dazzled Manchester with its world premiere this week, bringing new life to the 2010 cult classic. Lining the Manchester Opera House with a hot pink carpet, the gala night saw glitz and glam like never before. This new adaptation is littered with an all-star cast, showcasing the work of internet-sensation Todrick Hall, rising star Jess Folley, and Jackie Burns of Wicked.
Opinion: "Our real legacy at university is the friends we make along the way"
We all prioritise different things in life: our relationships, academic achievement, and financial success. While these can be great catalysts for short and long-term goals, making us resilient, fixating on these goals can become overwhelming, even detrimental. Focusing on what we feel we have to achieve can make it easy to lose sight of the present. This also applies to university life.
Far From Home Close To Love @ The Kings Arms review
Featured image: Benjamin Kelm Benjamin Kelm explores the highs and lows of migration in his uplifting one-man play, . Following the bold move of leaving his home in Germany to pursue a career in acting in New York, Benjamin experiences the full breadth of loneliness in the city. The show is held at The Kings Arms, the perfect venue for this intimate piece. In the expanse of the lofty venue, the audience is drawn close to Benjamin’s psyche.
An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical @ Manchester Opera House review
Featured image: Marc Brenner Based on Douglas Day Stewarts’ hit 80s romance, An Officer and A Gentleman takes to the Manchester Opera House stage to transport us into a timeless story of love, courage and redemption. This Curve production is a neon sensation of retro hits and escapism. The story follows Zack Mayo, a Navy aviation officer candidate, as he struggles with his tainted past through his training. In true musical style, the show reads as a pantomime of the film.
Interview: Liverpool quartet Courting
Featured image: Charlie Barclay Harris Liverpool-based quartet, Courting, are one of the most exciting new names on the scene. Merging hyper-pop with post-punk (and really anything else they feel like) provides limitless potential to their sound and following the release of second studio album, New Last Name. It seems there’s no stopping the outrageous theatrics of Courtings’ cinematic universe.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong @ Manchester Opera House
Photography: Manchester Opera House Somehow, the Cornley Drama Society managed to book yet another production in Manchester, much to the displeasure of the Opera House team. Bringing chaos and near-fatalities to the stage, Peter Pan Goes Wrong is a raucous pantomime of tragicomedy and immersion. Mischief Theatre, under the guise of Cornley Drama Society, have been parodying disastrous amateur dramatics for little over a decade.
Alien Chicks @ The Deaf Institute review - a whimsical delve into genre weaving - aAh! Magazine
Featured image: Press It’s the day before Valentines, and soft red lighting illuminates the bleacher style seats in The Lodge of The Deaf Institute, bouncing off the seemingly out of place disco ball. Waiting for the show to kick in, it puts you in mind of an awkward Year 6 school disco. A guy in a cap comes on stage to spray the room in haze, as three young lads step up to warm us up. DieKaiDie announce they’re from Rusholme, their unconventional setup giving them a mysterious edge.
Sampha @ Factory International review
Featured image and gallery: Georgina Hurdsfield For the first time in seven years, globally renowned Sampha returns to Manchester. As the first date on his LAHAI tour, there’s a lot of buzz around this show. Brand new venue, Factory International at Aviva Studios, is the perfect setting for this, playing for the first time in the round. The venue has a wonderfully relaxed and accomplished vibe, with ample seating in the foyer. It’s a testament to what the future of arts and culture spaces can hold.
Film: Mean Girls 20 years on
Featured image: Paramount Pictures 20 years after its initial release in cinemas, Mean Girls (2004) continues to be a pop culture phenomenon. As a new Mean Girls film, in the style of a musical, has been released this year, it seems natural for us to reflect on the legacy of Mean Girls. Inspired by Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabees, as well as screenwriter Tina Fey’s own experiences in high school, Mean Girls (2004) tells the story of Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan).
TV Priest / The Shaking Hands @ YES Basement review
Featured image: Jess Berry Far from the sweaty scenes that usually haunt YES Basement, this midweek crowd stands sensibly paced, weather appropriate jackets still donned. For opener, three-piece ‘The Shaking Hands’, social-distancing is still observed. It’s slow, sad rock that greets you. Without pause, the trio play for ten minutes at a time. Whilst not clear where one song begins and another ends, the ambient reverb echoes through the venue like the soundtrack to a Channel 4 drama.
Del Water Gap @ Band On The Wall review
Featured image: Jess Berry Swan Street isn’t an ideal camping spot, but hoards of eager fans have been waiting outside Band on the Wall since midday. Brooklyn-based Samuel Holden Jaffe, better known as Del Water Gap, has his fans braving the wind and traffic on an otherwise dull Thursday. The female-heavy crowd packs out the sold-out show from the first entry. For those old enough to wait at the upstairs bar, jazzy 7-piece TSUNA provides the backdrop to an effortlessly cool space.
Dry Jan Diaries - aAh! Magazine
Featured illustration: Georgia Harmey Dreaded by the hospitality industry and controversial across Britain, the Dry January movement is a campaign by Alcohol Change UK started in 2013. When Emily Robison set herself the challenge of abstaining from alcohol to aid her half-marathon prep, an international movement was born. Benefits of Dry January can include improved sleep, and mood, higher energy levels, increased physical activity, and better diet.
Film review: Poor Things
Combining unreliable narration, visual horror, and in-your-face philosophy, Yorgos Lanthimos produces a marmite masterpiece. Highly anticipated and insane ‘Poor Things’ explores the coming-of-age of Bella Baxter, a beautiful and naive Frankenstein created by ‘God’ Baxter. The film is inspired by the 1992 Alisdair Gray novel, set in a fantastical take on Victorian-era London. An A-list cast of Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and Mark Ruffalo star.
Little Women at HOME MCR review
Featured image: Bradley Sansom There are few stories that inspire a festive feeling quite like Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. The timeless coming-of-age tale follows four sisters on their passage into adulthood, each with their own individual spirit guiding them. In Anne-Maire Casey’s adaptation of the classic, the story is transformed into an exciting theatrical experience.
The Mercians @ The Deaf Institute, The Lodge review: Feel-good indie with added bite
Featured image and gallery: Nathan Cole In a quiet room at the Deaf Institute, 40 or so people gather for The Mercians’ highly anticipated first headline tour. Having come off the back of supporting former Kasabian frontman, Tom Meighan, the four-piece are one of the scene’s most exciting up-and-coming outfits. They’re on a mission to ‘bring indie back to the midlands’, and tonight they bring a taste of Leicester to us.
The Darkness @ New Century Hall review and gallery
Featured image and gallery: Ben Redshaw Kicking off the show, Essex 5-piece, Bad Nerves, warm up the crowd with unpretentious power-pop. Starting with a chunky guitar riff, the group knows how to command attention. Bobby Nerves cuts through the support act awkwardness by making jibes at the previous night’s Glasgow audience.‘Can’t Be Mine’, ‘Baby Drummer’ and ‘Radio Punk’ are met with a mixed reception from the early birds at the front.
‘Mr Burns, A Post-Electric Play’ (2023) Manchester School of Theatre review
Photography: Ben Redshaw Sean Aydon directs the final year BA (Hons) Acting students in a powerfully unnerving adaptation of Anne Washburn’s ‘Mr Burns, A Post-Electric Play’, courtesy of Manchester School of Theatre. The play follows American survivors following an apocalyptic nuclear disaster, trying to remember an episode of The Simpsons. Gathering around a campfire, a small group opens the show.
Light Falls (2023) Manchester School of Theatre review
Featured image: Ben Redshaw Bryony Shanahan directs Light Falls, an interpretation of Simon Stephens’ 2019 ‘love letter to the North’. This inspiring BA (Hons) Acting production showcases the very best northern spirit, following five disparate relatives connected by grief. The story of romance, adultery, loss and resilience is performed seamlessly by Manchester School of Theatre students.
Hollywood Moment: 12 Books To Read Before the Oscars
As the Oscars prepare for their close-up on March 27, a dozen new and notable titles take readers behind the scenes of Tinseltown past, present and future. Whether you’re a classic Hollywood fan whose default channel is Turner Classic Movies (TCM), an indie-movie champion or a pop-culture vulture who never misses the latest blockbuster, these books will take you inside the Hollywood dream machine.
An “occlusive thrombosis-on-a-chip” microfluidic device for investigating the effect of anti-thrombotic drugs
An “occlusive thrombosis-on-a-chip” microfluidic device for investigating the effect of anti-thrombotic drugs† Jess Berry,a François J. Peaudecerf, b Nicole A. Masters,c Keith B. Neeves, c Raymond E. Goldsteind and Matthew T.
Court reveals owner sold assisted living building
Family members of the elderly residents of Prospect Park Residence (PPR) sat in court stunned last week, as they learned that the building they have been fighting to keep their loved ones in since May was actually sold long before they were informed of the assisted living facility’s closure.During a shocking court hearing last Wednesday, family members learned that PPR owner Haysha Dietsch struck a deal with a buyer last January to sell the building at One Prospect Park West in Grand Army...
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