Threshold Festival

Friday 9 April – Saturday 10 April 2021.

10 Year Anniversary

Join in with this 10 Year Anniversary of the Threshold Hybrid Festival of Music and Arts.

My recent PSA film, The Talk, will be available to view among the art and music of so many great contributors. Get your tickets now.

From slavery to voguing: the House of Swann, published 22 February 2021 by Liverpool Museums for LGBT History Month.

What is Drag? Where did the concept of Drag Queens start? There are multiple answers to those two simple questions. 
Drag has been variously described as the theatrical performance of gender, a man in a dress, ‘wearing clothes of the opposite sex, creative self-expression that uses costume, makeup and/performance to play with traditional notions of gender’.

If there were only two genders, or clothes were globally gendered, answers to these questions might be easier to find, as it is, history shows Romans, upper-class 19th century Albanians, Scots and Irish men wearing kilts or skirts, women of all nationalities and continents regularly and mundanely wearing ‘male’ trousers, therefore the idea of what ‘drag’ is seems to centre around the hyper-masculinity of the globally pervading patriarchal systems. Men in ‘female clothes’ are sometimes designated as monstrous, ‘grotesque’ and ‘depraved’. The terms ‘Drag’ and ‘Drag Queen’ continue to evade fixed definitions.

Read more at Liverpool Museums …
or here (with embedded links for additional research information)

‘The Talk’ by Marjorie H Morgan.

‘The Talk’ premiered on Thursday 28 January, 2pm, it is a short, ‘public service announcement’ style film, giving a brief insight into the personal impact of racism in the lives of Black young men in the UK. The premiere event consisted of an initial sharing, followed by a conversation with Marjorie, Professor Patricia Daley and Professor Godfrey Palmer around the subjects raised in the film – available here.

A subtitled version of the conversation will soon be available from Heart of Glass.

‘The Talk’, and associated resources are intended to stimulate discussion, education and conversation into the reality of some aspects of life lived while Black in the UK, in the hope that barriers will be removed and equality and equity of opportunity and access will increase.

Introducing The Talk, a new commission by Marjorie H Morgan

‘The Talk’ by Marjorie H Morgan is a short ‘public service announcement’ style film giving a brief insight into the personal impact of racism in the lives of Black young men in the UK. Sharing and conversation with Professor Patricia Daley and Professor Godfrey Palmer on Thursday 28 January at 2pm.

‘The Talk’, and associated resources are intended to stimulate discussion, education and conversation into the reality of some aspects of life lived while Black in the UK, in the hope that barriers will be removed and equality and equity of opportunity and access will increase. Free tickets here.

From Homotopia Arts – THE WALK podcast series.
“Looking at Liverpool through a queer lens, THE WALK is a stroll through the city, as told by six queer writers.
Download the podcast and listen along as you retrace the writers’ steps, or enjoy the recording from the comfort of your own home.”
https://soundcloud.com/user-490983708
Here is a link to my contribution: “Ep. 7. Award-winning playwright Marjorie Morgan offers an intersectional approach to the Albert Docks, anchored to the city, to family, to self.”
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0nCeJiiFW4OFn9gqDtcGzZ?si=KZk1i48oRmyC-XtMJRg2Mw

Black Oral Histories in the North – an online panel discussion hosted by Liverpool Everyman Playhouse theatres on Friday 30 October 2020.

Coming soon … 10 November 2020 – Stage Your Story, a playwriting workshop collaboration with The Goddess Projects and Liverpool Everyman Playhouse theatres.

Coming soon …
Show Your Working from Homotopia Festival 2020

Throughout the month of July I have been selected as one of the artists who has been granted a Metal Remote Residency. Along with the other artists I will carry out my residency working remotely from my own home but with access to the support, networks and resources available from Metal. More information available below.

Vanishing Points is a new anthology of cultural criticism, focusing on the making, watching and conditions of Live Art and performance in the UK today. Vanishing Points is edited by Salome Wagaine, with deputy editors Ava Wong Davies and Ben Kulvichit, and designed by Chani Wisdom.

The book features contributions from Ava Wong Davies, Zarina Muhammad, Ben Kulvichit, Season Butler, Jack Tan, Salome Wagaine, Marjorie H Morgan, Rajni Shah, Selina Thompson and Dr Cecilia Wee.

It is co-published by LADA and Diverse Actions, a Live Art UK initiative, championing cultural diversity in the sector and marks the final point of three years of activity. Supported by an Arts Council England Ambition for Excellence grant, Diverse Actions is managed by Cambridge Junction on behalf of Live Art UK.

Granted a HomeWork Commission from Heart of Glass as part of their Compendium of Care Package during the Coronavirus Pandemic 2020.

http://www.heartofglass.org.uk/project/home-work/

Joined the board of trustees.

www.homotopia.net

Cultures of Love

by LUMA Creations – FREE entrance.

7pm Friday 21st Feb 2020 at John Archer Hall, L8 1YR

An evening of food, music & spoken word celebrating love, books, and stories inspired by the novels that shaped our world.

at Hope Street Theatre, 9-10 March 2020 – more information / book here

I’m one of the writers presenting new work at Finger Food Shorts, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse theatres, 27-28 March.

Tickets available here.

With Soulla Eriksen, Saphena Aziz et al. https://www.fingerfoodshorts.uk/

http://www.fingerfoodshorts.uk

Grant Winner: Marjorie Morgan, Oral History In North Of England

Each weekly session costs £10.00 per participant. Book here.

“Moonlight”: Removing the Physical Armour

“Moonlight” (2016) is a poetic and universal tale. It is a coming-of-age story for everyone who has every questioned “Who am I?” The central character in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s story is a Black American young man in Miami, yet he is also all of us, in all locations of this world growing up and coming to terms with our unique identities and surroundings. (Read more)

Liverpool will premiere a major new play this week as part of a series of celebrations and reflections about the city’s Windrush Generation.

Home from Home has been penned by city-based playwright Marjorie Morgan and looks at the turbulent recent events of the ‘hostile environment’. The play tells the story of a Liverpool woman who enjoys a celebrated career in the NHS but also faces the threat of deportation after being caught up in the Windrush scandal.

It will premiere at Liverpool’s Blackburne House on Friday 28 June as part of a weekend of events aimed at celebrating and recognising the huge contributions made to the city by our Commonwealth members.

Home from Home author Marjorie Morgan said: “I have been writing about Windrush for some time now and this is a story that I thought would both celebrate and show the truth of the reality that some people are stuck in. It is like people have a dual identity, on one hand they are happy to be British and on the other they are not sure if they are British because people are telling them they are not. So this indication what reality is like for many people with a Commonwealth background. We are all Windrush. This affects all of us, it’s about all of us.” (Read more)

Home From Home, a new play by Marjorie H Morgan. Featuring Kel Nkondock and Dorcas Sebuyange. With production assistance from Curtis Watt and Gabe Morgan.

President Macron and Cultural Reparations

British colonialism is alive and thriving in the art world. The museums of the UK, and of the Western world, are filled with objects of uncertain provenance. Museum culture ignores the realities and sensitivities of the centuries of illicit trade as they are largely self regulated – they justify retaining their collections by claiming they are ‘universal museums’ that serve the citizens of every nations, not just one nation – this theoretical global access is a western luxury as the citizens of London, Paris, and New York may benefit, but not those of countries like Benin – access is not a global reality.

The British Museum was one of 18 museums who, in 2002, signed released a ‘Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums,’ as providers of “a valid and valuable context for objects that were long ago displaced from their original source”. This ‘displacement’ is a contested term used by mainly Western museums instead of looting, uncertain provenance, plunder, theft, and extortion. The use of the umbrella term, ‘universal museums’ provides institutions with a defence against the discussion of cultural reparation of objects to the countries of origin.

More from this piece available at: https://blkbld.uk/304PkDP

An extended article will be posted here soon.

“But it is Marjorie Morgan, whose Thin Red Line, a script written in response to The List – Liverpool Biennial’s most memorable work from 2018, for all the wrong reasons – that draws out the emotion of the festivals. She clarifies the role that introspective investigation can have on understanding the value of art, by shaking off the shackles of the Independents Biennial, and delving into a story pushed by Liverpool Biennial. Her script ignores the recent artwork, and the tales of destruction, and focusses on the story of three of the List’s occupants.

True to form, Marjorie Morgan’s nerve-wracking writing, alongside the fact and fiction of the other writers turns Post-it into a truly purposeful anthology.”

Art in Liverpool usually writes very outwardly, reflecting on the highs and lows of what’s going on around us, so the upcoming book has been a fascinating opportunity to self-reflect, often very critically of the festival, and its context.

Working with eight of Liverpool’s most exciting writers, the book includes work from Richard Billing, Jessica Fenna, Joanie Magill, Bernadette McBride, Paul McDermott, Marjorie Morgan and Callan Waldron-Hall …

The book gives an insight into the stories behind work, and the voice of those who made it speaking truthfully about some of the most impactful work of IB18.

Liverpool Mental Health Week – October 2018

“This Festival’s final event launches the TranScripts anthology at Museum of Liverpool on 14^th October. This features new writing and launches an anthology of work from a creative writing project run by Liverpool Mental Health Consortium … and led by tutor Marjorie Morgan, writer-in-residence for Independent Liverpool Biennial and recently shortlisted for the prestigious Kenneth Branagh Award. ” (Read more)