Literature festival to host events at ballroom

A Regency style dance workshop and an evening of Romani music are among the events due to be held at Bradford Live as part of Bradford Literature Festival.

The venue's grand ballroom will host 20 events during the 10-day festival, which begins later this month.

Among those appearing in the building's Art Deco style ballroom are former BBC broadcaster Mishal Husain and poet Lemn Sissay.

The grand space will join venues including Bradford City Hall, the University of Bradford, City Park, the Loading Bay, Salts Mill and the Bradford branch of Waterstones.

The £50m Bradford Live venue is due to open later this year after Trafalgar Entertainment took over the running of the site in April.

As well as hosting major concerts and shows in the main auditorium, Trafalgar said the ballroom and the building's various bars would host stand-alone events once the venue opens, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The events include a Regency Dance Workshop, which allows people to "learn the steps, etiquette, and social customs that defined the world of Jane Austen."

Another will looks at how the 7/7 London terror attacks unfolded and how they continue to shape the country. that changed Britain:

Mishal Husain will be discussing her memoir Broken Threads: My Family from Empire to Independence.

There will also be an evening celebrating Faiz Ahmed Faiz, one of Urdu's greatest poets, featuring hi grandchildren Adeel Hashmi and Mira Hashmi.

Journalists Ash Sarkar and Michael Chessum will host a debate on "the rise of cancel culture and wokeism to the increasing fragmentation of progressive movements".

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