Tony Walsh - An Evening With Longfella

Contact: networking@wolvescivic.co.uk

Longfella is the new professional name for "the towering wildfire that is Tony Walsh" - "one of the UK's most renowned performance poets" and a respected writer, workshop leader and community organiser.

Standing out from the crowd at nearly two metres tall, Longfella - Tony to his friends, is humbled when described as a "colossus" and a "true giant" of the performance poetry scene whilst performing everywhere from The British Library to The Glastonbury Festival. From schools, universities, prisons, conferences, festivals, museums and theatres to the magnificent Palace of Science and Culture in Warsaw, Poland as a guest of The British Council.

Tony's poetry has been published on both sides of the Atlantic as well as displayed with an LS Lowry image at both Tate Modern and The British Museum as part of a Heritage Lottery Fund "Best Of British" exhibition. A multiple winner and finalist in top-level poetry slam competitions, Tony is the current Manchester Literature Festival Comedy Slam Champion and was the runner-up in "The Times" UK Allstars Slam Final at Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2008.

Now a full-time freelance artist based in Manchester, Tony has, until recently combined his writing and family commitments with over twenty years of public service in a wide variety of Principal Officer roles, the majority spent working to engage and empower some of the UK's most deprived communities.

In May 2017, he came to wider attention for delivering his poem "This Is The Place" to the crowds gathered in Albert Square in central Manchester on 23 May for the public vigil following the bomb attack at the Manchester Arena. His performance was described as "the perfect symbol of the pride, passion and defiance of Manchester's people."

The poem had been commissioned in 2013, by the charity Forever Manchester. He later read the poem at the One Love Manchester Concert, held in benefit of the attack's victims and their families.

Price: £10.00

Time: 7:00pm (115 Minutes Including Interval)