 | Mike Garry is a Manchester performance poet who is as dedicated to words now as when he trained as a librarian. His work focuses upon the beautiful ugliness of the city and its people. His heroes are the underdogs, the outsiders, the people the glossies airbrush out. His first book, Men’s Morning tells the tale of an inner city sauna and his second book, Mancunian Meander is a poetic journey around a city, its suburbs and people. He has worked on residencies in Strangeways prison, the Big Issue and Trafford Mental Health and most recently six children’s homes in Manchester. Mike has been on tour with John Cooper Clarke for the last 2 years. He has just teamed up with Joe Duddell to put his poetry to music, and blogs at God is a Manc. |
Everyone a runner?
"I was impressed by the intensity of the debate and the high level of intellectual engagement, not least by the audience. It was an invigorating, even exhilarating experience to be part of a festival based on the conviction that disagreement is good. The Battle of Ideas is a fantastic concept, may it spread epidemically to the rest of the world. I am already looking forward to next year's event."
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, professor of social anthropology, University of Oslo; novelist
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