Hi Everyone:
I’ve thought about this overnight, and while I see that it would be nice to share Bragg (if he comes) with the CCPA, the event as described would be less spectacular than an evening with him at the Labour Temple.
The Labour Temple would be a perfect setting, it has an unparalleled radical history and that history is marked through the building, including those fabulous fire curtains with the hammer and sickle. So I would be disappointed to lose that opportunity in
favour of a regular speaker event at Knox, which has none of the Labour Temple’s cache’. I don’t want to be seen as an old grouch, although I am probably already, and I’m not outright opposing it, but it would make me a little bit sad.
julie
From: 1919-conference-bounces@lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:1919-conference-bounces@lists.umanitoba.ca]
On Behalf Of James Naylor
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2018 3:33 PM
To: 1919 conference organizing committee
Subject: [1919-Conference] Billy Bragg
Hi everyone, and I hope summer’s enjoyable for all,
We are still in the process of seeing about whether we can get Billy Bragg, but we’ve also been in some talks with the CCPA. If you remember, we were arranging the Bragg events with Jason from the West End Cultural Centre
and the idea was that we would have an event with him at the Ukrainian Labour Temple on the Friday night, and the WECC would have him on the Saturday. The CCPA expressed interest and we had suggested or assumed they might want to do something with him on Sunday.
I recently talked to Molly McCraken from the CCPA. They are concerned that there was not a sufficient audience to have 3 Bragg events and suggested that there be a large, cosponsored event at Knox on the Friday night.
I was initially dubious about this since I didn’t want our event to be hijacked. However, I have rethought this a bit. We were originally working with the CCPA on the keynote issue since there were clear benefits for
both us and them. For us, it helped mitigate some of the financial concerns about bringing in a big name speaker. I think this remains true of the Bragg event.
It seems to me that we could rearrange things to the benefit of everyone. We could participate in a large Bragg event on the Friday, with heavily discounted tickets to conference attendees (the MFL has contributed $5000
to the Bragg event, and maybe they would be okay with us using it to discount tickets). This would allow us to rethink the Thursday Keynote event. I would suggest (as long as it’s not a problem for the Labout Temple) that we hold the keynote there: we could
bus people directly from the U of W, serve a light dinner, and have the keynote/social/wine and cheese there.
That’s just one possibility, others of you might have others. Let me know what you think,
Jim
James Naylor
Professor
Department of History
Brandon University
270 18th Street
Brandon, MB R7A 6A9
Canada
Office: 204 727 9664
Cell: 204 720 2117
