Beyond the Forbidden Gate

Beyond the Forbidden Gate is a new body of work by Joey Simons that explores the parameters of urban development in North Glasgow. Joey’s practice as an artist and writer spans forms of organising, collaboration, textual research and poetry. His work addresses suppressed working-class histories and their relevance to contemporary social struggles.

Joey’s research into histories of enclosure, public housing, refugee organising and workers’ opposition in North Glasgow has informed the collaborations with local communities and artists that underpin Beyond the Forbidden Gate. Developed as part of Glasgow Sculpture Studio’s Learning & Engagement Programme, these collaborations have led to the creation of an imagined counterplan to recent local authority development proposals.

The Mitchell Library’s Old Glasgow Room is a central gathering point for this project, with the space used by Joey and his collaborators to present archival materials and artworks that investigate the class forces shaping competing visions for North Glasgow. A series of talks, workshops, poetry readings and text-based works will also unfold across public libraries in Springburn, Woodside and Possilpark. These civic spaces, forever under threat, remain a vital space for culture to persist and flower amidst the developers’ plans.

Three events are associated with this project:

Ned Donaldson: The Spy Who Went Back to the Bricklaying book launch

Saturday 15 June, 2 - 4pm, Mitchell Library.
Book a free ticket

Ned Donaldson (1927 – 1999) grew up in Possilpark in the 1930s and played a crucial role in the city’s labour movement as a militant trade union organiser, Communist Party activist and working-class intellectual. Join us for a discussion on North Glasgow’s radical history, and the launch of The Spy Who Went Back to the Bricklaying, a fascinating account of Ned Donaldson’s trip to Yugoslavia in 1948 and the possibilities (and intrigues) of international solidarity.

With Joey Simons, Dr. Anni Donaldson and the Spirit of Revolt Archive

Build it up, tear it down! Launching the Townhead zine

Monday 17 June, 3.30 – 4.30pm, Woodside Library.
Unticketed

Join us for the launch of ‘Build it up, tear it down!’, a new zine and series of ceramics produced in collaboration with young people at the SiMY community development project in Townhead. Based on the sights, sounds and textures of their local community, and utopian visions for its future, the works celebrate Townhead as it is slowly hemmed in by ‘Glasgow’s Learning Quarter’. 

The work will be introduced by artists Joey Simons and Keira McLean of Radical Art School / Red Flag Arts, who have been working with the young people at SiMY for the past year.

The Springburn railway murder of 1840: British justice, Irish labour and Scotland’s railways

Tuesday 18 June, 6 - 7.30pm, Mitchell Library. 
Book a free ticket

Join us for an evening of theatre, music and discussion about a dramatic event in Scottish history.

On 14 May 1841, a crowd of 50,000 gathered at Bishopbriggs Cross to witness the execution of two Irish navvies accused of the murder of an English ganger. Their case was marked by a catalogue of false arrests, forced confessions and prejudicial reporting, and showed that justice is always in the balance when Britannia tips the scales. The Glasgow Herald reported at the time that it wished “the names of Doolan and Redding may soon be forgotten.” This event will be an act of remembering, based on the research and writings of Professor Willy Maley.

Featuring live music and original songs from Lorna Morgan and a screening of GALLOWGLASS, a play by John Maley and Willy Maley, directed by Nick Beaton. A performance by Milton Arts and Parts (MAPS) at Gorbals Unemployed Workers’ Centre, 7 June 1991. We will also launch Willy Maley’s The Story of Possilpark.