One of the events going on at the Merseyside Maritime Museum over the Moby-Dick weekend on May 4th was a production of The Chester Noah (with a modern twist), performed by The Liverpool University Players. Directed by Dr Sarah Peverley, with assistance from Andrea Young. Here is a video of the production:
The first of the Moby-Dick lecture series lectures, by Dr Chris Routledge, entitled From Liverpool’s Greenland Street to Greenland’s Liverpool Coast: William Scoresby, Whaling, and Exploration, is now available to watch or download from his website here.
Join us on Wednesday June 5th for a free public lecture by Dr Joanna Ostapkowicz of National Museums Liverpool entitled ‘To be closest to the Creator’: Nuu-chah-nulth and Inuit whaling imagery in the collections of the World Museum, Liverpool. This is the final lecture in what has been a diverse and remarkable series about whaling, the Arctic, and marine science. It takes place at 1pm on June 5th, in the 4th floor lecture theatre at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.
10% off in the Maritime Dining Rooms for guests attending the lectures.
On May 22nd (1pm-2pm) Professor Chris Frid of the University of Liverpool will be giving a talk entitled “Whales, fish & sponges: the scientific & social challenges of marine conservation” at the 4th Floor Lecture Theatre in the Merseyside Maritime Museum. Like the others in this series this public lecture is free to all.
Professor Frid’s talk was to have been the last in the Moby Dick lecture series, but as it happens there is still one to go. Dr Joanna Ostapkowicz’s rescheduled talk entitled “‘To be closest to the Creator’: Nuu-chah-nulth and Inuit whaling imagery in the collections of the World Museum, Liverpool” will now take place at 1pm on Wednesday June 5th.
This week’s Moby Dick lecture series is by Dr Bernard Stonehouse of the Scott Polar Institute, University of Cambridge and is entitled Liverpool’s Arctic Whalers: the story of an industry. This is a free public lecture which takes place on May 15th at 1pm in the 4th Floor Lecture Theatre of the Merseyside Maritime Museum. To get you in the mood, below is a lecture given by Dr Stonehouse in 2011 at Gresham College on ‘The Greenlanders – Arctic whaleships and whalers’:
If you attended any of the events over the Moby Dick on the Mersey weekend we’d love to know what you thought of the reading and the other Moby-Dick related events going on around the docks. There is a simple feedback form here where you can let us know. The information will help us organise future events. Thanks.
Besides the marathon reading last weekend there were all kinds of other Moby-Dick related events and activities going on at the Merseyside Maritime Museum and at the Museum of Liverpool. One of these was a poetry workshop run by Nathan Jones, where children and their parents took pages from the novel and created poems from them. Nathan has a write-up on his blog, Syntax Factories.
Over the Moby-Dick festival weekend events are taking place at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, at the Museum of Liverpool, and on board the Kathleen and May, the schooner moored in the Canning Half-Tide Dock. The historic ship will be the atmospheric setting for the first and last sessions of the marathon reading of Moby-Dick (reading schedule is here), and for Terror on the High Seas (Sunday May 5th, 2pm-3pm and 3.30pm-4.30pm Merseyside Maritime Museum), a storytelling by children’s author Jon Mayhew, who reveals his love of the sea and what lurks beneath! Expect spooky tales of the Mersey, terrible smells and shocking sights! Also a sneak preview of Jon’s about-to-be-published book, Monster Odyssey.
If you go on board the Kathleen and May and take some pictures, why not share them on the Kathleen and May Flickr group?
Katie McGettigan’s talk at the Museum of Liverpool on Monday May 6th (2pm-3pm) already promises fascinating insights into Melville’s time in Liverpool and the city’s influence on his work. But Katie has also been working with Dr. Diana Powell on a project to map landmarks from Melville’s visits onto the current map of Liverpool. Using Google Earth, and a map of the city published in 1808, the result is an interactive map that can be viewed in a web browser or even downloaded to a smartphone for use by anyone interested in visiting some of the locations themselves.
The map, and more details about the project can be seen here: Melville’s Liverpool.
This Wednesday, May 1st 2013, sees the third of the Moby-Dick lectures at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. This free public lecture is given by Emeritus Professor David Murray from Nottingham University, and is about Herman Melville and Moby-Dick. The lecture starts at 1pm in the 4th floor lecture theatre at the museum.
mobydickonthemersey.org 