Alliance Manchester Business School, in partnership with critically acclaimed performance poet and writer Tony Walsh (also known as Longfella), has today unveiled a poem and animation which celebrates the School, Manchester and what the city means to its residents.
The poem encapsulates Manchester’s originality, innovation and boundless achievements across science, business, hospitality, sport, infrastructure and music; whilst celebrating the School’s heritage and ongoing contributions to the City.
The animated poem takes the audience on a journey of Manchester’s greatest brains and original thinkers, inventions, architecture, restaurants, hubs and cultural sights from the past 50 years – from football and cricket to the splitting of the atom and the world pioneering graphene project.
The poem and animation mark the latest in a series of campaigns to celebrate the renaming of the School to Alliance Manchester Business School and its 50th anniversary, which last year recognised Alan Turing as the North West’s ‘Original Thinker’, following a public nomination of the region’s 50 most original thinkers – past, present or future.
Tony Walsh comments: “From my former career in the public sector I was a student on an executive development programme at Alliance Manchester Business School and so I was delighted to be commissioned to write a poem to mark their 50th anniversary. I was also born in 1965 and so it felt like it was meant to be!”
“The School and the wider University of Manchester play a vital role in attracting talent to our city from around the world. I wanted the poem to place Alliance MBS firmly within our fantastic melting pot of music, sport, commerce, diversity and all the other things that make this such a special, world-changing place to be. As a School that is led by its ethics and so proud of its “hands-on” approach, it was important to reflect those things in the poem too.”
Fiona Devine, Head of Alliance Manchester Business School comments: “We are delighted to have produced this unique piece of poetic art, in celebration of our rich heritage and future of continued creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.
“Manchester has nurtured some wonderfully inspiring people and innovations over the past 50 years, and we hope that this poem lives on to attract and inspire original thinkers and pioneers for the next 50 years.”
The animation was illustrated by Barney Ibbotson and produced by North West film company, Mocha. Barney, whose father studied then taught at the Business School in the 1970s, spent many days as a child here at the School ‘doodling’ on blackboards.
Alliance MBS has invited the general public to join the conversation and share their thoughts on what Manchester means to them, through social media submissions using the hashtag #MCRMeans.
