Former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion has created new work to mark the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War.

The inspired by objects on display at IWM North (in particular a roof tile recovered from Hiroshima in the aftermath of the bombing). 

The poem will be performed live for the first time at IWM North on Thursday 14 May as part of Manchester After Hours, the city wide evening of culture for Museums at Night 2015.

The Museums at Night event will also include a screening of An All-Encompassing Light – winner at the IWM Short Film Festival – in which Lee Jong Keun, a long-time resident of Hiroshima, tells his story, a story he kept secret for decades, in order to remember friends and family, and to reveal the lingering effects of the bombing.

Look at it this way. From the observation plane flying high

over the city with sunlight rippling along its silver belly

there is a clear view of offices and schools and factories

and wood-frame houses all with roofs of the same dark tiles

Extract from A Tile from Hiroshima by Sir Andrew Motion, 2015

Motion’s new poem will be subsequently installed as a sound recording within IWM North’s Main Exhibition Space to mark the 70th anniversary of the bombings. It will be displayed alongside the objects from IWM’s collections which inspired the piece.

It will be performed for the first time on Thursday 14 May as the culmination of the A Conversation with Sir Andrew Motionevent, in which he will discuss his new and past works on the subject, with Dame Jennie Murray OBE, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour since 1987 and formerly BBC TV’s Newsnight.

The Museums at Night event will also include a screening of An All-Encompassing Light – winner at the IWM Short Film Festival – in which Lee Jong Keun, a long-time resident of Hiroshima, tells his story, a story he kept secret for decades, in order to remember friends and family, and to reveal the lingering effects of the bombing.

Tickets to In Conversation With Sir Andrew Motion cost £6 and are on sale from www.quaytickets.com or from the Admissions Desk at IWM North. 


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