Wednesday 23 April at 6 pm: Radical Gardening
Contemporary gardening is often understood as being suburban, as being a leisure activity or as being a television makeover opportunity. Its origins are seen as religious or spiritual (think of the Garden of Eden), military (the clipped lawn, the ha-ha and defensive ditches), aristocratic or monarchical (the stately home, the Royal Horticultural Society). Radical Gardening: Politics, Idealism and Rebellion in the Garden uncovers and celebrates moments, movements, gestures, of a people’s approach to gardens and gardening. It weaves together garden history with the counterculture, stories of individual plants with discussion of government policy, the social history of campaign groups with the pleasure and dirt of hands in the earth, as well as media, pop and art references, to offer an informing and inspiring new take on an old subject.
George McKay gives a lecture based on his book Radical Gardening: Politics, Idealism and Rebellion in the Garden of how parks and gardens were favored locations for alternative, radical cultures like music festivals, the peace movement and various kinds of political activism.
The lecture will be held in English
The lecture has been realised with support from Marabouparkens Vänner.
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George McKay is a leading British author on aspects of alternative culture through music, protest and lifestyle. He is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Salford in Britain. His books includes: Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties, DiY Culture: Party & Protest in Nineties Britain, Glastonbury: A Very English Fair and Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain. A fairly frequent contributor to BBC Radio, he has also appeared on numerous television programmes, and written for publications such as the Guardian, Independent, New Statesman, Times Higher Education.