PREVIEW: Inspirational Francesca Martinez on How To Create A Better World at Sheffield's Off The Shelf

Her theme is How To Create A Better World

Since starring in five series of BBC’s Grange Hill, Francesca has toured internationally with sell-out runs of her comedy shows and is known for her motivational talks and campaign work. Her book What The **** Is Normal?!, was a bestseller.

With special guests she will explore her theme in a day of discussion and inspiration. In collaboration with Sheffield Theatres. Ticket details below.

First of four events on the day is How to Create a Better World… through Art, at The Auditorium, University of Sheffield Students’ Union, Western Bank, Sheffield 10, at 1.30pm. Tickets are £6/£5 (concs).

There will be a screening of Ken Loach’s award-winning feature film I, Daniel Blake - about a joiner most of his life in Newcastle. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the state. He crosses paths with single mother Katie and they find themselves caught on the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy, as played out against the rhetoric of ‘striver and skiver’ in modern day Britain.

Next will up there will a hour long discussion at The Foundry, University of Sheffield Students’ Union, Western Bank, Sheffield 10 from 3.15pm. Tickets £6/£5 (concs)

Francesca will talk to film maker Amir Amirani and economist James Meadway.

Amir recently completed his first feature-length cinema documentary, We Are Many, to critical acclaim. Previous films have covered everything from music under apartheid to the horrors of chemical warfare.

James was former Chief Economist at New Economics Foundation. He is a critic of austerity economics and at the forefront of efforts to promote an alternative.

How to Create a Better World… through Compassion, will then feature Marina Cantacuzino in conversation with Francesca, also at The Foundry, University of Sheffield Students’ Union, Western Bank, Sheffield 10, 5–6pm. Tickets £6/£5 (concs)

Marina is the founder of The Forgiveness Project, a secular organisation that shares real stories of forgiveness to enable people to reconcile with the pain and move forward from the trauma in their own lives.

They will discuss whether forgiveness may have more currency than revenge in an age that seems locked into the cycle of conflict.

How to Create a Better World… through Action is at The Foundry, University of Sheffield Students’ Union, Western Bank, Sheffield 10, 7–8pm. Tickets £6/£5 (cons).

This will feature John Rees in conversation with Francesca. He is a writer, historian, broadcaster and campaigner, co-founder of the Stop the War Coalition and a spokesperson for the People’s Assembly Against Austerity. His new book is The Leveller Revolution.

TICKETS: Off The Shelf tickets are available from SIV Tickets at sivtickets.com, call 0114 22 33 777, buy in person at SIV Tickets Box Office at Sheffield City Hall or buy from University of Sheffield Students’ Union, online visit sheffieldstudentsunion.com, in person at Sheffield Students’ Union Box Office, Western Bank, or on the door on the day, subject to availability.