Events

On The Radio

BBC Radio 3, Free Thinking

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Radio 3's arts and ideas programme discusses parenthood and the history of childbirth with Testament, Hannah Silva, Jessica Cox, author of Confinement: The Hidden History of Maternal Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Britain, and by Dr Laura Sellers, curator at the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds. Hosted by John Gallagher.

BBC Radio 3, The Verb

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Ian McMillan hosts a special performance edition of The Verb recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Leeds. Featuring poetry from Hannah Silva, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Malika Booker, Cecilia Knapp and Testament.

Past Events 2024

Musclebound and My Child, The Algorithm at MAST Mayflower Studios, Southampton

29th November 2024

A double bill featuring Hannah Silva performing from their book My Child, the Algorithm, and Rosy Carrick's solo show Musclebound.

Wasafiri: New Writing Prize 2024

23rd Oct 2024, 7pm

Foyle Pavilion, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre Readings by Hannah Silva, Yomi Sode and Isabel Waidner Part of London Literature Festival Take in an evening of readings by writers from literary magazine Wasafiri's community, and celebrate the announcement of the 2024 prize winners. Wasafiri, the magazine of contemporary writing since 1984, celebrates the 15th edition of the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in their 40th anniversary year.

BBC Symphony Orchestra: Contains Strong Language, Hackney Empire

18th Oct, 7:30pm

Spoken word meets the thrilling sound of an orchestra as an extraordinary line-up of poets join forces with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for an unmissable evening, in collaboration with the BBC's Contains Strong Language poetry and performance festival. From the bold and innovative Hannah Silva to the raw storytelling of Keith Jarrett, this night is all about voices who speak directly to the heart of East London. Experience Christian Foley's quick lyricism, Kat Francois's exciting energy and Yomi Sode's moving reflections. Join us for a true celebration of our voices, our stories, and the power of music.

The Coast is Queer, Brighton

10 - 13th Oct 2024, 10.30am

“Liberating the Canon” 12 Oct 2024, 10:30am. Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts Non-conforming, radically innocative, intersectional, progressive and decidedly queer. Join Hannah Silva, Adam Macqueen and H Gareth Gavin as they discuss how they are pushing against established literary conventions and contributing to an emerging queer literary subculture. The panel will be chaired by queer theorist, author and University of Sussex lecturer, Sam Ladkin.

Daylight talks with author Hannah Silva

Sunday 6th October, 1pm

Exeter Phoneix, Gandy Street, Exeter, EX4 3LS. Daylight Talks: Exploring Queer Parenthood and AI with author Hannah Silva by The Daylight Collective - Part of {{textLink1}} Parent-accessible - Expect grown up content, but children are welcome too. You don't have to be a parent to attend - everyone is welcome. Join author Hannah Silva for a sharing and conversation with Dr Kate Massey-Chase exploring Hannah's, My Child, the Algorithm: An alternatively intelligent book of love.

Brooklyn Book Festival

22nd September 2024

A.I. and the Writer: An Unlikely Friendship - Presented with NYU's 370J Project. One novelist, one memoirist and one poet — all working with A.I. as muse, collaborator and inspiration from the early days of generative A.I. to ChatGPT and into an uncertain future. What are the possibilities of A.I. for writers, and what are the perils? Join essayist and author Ethan Gilsdorf (Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks and “Dear Chatbot, Should I Write About My Dead Mother?”) for a conversation with novelist Sean Michaels (Do You Remember Being Born?), poet Lillian-Yvonne Bertram (Negative Money) and memoirist Hannah Silva (My Child, The Algorithm: An Alternatively Intelligent Book of Love) about the surprises of A.I. in their work, defying the backlash against A.I. in creativity, and embracing, or at least accepting, this unlikely collaborator. Presented with NYU's 370J Project.

Hastings Queer Book Festival

31st August 2024

The Printworks, Hastings. Featuring: Michelle Tea, Jeremy Atherton Lin, Jason Okundaye, So Mayer, Ania Card, Nat Reeve, Peter Scalpello, Hannah Silva, Alison Rumfitt, Prue Bussey- Chamberlain, Juliet Jacques, Jake Hall, Khaled Alesmael, Osin Roberts, Hesse K. and more TBC!

The Big Book Festival, Warsaw, Poland

22nd June 2024

A queer single parent deconstructs and reconstructs her life in conversation with a toddler and Artificial Intelligence. Performance based on her latest book My Child, The Algorithm. An Alternatively Intelligent book of love. Granta Book Of the Year, 2023. A funny exploration of love, life, dating and motherhood in London. Witty, hilarious and tender. Partner: British Council.

Verve Poetry Festival, Birmingham

24th February 2024

Hannah Silva performs from 'My Child, the Algorithm', Birmingham Hippodrome, 4-5pm

GRAVY, Poetry & Other Things, London

20th February 2024

'GRAVY' Theatreship, Canary Wharf (a floating theatre on a converted cargo ship!) 7pm Poetry performances by Joelle Taylor, Hannah Silva, Abigail Parry, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Fran Lock, sound artist Reid Dudley Peirson.

Past Events 2023

FutureBook Conference, London

27th November 2023

Creative Case study: My Child, the Algorithm This summer, Hannah Silva published My Child, the Algorithm: a memoir of queer single parenting told through conversations between the author, her toddler and a predecessor of Chat-GPT. In this in-depth session Silva, computational linguist James Carney and Sujoy Roy from Footnote Press discuss the surprises, joys and challenges of writing in collaboration with AI, before opening the discussion to the audience to explore reader attitudes, author anxieties, and other potential creative opportunities that generative AI offers

Experimental Lit Festival, Athens, Greece

25th - 26th November 2023

Eight, Critical Institute for Art and Politics Performing from My Child, the Algorithm (more tba)

All Borders Blur, London

11th - 12th November 2023

Conference on Spoken Word poetry, Queen Mary University of London Talk/performance from My Child, the Algorithm on 12th Nov.

New Intimacies, Edinburgh

11th November 2023

Assembly Roxy, 2 Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9SU, 12.30 - 1.30pm Hannah Silva (My Child, the Algorithm), Sophie K Rosa (Radical Intimacy) and Sijaiymah Mansoor Khan (Seeing for Ourselves) discuss closeness and authenticity beyond restrictive models, at a time when we need collective liberation.

Feel the algorithm, London

9th November 2023

Common Press Bookshop, 118 Bethnal Green Rd, E2 6DG, 7pm Writers and performers Hannah Silva, Hasti, and So Mayer will read from and explore their current projects to ask some neuroqueer questions: Can AI make a new you? What's sexy about looping (time or data processes)? How do we write the singularity, plurally? Come and be part of the process.

Gender Equity in AI, the AI Fringe

2nd November 2023, 10am - 12pm

Venue TBA, London It is vital to address the gender disparities and exclusions that persist within the field of AI, acknowledging the critical role that gender diversity plays in ensuring the responsible design, development, implementation and use of AI. We must move beyond potential and rhetoric, and take further tangible and transformative action towards gender equity in AI. This event brings together EDI experts, artists, industry innovators and gender advocates to share their experience and to propose provocations to spark discussion. Participants will have an opportunity to engage in group discussions surrounding these provocations and to explore concrete actions we can foster and support within the Responsible AI UK ecosystem.

Queering Parenthood: Kirsty Logan and Hannah Silva In Conversation, London

2nd November 2023

Common Press Bookshop, 118 Bethnal Green Rd, E2 6DG, 7pm Hannah Silva (My Child, the Algorithm) and Kirsty Logan (The Unfamiliar) discuss their books and queer single parenting, in conversation with Jess Rose

National Poetry Library at 70 Celebration, London

29th October 2023

London Literature Festival - Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7pm Performing from My Child, the Algorithm, on a lineup with Roger McGough and Brian Pattern.

BBC Contains Strong Language Festival, Leeds

21st - 24th September 2023

One of the BBC core writers, performing across the weekend. Contains Strong Language is the BBC's flagship poetry and spoken word festival which is taking place in Leeds from Thursday 21st - Sunday 24th September 2023.

Calling Calling: Maggie Nicols, Hannah Silva, Jo Hellier

Friday 1st September 2023: 8pm, The Cube, Bristol

Performance from My Child, the Algorithm. An evening of experimental expanded vocal performances as part of Brunswick Club's current Calling Calling project. Calling Calling is a gathering of voices, with a programme that explores collaborative vocal ecologies through non-traditional voice and expanded vocal techniques.

Wilderness Festival, Oxfordshire

3rd - 6th August 2023

Primadonna Festival, Suffolk

28th - 30th July 2023

Adventures in Neurodiverse Writing with Hannah Silva and Debris Stevenson, guest reader Shola von Reinhold

12th - 17th June 2023: Moniak Mhor, Scotland

We will joyfully dance in the tangents of our minds, curl up on beanbags in the corners of our thoughts, throw words into the air and let them land on the page in patterns unique to our selves. You will be guided and supported to find the stories and ways of telling them born from your personal modes of thinking and living. This course celebrates open-minded, and weird-minded thinkers and writers. Bring a work in progress, a kernel of an idea, or a spark of curiosity and an enthusiasm for language.