What we’re about
Welcome to North East Culture & Conversation! 👋
This is a new social group for meeting and mingling with potential new friends in lovely locations, and bonding over shared interests. It’s aimed at the 20s, 30s and 40s age range.
Here you’ll find coffee gatherings, board game meets, dinners, a cake club offering convivial chatter for those with a sweet tooth, and some fun days out too. From time to time, we may offer some cocktail events and parties to bring everyone together, as well 🍸🍷🥳.
Our Adventures in Art 🖼️ events centre around not just visiting museums and galleries, but also trying out new creative skills such as life drawing and pottery painting. There are other cultural activities to try out too, such as theatre trips and live music events. For those who enjoy cross-stitch, crochet or knitting with a side of chitchat, come and join our Stitch and B*tch🪡🧵😉 …
We host two book clubs - one for fiction and one for non-fiction - take your pick or try both! We also offer film club events from time to time, which skew towards foreign, cult and indie movies. It’s great if you want to engage in thought provoking discussion! 📚🎬
Sometimes we attend talks and lectures too, on various subjects: science, history, psychology, classics and more! It’s a great opportunity to learn something new and explore ideas together 🤓.
Our events are primarily based in Newcastle and the surrounding areas, but sometimes we’ll venture a little further afield for day trips and some special adventures! If you’re interested in helping out with hosting in Durham, Sunderland or Northumberland, let us know as we’d love to branch out to offer events for young people there as well. If you have any ideas for new events, too, we are certainly open to suggestions ☺️.
We do ask that members use their first name rather than an initial on their profile, and recommend using a recognisable photo of themselves. We are all here to meet with new people face to face! Clarity about who you are when you show up helps both the organisers and the members 😊.
The group is fuelled on the values of friendliness, kindness and mutual respect. We are all adults, so let’s act like it 😉! Bigotry, harassment and abusive behaviour won’t be tolerated. We aim to foster a pro-social environment, so try to be considerate of your fellow members.
Now let’s have some fun 🤩!
Upcoming events
3
Ballet: Giselle 🩰👻
Dance City, Temple Street, Newcastle, GBJoin us to watch Ballet Cymru🏴 perform the classic ballet Giselle at Dance City💃🩰.
Giselle (1841) tells the hauntingly beautiful tale of a young woman who falls in love but dies of heartbreak and gets up to some ghostly adventures in the afterlife 💔👻 …!
A definitive example of the Romantic genre, Giselle pivots on themes of infatuation, betrayal and redemption, exploring love’s power both to save and to destroy.
Its story takes inspiration from the Slavic legend of the wilis: cursed maidens who have died before their wedding night and become beautiful but vengeful woodland spirits who like to dance men to death … 🌳🫦☠️
Featuring the original score by Adolphe Adam and new choreography, it promises to be an entertaining night both for seasoned ballet lovers and for those who are merely curious 🎭🤔 …
There are still pay-what-you-want tickets (£2 to £10) available for this performance, so snap one up here! If you miss out on the cheaper tickets, the full price ones are £21.50 🎟️💸.
We'll meet at The Town Wall pub from 6:30pm onwards, and head over to Dance City for around 7:15pm to grab our seats. Feel free to show up earlier to The Town Wall if you wish to grab food there before the performance, or to catch up with us directly at Dance City if you’re pushed for time. Afterwards we’ll reconvene and discuss over drinks! 💬🍷
We’ll post in the event comments on the night, to keep you updated as to where to find us.
Come and join us for a marvellous night of magical movement and music 🎶 ✨☺️!11 attendees
Book Club 📖: The Bloody Chamber 🩸🖤✨(Angela Carter)
Centurion Bar, Central Station, Newcastle, GBWhether you’re a true bookworm or simply seeking a motivation to get reading more often, the book club is a great place for conversation and meeting new people! Come and enjoy some interesting discussion alongside more relaxed chatter, with the book as the jumping off point.
🗣️📚
This time, we’ll be reading The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter.
The book is around 170 pages or less (depending on edition), while the audiobook is about 7 hours long! You can find copies in all the usual places such as Waterstones
A collection of ten short stories based on classic folk and fairy tales, we will see interpretations of tales like Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood.
This 1979 compilation was critically acclaimed; it takes these oft-sanitised tales and retells them in a feminist, gothic and sensual way. It is considered a landmark of feminist fiction and the foundation of the modern fairy tale and myth revisionism!
We will discuss the stories and the themes that interwine them all: how enhanced female agency and assertiveness alters the classic tales; the controversial adult tones absent from the Disney-fied versions, and the various ways that different tales explore metamorphosis and its significance.
The Centurion is a relaxed, elegant and spacious bar with comfortable seating and a quiet atmosphere, well-suited to literary conversations! 📕🍷
Converted from the historic first class lounge at Central Station 🚂✨, its luxuriant environs are situated at ground floor level, easily accessible, with public transport links aplenty nearby. If you’re feeling peckish there are various shops adjacent that you can pick up nibbles from.
This is an open session, so feel free to drop by at any time during the evening: we’re pretty easygoing ☺️.
Hope you can join us!15 attendees
Past events
137
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