A unique evening to explore the constitutional, cultural, historical and other issues that surround the EU Referendum: through TED-style micro-talks, performances and provocations intended to stimulate independent thinking about where to from here.
On September 5th at 4.30pm, Parliament is scheduled to debate the petition for a 2nd referendum signed by 4.1million people. As Parliament debates, we gather to hear other voices, and share in peer-to-peer conversation. A place for the 63% who never consented to Britain’s EU exit. Open to all, ages 12 and up, who are affected by the Advisory EU Referendum and its aftermath.
Speakers
 Mark Earls is an award winning writer and an advisor to business and government about how and why people do what they do and better ways to shape their decisions. Mark asks: How did we end up with Brexit? Is it really about the EU? Or immigration? Or are there other – better – explanations that point the way forward? | |
 Philosopher and academic innovator, AC Grayling wrote an open letter to MPs and arranged its delivery by hand to all 650. Due to travel, Professor Grayling’s contribution will be on video. | |
 Hilary Gallo is the author of The Power of Soft – a philosophy of how we can negotiate our lives without being a ****. Hilary is an ex lawyer and an ex executive who finally realised, after 25 plus years, that he had to get out and do his own thing. | |
 Kate Hills is founder of Make It British, and organises Meet the Manufacturer, the only sourcing event exclusively for British fashion, textile & homeware manufacturers. | |
 Ruth McCarthy MA FRSA grew up in Dublin and has lived in London all her adult life, a tiny drop in the historic wave of migration between the UK and Ireland. As Trustee and then co-Chair of The Ireland Funds of Great Britain Ruth has 12 years of insight into the challenging realities experienced by some of the Irish communities here; as a Time to Think coach and consultant she welcomes the chance on 5th September to develop new thinking in response to the implications of the Brexit vote. | |
| |  Joshua Silver is a physicist and an inventor. Currently the director of the Centre for Vision in the Developing World at the University of Oxford, working to research the scope of and potential solutions to the problems of refractive error and low vision in the developing world, Professor Silver co-founded Adaptive Eyecare with UK Department for International Development in 1996. He will be speaking on the topic: No one has the power to remove your EU citizenship. |
 Technology consultant and fintech advisor Andra Sonea is a Romanian-British national who has lived in London for the past fifteen years. A witness and participant in the ’89 Revolution and months long demonstrations against the Communist regime in Romania, Andra finds that mass manipulation techniques are universal. She believes that Brexit will impact not only the bubbling Fintech scene but the whole financial sector. | |
 Ed Straw has been described as a ‘senior influential’; his theories on how to design organisations have been sought out by governments, big business and political parties. He is now a visiting fellow at the Open University, was formerly on the Global Board of PWC, a Senior Advisor to Tory and Labour Governments and a Chair of Demos and Relate. |
Artists
 A hip hop poet, Chris Arning has performed at Poetry Unplugged, Bang Said the Gun, Farrago Poetry, Frogs & Jays and Hammer & Tongue. Chris draws from hip-hop’s protest tradition, British radicalism & absurdist humour/surrealism, the likes of Lewis Carroll. He has a piece that he’s been developing post-referendum. Chris will share a segment of this piece and talk briefly about its influences: speaking out against jingoism, how Brexit impacts his cultural identity, about class trauma. Founder and Director of Creative Semiotics Ltd, Chris also runs an MA course entitled Brands & Meaning at Warwick. | |
 Jess Hurd is a photojournalist and campaigning photographer, supplying images and photo-essays to international newspapers, magazines, trade union journals and NGO’s both commissioned and through her library Report Digital since the 90’s. She works on social issues often inadequately covered by the mainstream press and also at the global political grassroots internationally. Jess is a passionate advocate of press freedom which has come under increasing threat in the UK. She is one of the founders of ‘I’m a Photographer Not a Terrorist‘, a campaign against police repression. | |
 Annie King-Ferguson is a 16-year-old singer songwriter. | |
 British circus performer Tim Lenkiewicz is founder of Cirquit Productions, Producer & Artistic Director of Square Peg Circus. Unable to juggle the many issues surrounding #Brexit, Tim will revive one of his street routines. | |
 Jonny Walker is a Liverpool-born singer/songwriter, musician, street performer and political activist. He is the founding director of the Keep Streets Live Campaign, a not for profit organisation which advocates for public spaces which are open to informal offerings of art, music and other community uses. He has campaigned across the UK against policies which criminalise homelessness and street culture. He lives in Leeds, West Yorkshire with his wife and their two children. | |
| |  Naomi Zara is a practitioner of embodied exploration. She is an actor and writer for theatre, and a student with the Centre for Systemic Constellations in London. She looks forward to sharing at #NoDust her non-linear, somatic approach to opinion and decision-making, in response to the others’ contributions. |
Catalysts at #NoDust
During the extended interval, people attending #NoDust will have the opportunity to circulate to different locations in Conway Hall. Catalysts will hold the space and stoke dialogue on various themes.
 Alex Farrow works at the intersection of research, policy and journalism, attempting to improve the lives of young people through knowledge, training and expression. Alex is a campaigner – mostly on climate change, child rights and young people – and was a volunteer on the StrongerIN campaign. Young people in the UK have never known a time when the UK was not in the EU; now we must fight for the freedoms that previous generations have taken for granted. | |
| Katz Kiely, running a speakers corner during the interval on technology and democracy (TBC) | |
| David Welsh, founder Vote for Europe (TBC), on tactical voting. | |
Conceived by Kate Hammer, storyteller and author of this Open Letter to MPs, A Dozen Points About Democracy, and Brexit seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old.
It’s a place where concerns and questions are voiced. What happens after the event is up to you.
If you are on Twitter, please use the hashtag #NoDust
Suitable for ages 12 years and above.
Doors. 7pm, Start 7.30pm – Ends 10pm. With 20min interval.
Books available to buy on the night from Newham Bookshop.
The Age of Genius by AC Grayling
Being British, edited by Matthew Ancona, featuring essay by Mark Earls
Herd by Mark Earls
More Time To Think: The Power of Independent Thinking by Nancy Kline (cited by Ruth McCarthy)
The Power of Soft by Hilary Gallo
Stand and Deliver by Ed Straw
Other merch from…
The Ignite Shop (www.ignite.direct)