The DARE Lectures
The DARE Lectures have been created to explore some of the most significant topics at the heart of contemporary society.
The first in the series, the DARE Liberty Lectures welcomed two highly respected thinkers and practitioners on liberty and incarceration to share their perspectives and experiences.
Gareth Peirce, human rights lawyer: Friday 15 April
Identified by the Guardian in 2011 as one of the world’s top 100 most inspirational and influential women, Peirce, whose clients have included The Guildford Four and the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, presented her thoughts on imprisonment, torture, secrecy and the possibility for justice in the 21st Century. This talk was followed by a short concert by Kurdish singer and refugee, Nawroz Oramari, whose powerful music conveys the experience of being a refugee and the loss of one’s homeland.
Tariq Ali, writer, filmmaker and political campaigner: Thursday 21 April
Tariq Ali discussed the causes and consequences of war over the last century, its impact on literature and music, and his own experience of US bombing raids in Hanoi and Thanh Hoa during the Vietnam War. Ali’s talk was followed by a live performance of composer Oliver Messiaen’s masterwork, Quartet for the End of Time, written for fellow inmates in a German prisoner of war camp in 1941, and played by members of the Orchestra of Opera North.