Wonderful, free festival rooted in the community.
The 2023 Deptford Literature Festival’s launch event – curated by Caleb Femi – took place on Friday 17 March, with the main Festival day being Saturday 18 March 2023. The Festival invited audiences to explore what literature means to us today in Deptford with many of the events programmed under the Festival themes of nature, climate and food.
The Festival was delivered in partnership with creative producer Tom MacAndrew.
The 2023 Deptford Literature Festival was funded by Arts Council England, St James’s Place Foundation and Phoenix Community Housing’s Community Chest and supported by the Albany and Deptford Lounge.
The 2023 Festival reached and engaged 6,573 people with 29 accessible live literature events. The majority of the events were free, all were BSL interpreted and 7 were livestreamed with captions. The programme featured workshops, talks, walks and performances, including ways to get involved from home.
I learned that DLF is welcoming, fun and inclusive.
The Festival worked with 78 artists – 75% from Black, Asian and Global Majority communities – and 26 partners. 23% of the Festival’s audiences and 50% online audiences were deaf and/ or disabled. 34% of attendees were from Black, Asian and Global Majority backgrounds. 78% of the events were led by Lewisham-based artists or organisations and 56% in-person audiences were from within the borough.
The programme was brilliant, diverse, interesting, a range of genres – bravo.