A big part of the seventh Wolverhampton Literature Festival has been the community involvement with artists, performers and poets across the city having the opportunity to meet up in a central location to celebrate their craft.
This year the Mander Centre Community Hub in the Mander Centre has become the centre for activities through WCR FM, which has been hosting 101.8 WCR FM Radio Station Presents across the weekend of the Festival which ran 3rd - 5th February.
The event in the Hub, which can be found on the lower level of the Mander Centre, has provided authors and artists a place to showcase their work, talk to members of the public and sell their books and artworks.
WCR FM was also present within the Mander Centre with a live broadcast each day with Jason Forrest, Tim Beech and Chris Allen in the nearby Tapri Coffee House.
The involvement in the station at the Literature Festival was instigated by Poet in Residence Ian Henery, a published poet and author in his own right who said it was important to support a creative community.
"My brief upon joining the station was to add value and bring something that would benefit the community and the radio station" he said. "Wolverhampton is a creative city and full of entrepreneurs and I thought how could we add value? So our model is through collaborative working, with each team member bringing something to celebrate the diversity that is Wolverhampton".
Station chairman Chris Allen said the involvement in the Festival was part of the station`s commitment to being at the heart of the city. He said "We`ve taken it on for these 3 days and people have been having a great time and it`s had the feeling of a reunion fest which has given people that space for creative expression, something which we feel is really important. Ian`s come in and got us started and we will get more involved and do more and more as I`m already involved in conversations about the Arts Festival on coronation weekend."
