What's on where around Luton: listings, March 30 edition

Here's your guide to what's on where around Luton over the coming week. Please email [email protected] with details of your events at least a week before the edition in which you'd like them to appear.

WEDNESDAY

Adults with learning difficulties arts and craft sessions. Every Wednesday 10.30am to 12.30pm and Saturdays from 11am to 1pm at Arttrend, Arundel Road, Luton. Social and creative activity for adults with learning difficulties, engaging in all types of art and craft work such as painting in acrylics, papier mache, salt dough, cross stitch, rug making etc. Please see the website www.arttrend.co.uk and go to Art ALD, then see the gallery of work already done. Tel 07794 987796 if you would like more details. 10.30am to 12.30pm Wednesdays, 11am to 1pm Saturdays – but you can come and go at any time. £6 per session including materials and refreshments.

Luton Irish Forum holds a weekly Tuesday and Wednesday Club from 11am to 1.30pm at 102 Hitchin Road. This is a great chance to meet old friends and make some new ones. Refreshments are all included along with soda bread, scones with jam and monthly chicken and chips. Entry costs £1, plus optional £3 for two games of bingo and a raffle.

GobCentre Plus, a week-long art project, begins at The Hat Factory, Luton. Kerry Campbell and Emily Pope are collaborating to reimagine the role of governmental employment systems, questioning their relevance, with particular consideration of the creative industries. It will be populated with in-situ artists, writers, students and curators to facilitate a dialogue around paid work. Audio and sculptural elements, alongside workshops, will encourage discussion with visitors. The outcomes will be documented online in real time as series of videos and podcasts, creating a free public resource. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1734031080142872 for more information.

THURSDAY

Veteran DJ Judge Jules plays a set at Club Cookies, Dunstable from 10pm to 5am. He will continue his record breaking 16-year residency in Ibiza this summer. When he isn’t DJing, Jules works as an entertainment lawyer in London. Visit www.judgejules.net for more information.

The Hat Factory in Luton hosts Agent by Arjun Rayait, followed by To The Prospect in the gallery from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. It’s a gritty piece of theatre offering insight into the lives of young men and women ‘trapped by the brutalism of so-called ‘agents’ who extort vast sums of money from their families to ‘transport’ them to European countries such as the UK for a ‘better life’. Agent explores the emotive issue of human trafficking from the perspective of victims and agents. To The Prospect is a performance of verbatim accounts about human economic trafficking from countries such as the Indian sub-continent and from sub-Sahara Africa. Tickets: £10 or £8 concessions. Ages 16+. Part of the Lutonia festival. Visit www.lutonculture.com or call 01582 878100 to book or for more information.

Acclaimed Americana-country-soul singer-songwriter Danni Nicholls plays at the Bear Club in Luton in support of her new album Mockingbird Lane at 7.30pm. Visit www.the-bear.club for more information.

SATURDAY

The world’s official number one Eagles tribute, The Illegal Eagles, come to the Grove Theatre, Dunstable at 7.30pm. This latest production features all the classics – Hotel California, Take It Easy, Lyin’ Eyes, Desperado, Life in the Fast Lane, Take it to the Limit, and a whole lot more. Tickets: £24.50 or £22.50. Call 01582 60 20 80 or visit www.grovetheatre.co.uk to book.

Luton Irish Forum, with support from Heritage Lottery Fund, presents a special commemorative programme for Lutonia at The Hat Factory. The Easter Rising of 1916, an armed rebellion in Ireland during Easter Week, paved the way towards independence and nationhood. It is of significance to all Irish people, especially those in larger Irish communities such as Luton. The event will reflect the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme’s five overlapping themes: Remembering, Reconciling, Presenting, Imagining and Celebrating and will include visual and performing arts, literature and music. It will be presented by writer, singer and broadcaster Cerys Matthews and runs from 1.30pm to 5.30pm. Tickets cost £10 or £8 concessions. Visit www.lutonculture.com or call 01582 878100 to book or for more information.

Declan Kerr is an artist living in County Louth, Ireland. His exhibition Easter 1916’at the Hat Factory in Luton portrays the men and women of the time in more mundane settings, showing how ordinary people can change their world and make a real difference. It opens at 1pm. Entry free. Part of the Lutonia festival. Visit www.lutonculture.com or call 01582 878100 to book or for more information.

Broadcaster, singer and writer Cerys Matthews leads a family sing a long around her book Hook, Line and Singer at Luton Library Theatre from 12 noon to 1pm. Admission £12 or £8 concessions. All ages welcome. Part of the Lutonia festival. Visit www.lutonculture.com or call 01582 878100 to book or for more information.

Mona Arshi is at Luton Library Theatre from 4pm to 5pm. Winner of the Forward Poetry Prize 2015, Mona, born to Punjabi Sikh parents in Hounslow, is accompanied by bass player Vidal Montgomery, reciting her poetry and that of her favourite inspirational writers. She also talks about what it takes to get your poetry published and the journey from bedroom table to winning the most prestigious poetry prize in Britain. Tickets £10 or £8 concessions. All ages welcome. Part of the Lutonia festival. Visit www.lutonculture.com or call 01582 878100 to book or for more information.