The Sound Lounge

Caring Encounters is a Sound Lounge series inviting people to join a conversation about nature, ecology, the planet...whatever words you prefer. Our city lives are all busy and there can be little time to connect, however we know that connection to nature brings unbelievable benefits, including to both our own mental and physical health. Doreen Cunningham is an Irish-British writer born in Wales. After studying engineering she worked briefly in climate related research at NERC and in storm modelling at Newcastle University, before turning to journalism. She worked for the BBC World Service for twenty years as an international news presenter, editor, producer and reporter. She won the RSL Giles St Aubyn Award 2020 and was shortlisted for the Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writers Award 2021 for 'Soundings', her first book. From the lagoons of Mexico to Arctic glaciers, grey whale mothers are swimming with their calves, past predatory orcas, through a warming sea. For ten thousand miles, they endure one of the longest mammalian migrations on the planet. Following them, by bus, train and ferry, are Doreen Cunningham and her young son Max, in pursuit of a wild hope: that their family of two can find a place to belong. Doreen first visited Utqiagvik, the northernmost town in Alaska, as a young journalist reporting on climate change among indigenous whaling communities. There, she joined the spring whale hunt under the neverending Arctic light, watching for bowhead whales and polar bears, drawn deeply into an Iñupiaq family and their culture amid the disappearing ice. Years later, plunged into sudden poverty and isolation after becoming a single parent, Doreen embarks on an extraordinary journey: following the grey whale migration all the way north to the Iñupiaq family that took her in, where grey and bowhead whales meet at the melting apex of our planet. 'Soundings' is the story of a woman reclaiming her life, mile by mile; a child growing to love an ocean that is profoundly endangered; and a mother learning from another species how to parent in a time of unprecedented change. CARING ENCOUNTERS sessions are a #PayWhatYouCanAfford talk, Q&A and include a delicious meal dished up from our little, plant-based kitchen. They are open to all the family. We want to help people reconnect and deepen eco-literacy among our community. Please invite everyone you know. Any donations help us to pay the costs of our guests and the food, but more than anything we want you in the room. So PLEASE come even if you are not able to pay anything. See you there x Doors 6pm. Show 6.30pm #PayWhatYouCanAfford Tickets