Manchester: In Residents ... #5: Ra

Ruth Allan nominated Mr Ra Page as future hot-seat contestant for the ‘Manchester: In Residents’ series, and he kindly agreed...!

‘The fact the media here only seems to be interested in Coronation Street stars and footballers is a really good thing...’

What’s your name?

Ra Page

What do you do?

I’m an editor. I run Comma Press, which is a specialist short story publishing house, with Jim Hinks, and I also coordinate a few short film projects in my spare time.

Where do you live?

I live in the Northern Quarter, just a roll-out-of-bed away from the office: which is set in the truly unique MadLab (Manchester Digital Laboratory) on Edge Street.

Tell us the story of how you ended up in Manchester.

I had completed a first degree in science and philosophy, and had just spent a year dossing about in London. I wanted a way of getting back into literature after so much science, so I applied to do an English MA under Michael Schmidt at the University of Manchester. Amazingly I got in – then I never really seemed to leave the city after I graduated. I moved to Yorkshire for a while, but I seem to have worked almost my whole adult life in this fair city. Scary!

What’s great about this city?

It doesn’t look at itself too much and, at its best, it just gets on with things. The fact there isn’t much media here and what media there is only seems to be interested in Coronation Street stars and footballers is – I’ve come to realise – a really good thing. People can experiment here, make mistakes and throw themselves into their own industriousness without being too self-aware, and without wasting time worrying what other people are doing (which is something I felt myself doing a lot in London). It gives people breathing space, and time to take their own work seriously. The best thing though is my friends are here (or hereabouts).

What’s not so great?

It doesn’t seem to take visual arts very seriously. Someone once said to me, ‘If you want music go to Manchester, if you want art go to Liverpool’. My civic pride was stung, but I realised they were absolutely right. We have the will and the talent in fields like photography and film but there’s zero infrastructure. What tiny morsels of support there are for artistic development– like Castlefield Gallery or Kiosk Gallery – seem to go unappreciated. Liverpool Art dwarfs Manchester Art, it makes us look like a village, and we should face up to this.

Do you have a favourite Manchester building?

The Central Library. Easy. Whether the refurb will preserve the magic of the place is still to be seen. The plans, I have to say, are pretty spectacular, but I can only speak for its former incarnation. Central Library is/was a cathedral to the most important things a city can offer: knowledge, empowerment, self-improvement. Its architectural beauty, amazing staff, wonderful events programme, its labyrinthine, subterranean stacks – these were just the icing on its already cake-like shape. Hopefully the re-launch in 2014 will kick-start the rebranding of Manchester as a genuine literary capital.

Do you have a favourite Mancunian?

I love Manchester’s abundance of hard workers – passionate people who express their passion through their hard work; people who become synonymous with it. Jayne Compton – a legend. Kwong Lee – likewise. Guy Lovelady. Libby Tempest. Mike Chavez Dawson. Warren Bramley. Gwen Osmond. Sarah Jane Eyre. Michael Schmidt. Tim Birch. Dave Mee. Steve Wyatt. Jim Hinks. Caleb Shaffer. Adelle Myers. Olly Wilson. And the best of them are enablers, not self-promoters. They’re all my favourites!

What’s your favourite pub/bar/club/restaurant/park/venue?

At the moment I guess it’s the Castle Hotel on Oldham Street – I know, quelle cliché! It’s old-man-ish in a good way. (Can there be a bad way?)

What do you think is missing from Manchester?

A photography gallery. A good film festival. A place to go after 6 pm that doesn’t involve drinking. A council that listens to anyone other than the usual suspects. A sense of proportion with regard to its musical heritage (get over it already!). A film school. Oh, you just asked for one thing, didn’t you...

If I was Mayor for a day I would …

Fast track the Central Library’s return (with the same staff as before!). Do something slightly less moronic with Urbis (a football museum – brilliant!). Ask the International Festival to stop bringing back the same guests each time and look at what Manchester actually has to offer. Ask Patrick Henry in Liverpool to do what he did there, here. And invest what’s left in Castlefield Gallery, Islington Mill, Rogue, and all the other studio spaces that don’t even seem to be on the council’s radar. Drunk with power, I would be. Drunk with power!

Who else would you like to nominate to answer this questionnaire?

Author, Michelle Green.

Comma Press has just launched Zoe Lambert’s The War Tour, a collection of interconnected short stories about global conflict and the consequences of war. Each story is in some way linked to Manchester. Read more about it here.

Manchester: In Residents ... #3: Ruth

‘I came to Manchester to go to university and I hated it…’

What’s your name?

Ruth Allan

What do you do?

I’m a freelance writer and editor. I am just launching Manchester Wire, a new, online listing magazine with Chris Horkan.

Where do you live?

I live in Hulme in the Redbricks.

Tell us the story of how you ended up in Manchester.

I came to Manchester to go to university and I hated it. I used to go and stay with my boyfriend in London every weekend. Finally, when I was in my third year, I started working at the Cornerhouse café and made friends with some cool people. This changed my perspective on the city – it gave me a way in, and a way to feel part of it. I’d lived in five countries with my mum and dad and at different boarding schools, and the whole time I’d never felt ‘part’ of a place. That finally happened here, and I was delighted.

I’ve lived here for fourteen years now and I love the fact I know more about the city’s history, culture and people than most people who are from here. As a ‘third culture’ person (someone brought up in one culture, coming from another) you have the ability to be both insider and outsider, which can be lonely, but in the case of Manchester so many of my friends came here and made it their home too, that I don’t feel left out for not having a Manc accent, or for not being a native. Sometime I think I would like to live somewhere else, but what I tend to do is relocate to places like Berlin for periods of time, and then come back. I’ve got a son who is at school here too, and as I went to so many schools, I would like him to be confident and relaxed about his ‘place’ in the world. Manchester is a good place.

What’s great about this city?

The people. There are so many imaginative, motivated, dynamic, friendly, unpretentious people that live here. Who can I say… the designer Savage Wolf, the producer Illum Sphere, my MA supervisor Maggie Gale and artists like Rachel Goodyear. These are just a few I know and love. It’s also small enough to be completely accessible: you can walk from one side to the other in half an hour. I like the fact that its near other big places too, like Liverpool, and that you can drive to Formby or North Wales with ease.

What’s not so great?

The fact that you can walk from one side to the other in half an hour. Sometimes I wish it was a bit bigger… that you could walk out and be mysterious, and not see people you know. That’s what I like about London and Berlin. Sometimes it’s good to be someone in a crowd.

Do you have a favourite Manchester building?

I like the Cornerhouse. I love its signs and lights and the big glass windows on the top floor in the café. It feels cosmopolitan. My least favourite building is probably ‘the Hive’. Its generic, dull and full of low, depressing ceilings; the kind of boring office space designed to be functional at the lowest level, rather than allowing its occupants to function at their best, surrounded by light, air and inspiration.

Do you have a favourite Mancunian?

Bill Campbell. He owns Islington Mill and has overseen its transformation into a world class centre for the arts. He’s inspiring to me, as he doesn’t let practicality or dissent get in the way of his vision. For example, he has built two houses, the Engine House and Paramatta on the Mill site, as well as four floors of studios, art galleries and club spaces. Architects have balked when he has requested triple height ceilings and unusual window shapes and so on, but he has not let that hinder his vision, and rightly so, because he has created a truly unique environment. When I first met him, he was living in the Engine House (later home to The Ting Tings) surrounded by pieces of modern art that the artists in the studios of the Mill had given him. Huge wooden tongues, concentric circles of concrete, little paper shoes. They didn’t look out of place. They made sense to me as objects for the first time through his curating and the context of this incredible house. He has taste and vision coupled with a fearlessness that I respect. He proves that if you want to do something your way, if you don’t compromise, you can succeed. I aspire to be brave like that too.

What’s your favourite pub/bar/club/restaurant/park/venue?

I love Common. It’s a cool place, day or night. I also love Mr Thomas’ Chop House. They made the best steak and kidney pudding, slow cooked, tender, satisfying. It’s the best food in the world right now.

What do you think is missing from Manchester?

Central parks, gold paving stones, wealth.

If I was Mayor for a day I would …

Cut the power. There is a lot more to life than shopping and the internet which is easy to forget when electricity is a constant.

Who else would you like to nominate to answer this questionnaire?

Ra Page, who runs the publishing house, Comma.