What’s on at the Portico Library
The Portico is home to an eclectic range of fantastic public events, from talks and performances to exhibitions, awards and workshops.
Exhibitions
How To Read A Book
Stephen Emmerson
On until Saturday 14th March 2026
Book your free ticket to the exhibition opening here
How To Read A Book is an exhibition concerned with language, writing, and memory. It also explores themes of neurodiversity, including dyslexia, by offering visitors an alternative way of approaching books and text.
Applying methods found in palmistry to lines found on the covers of well-read paperback books, this exhibition is an invitation to make art out of the everyday.
Also featured are a selection of images from The universe of books, The book farm, and other works centred around language, the book, and the limits of poetry.
Stephen Emmerson is a writer and artist. His most recent publications are: flight, published by Guillemot Press, Big Song, published by Broken Sleep Books, and Gallery and A Box of Ideas, both published by Timglaset Editions.
An artist’s book which coincides with this exhibition is also available.
Instagram @tothemadpoets
www.eightox.org
Co-curated by Apapat Jai-in Glynn and Dr Debbie Challis.
Pop-up exhibitions
Portico Ubuntu: Black History Month
On until Tuesday 11th November 2025
Check out our Bookshop.org list of books in our display and recommended by our team here.
Series of events celebrating Black History Month at the Portico Library:
Bimbo Ponmile - The Agile Employee: Manchester Book Launch
Upcoming Events
Abbi Parcell: PhD Writer in Residence
Abbi Parcell (BA MA PGCE) is a butch writer and poet based in Manchester. She explores testimony of lived experience through auto-fictional practice. Her work explores intersections that shape personal identity, considering how internal processes intersect with external perceptions. Abbi focuses on the importance of establishing queer and in particular, lesbian histories, connections and how radical it has always been to simply exist.
She is currently a Writer in Residence at the Portico Library and is completing her PhD in Auto-fiction as Testimony at The University of Salford. Abbi has also worked with The Manchester Poetry Library, The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester City of Literature, LIRG and The Poetry School London. Her poetry collection Hold Your Metaphors Accountable was released in 2023 and was published by Team Trident Press
Abbi Parcell
Black and white photograph of a young white person with dark short hair wearing glasses and a jacket
New Research Articles
Off the Shelf
Explore our Past Exhibitions
The Portico’s free public exhibitions incorporate books and materials from the Library’s collection, contemporary artworks by local and international artists and objects from partner museums and galleries. They consider the Library’s 215-year history and unique collection with its city’s 21st-century communities.