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Free Thinking 2009: Landmarks

The Tyne, Tees and Wear dissect the North East. They feature in poems, songs and regeneration strategies, and are the focus for local affiliations and regional myth-making. But do the rivers really unite the North East, or are they used to suggest a false unity for a fragmented region?

As part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival of ideas, Matthew Sweet hosts an on stage event at the Sage Gateshead, which itself stands proudly beside the Tyne. He's joined by the poet Sean O'Brien, the historian Natasha Vall of Teesside Univeristy, social scientist David Byrne from Durham University, and Northumbrian poet and historian Katrina Porteous to discuss the history of these great rivers and trace the hidden currents that lie beneath the surface, with readings from some of the works inspired by these stretches of water.