On 17 September 2022 we celebrated Planet’s 50^th anniversary – a fundraiser event postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic. In the Edwardian music hall splendour of Ceredigion Museum we hosted a panel discussion, poetry readings, a discussion with editors past and present, live music and an exhibit on our history, including contemporary collages responding to our archive by artist Llinos Anwyl, and the demonstration of a prototype of a new online geocoded Planet index by Lloyd Roderick and Mike Jones. We’d like to thank everyone who contributed: including our MC Mike Parker, our panellists, poets and musicians Mabli Siriol Jones, Hussein Said, Daniel G. Williams, Dan Evans, Ned Thomas, John Barnie, Helle Michelsen, Menna Elfyn, Eric Ngalle Charles, Mike Jenkins, Katell Keineg and Owen Shiers (Cynefin). Many thanks too to our technicians Huw Evans, Berian Elias and Maldwyn Pryse, the Museum, and to the Books Council of Wales and the late John D. Pickles for a Small Marketing Activities Grant and bequest which helped fund the event.

We planned the event to focus as much on the present and future as on the past, so in this spirit we wanted our panel discussion themed around ‘Wales in the world in 2022’. In this video our panellists addressed the topics below.

What future for Welsh internationalism? – Daniel G. Williams

What future for the Welsh language? – Mabli Siriol Jones

What future for environmental justice? – Hussein Said

What future for Welsh autonomy? – Dan Evans

You can also watch editors past and present in conversation with Mike Parker here.