How a reborn Lit and Phil society could herald a new chapter for Sunderland

Auburn Langley brought Sunderland’s Literary and Philosophical Society back to life in 2025, after over 150 years. In a city that’s constantly changing, she discusses the society’s continuing journey.

“I think we all have got out of the habit of going to things in person,” says Auburn Langley, founder of Sunderland’s revived ‘Lit and Phil’.

Every month, thanks to the Sunderland Literary and Philosophical Society, people in Sunderland are prioritising being present. Learning. Conversing.

Audiences participate in discussions on a sprawling scale of topics – romantasy, music, publishing, and northern crime fiction, to name a few.

All, Auburn hopes, get people talking.

Auburn Langley, Founder of the Sunderland Literary and Philosophical Society. Photo Credit: Hannah Rooney

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Sunderland has had a Lit and Phil society. The original was founded in the 19^th century. Groups of men gathered together in the Athenaeum Building on Fawcett Street, engaging in lectures.

The Athenaeum in Sunderland, home of the Original Lit and Phil Society. Photo Credit: Hannah Rooney

“We had this huge enlightenment era in Sunderland, all based here”, Auburn tells me, which she uncovered while doing a heritage project. The Enlightenment Era was a period in history marked by a thirst for knowledge.

“We had so many ideas about how to make life better for people,” Auburn says, which the Lit and Phil was central to.

That is, until it met its end in 1873.

But last year, over 150 years on, Auburn Langley decided it was time to bring it back, as Sunderland emerges as a hub for the creative industries. From hosting Big Weekend 2026 to the investment in Crown Works Film Studios, Sunderland is becoming a creative force to be reckoned with.

“I left [Sunderland] in 2006”, Auburn tells me. “I was holding my girlfriend’s hand in the road walking home, and we got threatened to be glassed,” she says. “So to move back and see so much happening in the city it was like, oh my god this is amazing.”

“And yet, it still felt quiet.”

Auburn hopes to empower the people making a difference in Sunderland.

“It kind of, it was this realisation that so much was coming from the top-down, like the council were putting a lot of things in place, new Culture House being built, but it felt like on the ground people were a bit like ‘oh, I don’t know if that’s for me, I don’t know if we’re actually being part of this process.’ So, the idea was, well we need to make you a part,” Auburn says.

Culture House Building. Photo Credit: Hannah Rooney.

City of Change sign outside of Sunderland Culture House. Photo Credit: Hannah Rooney

Sunderland’s history, she tells me, is often viewed through the lens of “being, you know, Newcastle’s poorer cousin”.

A devoted history enthusiast, Auburn is planning on writing a play about the Chartist Movement, which saw people gaining the right to vote. People in Sunderland were instrumental to the movement, Auburn tells me.

It’s a piece of Sunderland’s history I didn’t know. Auburn is dedicated to spotlighting Sunderland’s influential people, then and now.

“When I was starting lit and phil and I was having some meetings with people, it was a lot of kind of like ‘ooh that’s really interesting but I don’t think it’ll work in Sunderland’,” Auburn reveals. “But we have, we have self-sustained.”

“We’ve managed to keep it going and it is because people show up. It is because people are interested. And actually there’s nothing different about Sunderland than there is any other city that does this.”

Is Sunderland preparing to shed the weight of being oft dismissed and overlooked, revealing itself as a butterfly? Perhaps it always has been. Parts of Sunderland did inspire Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland, after all.

And for Lit and Phil, championing independent businesses, like Pop Recs and Port Independent, is key. “Everything I do tries to use local experts, local kind of writers, local workers, local artists.”

For Lizzy Tiffin, panellist on the romantasy panel in June 2025, “The buzz on the night from the organisers to the attendees was brilliant.”

“To have this space for creatives in the North East is vital, and though we have Newcastle’s Lit and Phil, to be able to keep the focus on Sunderland specifically is really exciting,” Lizzy says.

Sunderland’s Lit and Phil hopes to continue its development. “People are now organically starting to like know about us, but it still hasn’t fully breached that like part of the scene yet,” Auburn tells me.

But the impact is tangible. Auburn recalls a panel about the mavericks of Sunderland, where writer and campaigner Iain Rowan told the crowd of beach clean ups on the Faroe Islands and the dangers the environment is facing. “People just got electrified. They were like, ‘oh my god, we need to do something about this’, she says. “It’s moments like that where you kind of go like, this, this is why.”

“Being on the panel, it gives me the opportunity to speak on a wider platform,” says Folasade Fasoyiro, who has been on the panel twice, for a Black History Month event and New Years Traditions discussion.

“Conversations around community constructs are very, very difficult to hold. They’re not the easiest to manoeuvre and manage. However, Sunderland Lit and Phil have shown very strong character in terms of holding those conversations even though they’re very difficult conversations. Difficult conversations are the heart of humanity.”

“Either being in the audience or being on the panel, which I’ve been on both sides on different occasions, it has held the same feeling of importance for me.”

Auburn, who also runs Sunderland Left Alliance and is a mature student at the University of Sunderland, hopes for a new era of Enlightenment. “I think our enlightenment is going to be a bit different. I think it’s going to be messier, it’s going to be more female, it’s going to be more creative. And I cannot wait for it.”

Whatever the future of Sunderland may be, Sunderland’s Literary and Philosophical intends to stick around.