Tag: fundraising

Day 24 of the 26 Day Big Shut Up:  the purpose of beauty?

Terry, a big Scouse presence appears as if by magic on the floor of an imposing, oaken school library dressed in the hybrid clothing of part teacher gown, part trainer top, part designer trousers and complete black and white brogues.  

Looking out at the wintery skyscape, Terry takes to the floor with ease and an in-your-face energy from which there is no shirking.  The wooden panels of the walls stare back at him with their air of sobriety and gravitas, waiting for the scouser to show his true colours. Blue or (well) red?

The seats and tables are shoved back to the walls, giving him the floor space which he takes to like a duck to proverbial, slurping out of his bottle of noisy water, telling me about the fecundity of the group’s work  from the previous week.  An awkward gaggle of angular faces, beaks and folded arms look on and I’m reminded that despite all the experience in the world, you never know what you’re going to face: all the preparation, all the theory, all the lesson plans, all the tricks and tips and turn ons is fine but… in the end…. you’ ve got a line of expectations, gazes, hopes, resentments, gaps, blank minds, active minds fidgeting just waiting for you, for someone, for something to switch them on….

He confides in the assembled Leekettes that  “this is a special day kid – chrimbo next week” and follows up with an impromtpu solo improvisation about his own experiences of  education and the resistances he encountered:  “what are you going to night school for, you poof?” before launching into the session proper  by reading some of his own poetry, a love poem about a boy and girl on Wigan Pier.

He meets and is met by the group’s  gaze.

Before we can complete the school electronic register, we’re sailing through some turbulent performance poetry at 9.45 in the morning to boot.  “How can you have more than one heart?” 

Moving onto some early morning workshop games,  Terry introduces the group to a trust exercise which is premised on the simple rule that one player has to be guided through a maze of  plastic glasses on the floor with instructions called from the other side of the room.  One simple rule is all it takes for the group to be up on the floor, wrestling, challenging, getting on with getting on, laughing, joking, defiling the solitude of the normally hallowed walls, breaking the rules of what it is to be and behave in a library.

Straight into a flip chart exercise, the rule being to complete the phrase, ‘I want to be the first…’  “I want to be the first whisper first heard by a deaf man.’  

Momentarily, we’re all stunned.  But we move on and gloss over.  How do we acknowledge, value that moment produced by a young lad who looks as bemused at his contribution as the rest of us who have just registered it? 

A huge question but not followed through. For all the talk about personalised learning in the classroom, can we ever have the wherewithal to respond to moments of beauty that don’t entail ticking off an outcome within the confines of a cell in an excel spreadsheet?

Or do those moments of beauty succeed in silencing us, once and for all?  Is that the purpose of beauty?  Or just its side effect?

Back to the rules. Rule 1:  it can’t be wrong, whatever you write. Followed by a quick exercise: complete the following phrase:     In case of… X then Y. Rule 2: the last word starts the next line: but remember Rule 1: all answers are equally valuable “it doesn’t matter what you say, it can’t be wrong…” he urges.  Rule 3: the first line and last line have to be the same, “like a jigsaw puzzle: ironically meaning that the final rule negates the principle of Rule 1.  But we’re not worried as we frantically scribble, trying our best to fill that empty page of lined paper.

In the fluidity of the writer, child, teacher relationship, the writer establishes the rules,  yet breaks them rapidly, easily, without consternation or complaint.  “It can’t be wrong, you’re the author”.

From the transience of the writer’s rule setting regime an essence emerges of a kind of super-author who makes and breaks the rules for his apprentices, his minor authors.  Through the walls he drifts, from the floor he rises: the meta-author,  the author of authors. Welcome to the world of the writer in residence.

The Mighty Creatives staff team are going to support the campaign by taking part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, on the 5th October. If you want to join us on the day and take a vow of silence, then please check out the campaign here. 

Of if the thought of donating your silence for 24 hours is really too much, then you can donate your hard-earned disposable income here.

Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcome and appreciated.

So… come and help me to shut up, once and for all. You know you want to.

Day 23 of the 26 Day Big Shut Up: 2 days to Shut Down.

This week’s the week!

The Mighty (Un)Mute takes place on Wednesday, so I’ll be off-grid all day, well and truly shut up.

In case you missed it, the team at The Mighty Creatives and I are taking part in a day-long vow of silence to raise awareness of young voices that so often go unheard – and to raise vital funds for a ground-breaking arts education project that fights for racial justice.

We’ve got a team goal of £5,000 and every donation counts. You can learn more and donate online before I seal my lips, switch off the email, stop the WhatsApping and throw away the passwords!

If you want to join us on the day and take a vow of silence, then please check out the campaign here. 

Of if the thought of donating your silence for 24 hours is really too much, then you can donate your hard-earned disposable income here.

Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcome and appreciated.

So… come and help me to shut up, once and for all. You know you want to.

Day 22 of the 26 Day Big Shut Up:  vocalising a World Reimagined.

I’m watching a visiting artist, Lisa, in a Year 6 class with the teacher, Sally, present one Friday afternoon.  Lisa has started a project on Wilberforce, making a model slave ship, an African village and delivering a percussion project. She kicks off asking who Wilberforce is and what slavery is.  

She introduces the task of making a slave ship which the class will show at the end of the week as part of an impressive piece of work. “We’re going to make a slave ship out of pipe cleaners and mudroc” she announces. 

Lisa demonstrates how to make a figure out of mudroc and pipe cleaners and takes questions as she goes.   Little slave figures made from pipe cleaners.  “We don’t want arms sticking out, they should be down at the side”.  She sets up a little production line by asking them to make 2 or 3 figures each.  The class is set on a task of making about 50 – 75 different slave figures between them. “Mould the pipe cleaner, cut up mudroc, soak it, wrap it, repeat”. 

As pipe cleaner figures start emerging, a few laughs are generated by children – feet are either too big or heads too small. “He’s hop-along… what’s happened to his arms… mine’s called Gordon, mine’s Edmund… this one’s paraplegic”.

 Groups work semi-independently, Sally the teacher is engaged in co-delivery of the session, moving from one table to another as Lisa does. “Wrap the mudroc tightly around the skeleton otherwise it will fall off”.  Perhaps it would have been closer to the truth to make people figures who had homes first and who were then enforced into slavery – channelling the pupil’s enthusiasm for the figures to its advantage rather than opt for making slaves from the beginning. 

 The production line aspect of this approach echoes the values which make the slave trade possible.   We’re not making a character which has a personal connection to its sculptor.  There’s one black lad in the class who is joining in with all the activities; a small crowd of white mud roc figures starts being assembled; some of which are splendid creations, others of which are not so splendid….

The project continues through the afternoon, with no time for play time which means for some pupils that making slaves out of pipe cleaners is becoming a bit of drudgery. The figures are now to be painted black, to represent the figures seen in the picture at the start of the session.  

Blackened mudroc figures start to appear on tabletops and are taken to the window ledge to dry; of course, they’re various in shape, size and coverage of black paint – but they are still faceless and the products of several cheerful production lines.  No shades of black, brown or tone… End of class, and Lisa moves the furniture back to where it started before I entered the classroom.  

The figures are to be placed in the slave boat which is to be built tomorrow.  

This classroom observation opened up some key questions about how we approach the histories of the slave trade, not the least of them being how we can provide a different educational perspective which doesn’t rely on ‘pipe cleaners and mudroc’ to make its point.

Fortunately, The World Reimagined progamme does exactly that. You can find more on their learning resources here.

(Photo credit: The World Reimagined Sculpture Trails: 103 unique globes across the UK exploring the history, legacy and future of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans through the work of incredible artists.)

The Mighty Creatives staff team are going to support the campaign by taking part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, on the 5th October. If you want to join us on the day and take a vow of silence, then please check out the campaign here. 

Of if the thought of donating your silence for 24 hours is really too much, then you can donate your hard-earned disposable income here.

Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcome and appreciated.

So… come and help me to shut up, once and for all. You know you want to.

Day 21 of the 26 Day Big Shut Up: using creativity to lift the Big Shut Down.

You’re in a meeting; it’s bumbling along; minutes are handed out and people frown and glare or pass out in the heat of the moment. There’s mutterings under breaths; there’s sighs, grunts and the occasional fart. Everyone’s been shut up and the meeting’s been shut down.

But some bright spark says ‘what we need is a creative something something something‘ and suddenly the whole room has lit up in technicolour: the sighs become shouts, the grunts become groans of delight and the farts metamorphose into sounds of rejoicing: the whoopee cushion is something we all want to sit on now the creativity cat is out of the bag.

Because make no mistake: dropping the ‘c’ word into any meeting is bound to galvanise your workforce, impress your investors and stoke up the heat of admiration upon you. It doesn’t matter what the ‘something something something’ is, the fact that you’ve introduced the ‘c’ word to your proposal is what’s fired up the meeting.

In the olden days we would have used the words ‘magic’ and the effect would have been the same. These days, ‘creativity’ replaces the word for ‘magic’ and the world becomes a far happier place as a result, if only for a short time.

So, if in future you’re feeling shut down, shut up or just stuck in an oppressive silence, just drop the word ‘creative’ into proceedings and see your colleagues grow wings and fly to the heavens. They may not last long up there as they get too close to the sun, but they will thank you for liberating them from their non-magical silent daily grind.

The Mighty Creatives staff team are going to support the campaign by taking part in the Mighty (UN)Mute, a day-long vow of silence, on the 5th October. If you want to join us on the day and take a vow of silence, then please check out the campaign here. 

Of if the thought of donating your silence for 24 hours is really too much, then you can donate your hard-earned disposable income here.

Or if neither of these is possible (and heaven knows we’re all in tough financial times right now), then anything you can do to share and shout about the campaign would be equally welcome and appreciated.

So… come and help me to shut up, once and for all. You know you want to.

The Mablethorpe Boss Bike Ride: blowing away the preconceptions of Lincolnshire.

RAF Binbrook and its significance in the Cold War; a 1400 Megawatt high voltage electricity link connecting the electricity transmission systems at Bicker Fen in Lincolnshire, and Revsing in southern Jutland, Denmark, (also known as the Viking Link); and the Alford butchers who make Tomato Sausages for Yorkshire Immigrants. Who knew a pre-supposed isolated county life could conceal so much?

Riding out from Mablethorpe today with Aenaes Richardson from Magna Vitae was a great reminder of Lincolnshire’s significance in the 2nd World War and more latterly on the energy agenda.  Wind turbines are never out of view; the talk of nuclear dumps in Threddlethorpe is literally a hot topic; and cycling across the Viking Way which scars its way across fields and the ocean all the way to Denmark is a startling discovery when all you’re expecting are peaceful country lanes trailing down to the sea and the sky in Sutton on Sea.

But perhaps the biggest reveal of the rural idyll is that, actually, rural doesn’t mean isolation, it doesn’t mean disconnected and it doesn’t mean that it’s separated from the turbulence of economic, cultural and climate changes which are battering our more populated areas around the country. 

On the contrary, the region is in the thick of it as much as anywhere else.

Skegness has been at the forefront of hosting refuges from Afghanistan recently at its seaside Bed and Breakfasts  (only for them to be temporarily shipped to Leicester and back again on account of the poor standard of accommodation but that’s another story); climate emergency planning is expecting to see flooding in the City of Lincoln down at the Brayford Pool  in the not too distant future; and in the meantime we’re planning for large scale industrial expansion and new jobs for young people, and for industries looking for young new leaders.

Whilst Mablethorpe might have one of the biggest static caravan sites in the UK, one thing that isn’t static are the winds of change that are gusting along the roads, down the dykes and across the plains to Denmark and beyond.

If you’re young, want to play hard, work hard and shape your life in Lincolnshire, then now is an exceedingly good time to plan for that vibrant future.  Rural isolation? No chance.

If you’d like to get involved in future Boss Bike Rides, just check us out here.

This is what a Boss looks like!

This is what a Boss looks like!

But you don’t have to be a BMX champ like GB Olympic Gold Medallist Charlotte Worthington to take part in our #BossBikeRides campaign and ride for our Creative Mentoring programme.

Want to learn more? Get on your bike over to the website now! 🚴🚴🚴https://themightycreatives.com/boss-bike-rides/