From painting at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to decorating biscuits at the Library and learning about Stuart Hall’s legacy on a walking tour, this November Being Human Festival has offered new cultural experiences to local residents, thanks to the University of Birmingham.
2024 marks the 10th anniversary of Being Human Festival which aims to share and celebrate the importance of the humanities. As a research-intensive university, Birmingham has professors specialising in Shakespeare Studies, Middle Eastern manuscripts and Migration, among other subjects. But how do leading academics engage the public with their life’s work?
For this year’s festival, the University developed a regional programme in response to the theme ‘Landmarks’. Leaders in their fields collaborated with specialist facilitators and cultural partners across the city who invited audiences not only to listen, but engage in storytelling, writing and making themselves.
Among the highlights was a poetry-writing workshop, From a Beautiful Place, its title taken from ‘We Refugees’ by the late Birmingham legend, Benjamin Zephaniah.
Among a dozen participants were those who had not written for a long time, others who had never tried poetry, and literature students. “It was a great mix of the community”, says Ryan Sinclair, a local poet, producer and playwright who delivered the session’s practical element.
The workshop started with readings by one of the University’s Creative Writing academics, Isabel Galleymore, before Sinclair took the stage. After performing some of his work, he asked participants to pick up their pens.
The event’s theme was “writing from a positive place”, and Sinclair encouraged people to start off by free writing, without taking their pen from the page, before introducing 15 fundamental elements of poetry, from rhythm to rhyme.
Incorporating an element of play, he invited participants to pick cards from a specially-designed A-Z pack, with each letter accompanied by a positive word, written by poets on the Birmingham scene. Taking their prompt, each person responded by writing about a time in their life, while using a structural device they’d just learnt about.
Most importantly, Sinclair wanted them to take a personal approach to writing, which is the advice he’d give anyone: “Write about what you know and start with what’s inside– family, work, relationships, everything else can follow”.
In her uplifting poem, Haleema Sadia reflected:
“Here, I just am:
radiance growing
inside of me
at every turn.”
Younger writers also engaged with texts and illustrations from Shakespeare’s plays in a Family Day at the Library of Birmingham. Among the creative activities were storytime sessions, mask-making, themed games and quizzes led by Sarah Hamilton Baker, and Dr Ella Hawkins helped children to decorate biscuits in the style of illuminated manuscripts.
The idea for this event grew out of the Everything to Everybody Project, which reconnected audiences with Birmingham’s great Shakespeare collection at the Library. Project Director and Shakespeare Professor Ewan Fernie said:
“This Family Day draws on Everything to Everybody’s ethos, that culture belongs to everybody. Many of the workshops are being delivered by Friends of the Shakespeare Collection, who previously acted as project volunteers and have a fantastic knowledge of the plays.”
One volunteer was helping a family to find Shakesperean animals to inspire their mask making. “There’s a dog in The Two Gentlemen of Verona!” she advised one little artist.
During the day, families could also listen to Shakespeare stories in the colourful Children’s Library. Some had already been to see the University’s ground-breaking ‘Signing Shakespeare’ production. Devised in collaboration with the RSC, it makes Shakespeare’s work accessible to Deaf young people.
The driving force behind Birmingham’s Festival Hub was Professor Sara Jones from the Department of Modern Languages and the Academic Lead for the University’s Culture Forward initiative, who said:
“As we are increasing the emphasis on the University of Birmingham as a civic university, we want to engage with the whole city. There has been a big concern for accessibility: we want all people to be able to participate, so we’ve included activities for children who would otherwise need childcare, and have arranged BSL interpreting, and touch tours for visually impaired audiences.
Plus, there are audio experiences, such as the immersive ‘Finding Your Feet’ walking tour which explores the idea of “settling in” and the Stuart Hall walking app, which taps into the thinker’s legacy in Birmingham. Our aim is to bring research to diverse communities in a meaningful and enjoyable manner, while allowing people to explore the city’s landmarks, culture and creativity.”
The theme of Texts, Places, People undoubtedly lent itself to this ambition. Another participatory event, Islam, Art, Testimony, allowed people toexplore and engage with the meaning of the Birmingham Qur’an and the Qibla Indicator before creating their own art based on personal experiences. The centrepiece of the event was a performance by the community organisation the Zawiya Trust, which drew on encounters between Pharaoh and Moses based on the Quranic text.
Artist Paulina Korobkiewicz was also given a platform to launch her photobook Homeland, which explores migrant experiences in West Bromwich and Hyson Green, at Centrala. The Digbeth-based gallery hosted the event ‘Breaking Borders’ to mark two historic anniversaries: the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the European Union’s eastern expansion (2004). Artist Nela Milic led a multimedia workshop through which participants expressed their thoughts about these events.
Acting as a dynamic Festival Hub, the University of Birmingham actively engaged participants with the humanities and academics’ ongoing research. Focusing on the city’s texts, places and people, it proved that landmarks are sites of personal and collective stories, and Birmingham has a great many.
The University of Birmingham 2024 Festival Hub was supported by funding from Being Human Festival.
Being Human Festival is the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place annually in November. It is led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org. For this programme, the University’s Culture Forward team worked with established partners, as well as new ones as the network develops.