On Our Doorsteps
Time:
Friday 30 Aug 11:00 – 19:00
Saturday 31 Aug 11:00 – 19:00
Sunday 1 Sep 11:00 – 18:00
Artist: Tiitu Takalo, Zakiya Mackenzie, We Live Here
Country: United Kingdom
Location: Beverley Gate
Location Number: 6
Genre: Installation/Exhibition
6 striking billboards explore and celebrate wilderness and wildlife in and around the city of Hull. Created by Bristol-based writer Zakiya Mackenzie and Finnish comics artist Tiitu Takalo with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, University of Hull and migrant communities in Hull through Welcome to English and NICE. On Our Doorsteps is part of a nationwide project exploring the relationship between urban communities and the green spaces around us.
Tiitu Takalo is a multi-award-winning feminist Graphic Novelist from Tampere, Finland. Her work connects themes including personal & social history, mental health, community and place. She has published eight graphic novels, which have been translated from Finnish into other languages including English, French, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish.
Zakiya McKenzie is a writer and academic based in Bristol, UK. She recently finished a PhD on the history of Black British newsprint. In 2019, Zakiya was writer-in-residence for Forestry England and in 2021, she was artist-in-residence at Studio Voltaire, London. She regularly leads nature, art and writing workshops, including one on Caribbean storytelling for children.
We Live Here seeks out new ways of imagining, exploring and celebrating our shared and individual relationships with the natural world. It nurtures collaborations and conversations between artists, communities and many other organisations and agencies that maintain, protect and increase our understanding of the natural world. Connecting local and global perspectives, it asks how the arts can drive conversations between local communities, nationally and internationally, about the environmental challenges that face our cities, our planet and all of us who live on it.
This project was co-produced by Freedom Festival and We Live Here. Created with Norfolk Wildlife Trust, University of Hull, NICE and Welcome to English. Supported by the Finnish Institute.
