Celebrating identity and the place we call home
Young people will take centre stage at this year’s Freedom Festival from Young Reporters, Nightwalks with Teenagers to Postcards from the Edge, a project which explores the concept of identity, place and the human quest for home.
As part of National Writing Day, local children and young people were encouraged to explore their own identity and the identity of their city, considering the wonderfully rich and diverse cultures that make up the communities of the place they call home.
Freedom Festival Arts Trust and its passionate team of volunteers worked with Ron Dearing UTC, Winifred Holtby School, Collingwood Primary and Sutton Park Primary School on this new project, which will be exhibited in the Festival Gardens at this year’s Freedom Festival.
The exhibition, featuring the work of the students, will be brought to life at Freedom Festival by #WeMadeThis who will facilitate creative craft sessions and workshops with families during the festival weekend as they explore identity and ask people to consider what home is.
Children of all ages are invited to create and decorate cardboard houses, as they explore what is special about the city we call home. This programme of work is being supported by Hull City Wide Partnership consortia members Keepmoat, Persona and Strata Homes. The consortia has been contracted by Hull City Council to deliver one of the city’s largest, most wide-spread and longest housing regeneration programmes.
The Hull City Wide Partners said: “We’re delighted to continue our support for the Freedom Festival. As a group of businesses that are all involved in delivering new homes and communities across Hull, The City Wide Partners – Keepmoat Homes, Strata Homes, Persona and Priority Spaces – see this festival as a fantastic climax to a number of challenging and educational community projects and activities delivered throughout the year, the festival as an important way to engage local people to explore what is special and unique about this city and celebrating these qualities”
Jenny Howard-Coombes, Executive Director and Joint CEO at Freedom Festival Arts Trust, explained:“Hull is located on the edge of the country – right on the east coast of England. It is a place where we call home, a place we’re fiercely proud of and a city that is home to many great things, including Freedom Festival.
“Hull is a gateway to the world and home to many people from across the globe. Over the past six months we’ve been asking young people what they think about this place we call home by creating a Postcard from the Edge. We want to spread the word about Hull, celebrating our identity in this celebration of this incredible place. The results are incredible and we’re really proud that they are being exhibited as part of this year’s programme.
“It has been wonderful and inspiring to connect with young people and engage with them in discussions around home, place, identify and freedom and to provide an output for their expression. It’s vital we encourage young people to develop their own voice, to create opportunities to explore and share different perspectives and it’s even more critical that we support them in making their voice heard. That’s exactly what Postcards from the Edge is about, underpinned by a programme of work that encourages participants to embrace words, to write freely and to lose themselves in a moment.
“I would like to thank Hull City Wide Partnership for their support of this programme and their contribution towards the Freedom Festival Volunteer programme. We’re delighted also to be working with local Hull based community group #WeMadeThis who will be facilitating the craft workshops and activity and managing the Postcards from the Edge exhibition on site at Freedom Festival. We’re passionate about nurturing meaningful relationships with our sponsors working across the city with a number of organisations to enable programmes of work which support the development of people, raising ambitions and increase opportunities within the city.”
Freedom Festival takes place from 28 August until 1 September 2019. It is a free family festival with five indoor ticketed events. Tickets are on sale now available from the Hull Truck Theatre Box Office on (01482) 323638 or visit www.hulltruck.co.uk