Project profile: Manchester Street Poem
Sarah Hiscock, Manchester, UK
A growing collection of stories highlighting the voices of the city’s marginalised communities. Through sharing these stories, Manchester Street Poem aims to build a community with a collective approach of ‘no us and them’, dispelling prejudice and helping to create environments for change.
Sarah used her development grant to develop her work around homelessness in the city of Manchester. She contributed to an expanded iteration of the project Manchester Street Poem, an artwork which uses performed installation and soundscape to share the stories of people who are, or who have been affected by homelessness or other forms of marginalisation.
Originally conceived by Karl Hyde and Rick Smith from the band Underworld, and co-produced with pioneering local organisations including Mustard Tree and the Manchester Homelessness Partnership, Manchester Street Poem premiered as part of the Manchester International Festival in 2017. During the course of a week Karl covered the walls of a disused city centre shop with words and phrases drawn from the streets. The space was also filled with a powerful soundtrack by Rick, built on fragments of human voices recorded all over the city.
For this next iteration of the project (during the 2019 Manchester International Festival), Manchester Street Poem took the conversation out into the city. Karl was back, brush in hand, but this time painting as part of the growing Manchester Street Poem team. Across 13 days, members of the public could visit a temporary workshop space to see new artworks being made. On a daily basis, these stories were then fly-posted onto a billboard in Albert Square, opposite the Town Hall, holding a mirror up to society in the centre of the city.
Manchester Street Poem continues as an independent project with workshops as the backbone of its ongoing activities. These workshops consist of exercises around creative writing and artistic expression, all with a keen focus on boosting self-esteem and creating meaningful connections.
