The date of the Stanley and Consett Poverty Truth Commission launch has been set and invitations sent. With only a few short weeks to go, we are all working extremely hard to prepare a provocative and captivating event which will challenge opinions, fight the stigma of poverty and invite some key people to work alongside an inspiring group of talented, passionate, determined and deeply frustrated individuals who want to change the way decisions about people are made. ‘Nothing about us, without us, is for us.’
Since September, we have had challenging conversations, experienced laughter and tears, and sadly lost one of our valued members who, unfortunately, passed away. However, we remain united in a desire to improve the lives of future generations in Consett, Stanley and beyond.
When talking to the commissioners, during our first meeting after Christmas, about working with some creatives, there were mixed responses…’ not my thing’, ‘I can’t do creative stuff’, ‘I cope by writing poetry’, ‘I create Dungeons and Dragons games’ – apparently a very popular activity with huge communities playing on line – you learn something new every day!
The group opted to invite a poet/writer and an animator to join them – Bob and Sheryl from The Forge. Being a very novice writer, I was especially looking forward to meeting Bob the poet.
The morning we were meeting the creatives proved to be very hectic. I’d arranged to meet a couple of the Commissioners early so we could play about with the room layout for the launch. Luckily, Mark from the Village Hall had done the hard work for us, and the room looked great…surprisingly so, as none of us had been convinced by his unwavering confidence that the room could fit 100 people. After taking some photos for Cathryn and the other Commissioners to see, we quickly had to undo Mark’s hard work and put everything away before the others arrived. I had to dash off to collect the buffet from Just for Women, and two of the commissioners had an errand to run, so unfortunately, the majority was left to poor Emma, who did an amazing job lugging umpteen tables and chairs about and certainly didn’t need to attend her gym session later in the day!
Bob arrived a little late and slightly frazzled as he’d travelled from Middlesbrough on public transport with his first train being cancelled due to a fight amongst passengers – not a journey or experience any of us envied.
We soon got into the flow of writing down our thoughts on the statement, ‘Poverty is…..’ Some of the answers were a little controversial, and we had some interesting discussions about capitalism, revolution and their negative views on the government.
Our discussions helped the Commissioners formulate some ideas for their animations, which was the next task of the session. Although some had been hesitant about taking part in the animation, it was great to see everyone get stuck in and come up with some fantastic work, which will be evident for all to see on March 4th.
Towards the end of the session, Bob shared a poem called “Some People” by Rita Ann Higgins. Although the poem isn’t contemporary, it resonated with us all and childhood memories were shared of hiding behind the curtains from the ‘provvy man.’ The group were inspired to write some short poems of their own, and these will be explored further next week.
The session ended with a positive vibe and a feeling of pride as the Commissioners realised just how creative they are! There is still a lot to d,o but we are definitely on the right path to a successful launch!
