WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
COMMUNITY ACTION
Northern Voices Community Projects aims to offer a platform for the views and experiences of those people living in the North East of England who are normally denied a voice and contributes to the culture of the region through a projects, publishing and events programme which celebrates its diverse communities. Recent projects have involved a commemoration of the Hartley Pit Disaster of 1862, a touring show in Northumbrian churches, performing poetry on the beaches, working in the community of Spittal, profiling Whitley Bay's Spanish City and the Marsden Rock in South Shields, celebrating the Newcastle writer Jack Common and the Durham links of poet Christopher Smart, performing and recording with folk, pop, classical and jazz musicians and exhibiting with visual artists and photographers. Important projects have recently been carried out with North Tyneside Council, the Tyneside Irish Cultural Society, the North East Labour History Society, the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, North Tyneside Town Centres Management, Durham School and the University of Durham’s Department of English Studies.
Northern Voices Community Projects attempts to be original and innovative in its programme and to seriously engage with local people and issues.
We are interested in developing links with likeminded people and institutions, locally, nationally and internationally and in establishing specific projects of interest to Northern Voices Community Projects members and their associates by a commitment to collective action and to engaging in community action in an historical context. Recently, reciprocal links have been established with Limerick and Cork, Bradford, Liverpool, Lincoln, Sheffield, Penrith, Aberdeen and Edinburgh and there are significant international links with, for example, Groningen in The Netherlands and Tuebingen in Germany, stretching back over twenty years. Further similar links are actively sought in order to avoid literary and publishing activity being presented in overtly institutionalised, centralised and isolated cultural ghettos.
Such links also question overly cosy notions of 'The North' and celebrate North East England's place in the world and particularly in Europe.
We offer help to local people seeking to develop a voice. This can be through community development advice; the encouragement of new writing; production and promotion of publications; readings and meetings; song-writing; recording; illustration; study and documentation.
We have organised several community arts festivals in the region and many publishing initiatives and literary events through such enterprises as Tyneside Writers' Workshop, Tyneside Poets, East Durham Writers' Workshop, Tyneside Street Press and the Strong Words and Durham Voices community publishing series.
THE FUTURE
Northern Voices Community Projects is expanding.
We want to tackle local issues like housing and the environment and encourage people in the community by offering training and development sessions to improve their skills.
In short, we want to strengthen our already impressive track record and use our expertise by working with a broad range of groups, institutions and individuals in the North East of England to help improve life chances and perspectives and to link the local with the international.
We hope that you’ll join us.
CONTACT: NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS,
35 HILLSDEN ROAD, WHITLEY BAY, TYNE & WEAR NE25 9XF.
TEL: 0191 2529531 email: k.armstrong643@btinternet.com
