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. The list of projects has included: a celebration of Thomas Spence; a commemoration of the Hartley Pit Disaster of 1862; the story of the Birtley Belgians; Hexham and Sedgefield Races; the Hexham Riot of 1761; the Martins family of Tynedale; 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 been carried out with organisations as diverse as Newcastle City Council, North Tyneside Council, Durham County Council, East Durham Community Arts, the Community Foundation, the Tyneside Irish Cultural Society, the Soundroom Gateshead, the North East Labour History Society, the Worker's Educational Association, the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, North Tyneside Town Centres Management, North Tyneside Twinning Association, The Centurion Bar, the Grand Hotel Tynemouth, 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 like minded 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 thirty
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.
Over many years, 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
In these difficult times,
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.
