Sharing Stories
Funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Sharing Stories was a collaborative cross high street project that gathered stories from people who live in two rapidly changing communities, Filwood Broadway and East Street, Bed minster.
Working alongside bed Bedminster charity Acta, Knowle West Media Centre and Bristol City Councils Museum and Libraries services we set out to gather stories of the everyday from people locally in and around the places they live, work and play.
Through conversations around local needs in the area, memories of the past and how things are changing on Filwood Broadway we found ourselves working with the theme of ‘food’.
Through workshops, events and activities we explored how food brings people together seasoning life in nostalgic memories and cultural identity.
From broken biscuits to pig trotters, grandma’s traditional polish dumplings to fish finger and banana sandwiches we’ve heard it all!
Community connectors Claudia Collins and Amber Hennessey collected stories from people out and about in the community, visiting local groups such as We Are More After School Club, Square Foods Foundation, The Novers Social Club, The Park Centre Café, Filwood playground and many more.
The stories were then given to a cohort of young designers aged 16–25 years old who worked with Knowle West Media Centre and the Factory to design, build and install an exhibition that could represent the stories gathered though the project.
It was an absolute pleasure working with Bristol Museums and Art Galleries to celebrate libraries and the many everyday stories of the high street.
Now let's hear about some of the great facilitators who helped make this project happen...
Agata Palmer is a bilingual poet writing in both English and Polish, with years of experience in teaching, translating and co-created facilitation.
She has published her own book ‘From The Land of Marmite with Love’ and has poems featured in ‘The Weather Indoors - Poems of the Pandemic’.
Using a wooden spoon, a large cooking pot and props Agata cooked up a ‘Story Soup’ speaking with Open Mic attendees about their thoughts surrounding food, cooking and eating with others.
Gathering the ingredients for her story all evening before compiling everyone's experiences and the general atmosphere of the night into poems such as ‘Bamboozled by Cheese’ and ‘At Filwood Library’ which can be read or listened to at the Shared Story Exhibition which is still on display at Filwood Library.
Agata’s poems were then turned into a recipe book by a cohort of young designers aged 16-25. Working with Knowle West Media Centre’s The Factory to individually cut and place each letter onto felt pages with accompanying embroidered designs.
Agata has also won the Ralph Hoyle and Bristol libraries competition ‘Our Street’ with her poem ‘Not Bored at Broad walk’ which is attached to Filwood Library as a sound pool that can be listened to by downloading the SatsymphQR app while walking within ten meters of the library.
Kelly O’Brien
Award-winning photographer Kelly O’Brien came to visit us at Filwood Community Centre for a two-day workshop exploring phone photography techniques and playful ways of using food and kitchen utensils to create surrealist scenes and abstract imagery.
We discussed the symbols and sentiment behind food and cooking objects from the home.
Everyone brought in an item from their kitchen telling the story of why that object was important to them before exploratively photographing and editing their object in playful ways.
We discussed themes around food justice, appetite and distaste as well as looking through a ‘labour lens’ when thinking about the domestic work that brings food to the table.
Kelly O'Brien’s work can be viewed on her website or see her at her next exhibition ‘No Rest For The Wicked’ at the Meanwhile Gallery, part of GASP!’s (Gloucestershire Arts & Social Projects) year-long project ‘Meanwhile in Gloucester’.
Mica Sinclair
Poet and storyteller Mica Sinclair stumbled upon the first Spilling the Tea Open Mic Night one evening and took the stage by storm with spontaneous improv poetry and songs accompanied by scene setting guitar melodies, drums and dynamic movements and gestures.
Mica Sinclair returned as our headline act for the exhibition’s opening night at Filwood Library.
Telling the story "Why the Sky is So Far Away” a Nigerian folk tale where the sky provides infinite nourishment within reaching distance until people ate too much and wasted what they couldn't finish, angering the sky forcing it to withdraw high above where people couldn’t reach it.
Leaving everyone to labour for their food and work together to farm the land, feed each other and stop wastage.
Mica Sinclair’s storytelling and performance’s we’re energized and interactive enchanting audiences with visual imagery and soundscapes that had a power to create entire worlds from the comfort of your seat.
You can find more about Mica Sinclair’s music and storytelling at micasinclair.co.uk
If you’re looking for a storyteller and musician with steel string wit and comedic flare who can weave impromptu adventures off-the-cuff before your eyes, get in touch.
Beth Calverley is a poet, deep listener and performative writer who uses her skills to help people order their thoughts and find meaning in the feelings that can be difficult to express.
Using a typewriter on wheels she tours around sparking conversations that she weaves into personalized poems, unique to the individual sealed in a little yellow envelope.
Beth has taken her poetry machine all over, to festivals, community events and schools.
She has done various residencies for the NHS writing for patients and carers alike which has inspired her book ‘Brave Faces and Other Smiles’.
Beth brought her poetry machine to Filwood Library for the opening of the Shared Stories Exhibition where she used her typewriter to help note down the many personal stories of people attending the exhibition.
Spilling the Tea Open Mic Night
Spilling the Tea Open Mic Night was first created during the shared stories project to celebrate libraries by making use of the space after hours for deep listening, communal conversation and verbal creation.
Getting people sharing their poems, songs and stories out loud and on stage, we used oral storytelling and performance to bring words to life.
Transforming the space with LED lighting, decor and homely objects we explored how libraries can also be used as community spaces of creativity and self-expression.
Welcoming music, theatre and comedy into a library space allowed us to explore the loud and lively ways we can engage with the written word and reimagine how we capture and archive fleeting moments in the telling of stories.
Hosted by creativity advocate Libby Farrow with sound engineering, live bouzouki and loop pedal melodies from Christoff (Toof-X) as well as a live set from Jodi and Andy’s band Jelly Roll who played songs relating to some of our favourite foods such as ‘Jelly Don't Shake’ and ‘On Top Of Old Meatball All Covered In Cheese’.
Recordings of their songs performed on the night can be listened to at the Shared Stories' Exhibition, just turn the teapot to the jelly or meatball position to hear it back.
Once the evening was in full flow we had poetry readings, songs, sayings and limericks galore.
We collectively re-wrote songs, sang along and listened to each other’s stories.
Spilling the Tea is now a bi-monthly family friendly Open Mic night still held at Filwood Library, building momentum as a community of local writers, performers and listeners.
Delph Crockery visit - Bristol Museum
As part of our research process, we visited Bristol Museum’s Delph Crockery exhibition curated by Amber Turner to explore how domestic items used around food can carry stories across generations.
We discovered some of the unique geological recipes of Bristol's landscape that allowed Bristol's tin glazed earthenware and cobalt blue glazing methods to replicate the well desired yet costly Chinese porcelain.
Thanks to the chemist William Cookworthy Bristol became a center for its production in the 1770s.
Well-loved designs such as the famous ‘Willow China Print’ depicted stories, folk tales and popular opinions of the time.
When the tin glazed earthenware method arrived in Bristol it gave the people an outlet for voicing and documenting their stories in a way that could be distributed widely and preserved for years to come.
This gave us a sneak peek into the lives of people of the past and the stories they intended to share with others.
We got a glimpse at the political discourses of times gone by, objects used for eating and drinking both in the home and out in public spaces capturing moments of leisure and replenishment.
We took what we learnt from the exhibition to inspire our printing session at KWMC’s The Factory using photographs taken with Kelly O’Brien to create our own patterns and motifs to go onto everyday objects for display.
