OUR STORY

Young Identity, affectionally known as ‘YI’ started with a group of young poets from Manchester led by poet and author Shirley May. In 2006, they entered Apples and Snakes’ national poetry slam “Word Cup”. On the project, they met actor, director and artist Ali Gadema who helped to establish Young Identity’s first and founding collective ‘Inna Voice’. After Word Cup ended they started running weekly workshops in Moss Side Millennium Powerhouse, as a space for the young poets to continue to meet and write together.

As volunteers, we began writing and performing workshops for the local community, in particular for writers who were underrepresented in the Manchester literature sector.
For years we committed to a weekly schedule of workshops and became a group that budding artists would strive to be a part of. Through our partnerships, we were able to offer performance opportunities with organisations around the city. It became immediately clear that something special was happening – a platform for young people to use
their voices to articulate their journey with identity, locally and globally. Over the years we have had many different voices within the project, lots who have gone on to
become recognised voices diversifying the cultural sector and further afield.

In 2018, with the support of a new board of trustees and a young people’s steering group, we became a charitable incorporated organisation which has now grown in ways we couldn’t even begin to imagine, all from a family-run volunteer project that started almost 20 years ago, that all believed in changing their community. Young Identity began with 15 young people and today is made up of hundreds of young participants from all across Greater Manchester and beyond; taking part in weekly writing and performance workshops, devising poetic productions, accessing high-quality creative opportunities and so much more.