creating exchange

our international programme for artists to develop their craft with practitioners across the world

Young Identity poets have created new writing and performances across many cities as a part of our exchange collaborations including London, Cardiff, Washington, Chicago, New York, Miami, Berlin, Amsterdam, Belgium and Frankfurt.

Cities Untold

(Denmark)

Cities Untold was a two-year collaboration project delivered by Manchester Literature Festival, Young Identity and Danish literature festivals LiteratureXchange (Aarhus) and Ordkraft (Aalborg)

As part of the project, talented young writers, Billie Meredith, SAF-S2E, Cassandra Marie Geyti, Silas Toft, Marie Laurberg Nielsen and Selina Rom Andersen were commissioned to create new work inspired by joint residencies in each other’s cities culminating in the Cities Untold anthology.

The poets took part in celebratory events to launch the Cities Untold anthology at each of the three festivals. You can watch a highlights video of the final event filmed during Manchester Literature Festival at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on 17 October 2023 below.

The video features the poets talking about their experience of the project and performing some of their poetry with musical accompaniment from guitarist Rory A. Green and harpist Ada Grace Francis.

The project was co-ordinated by Cathy Bolton, Shirley May (Manchester), Vita Andersen, Jørgen Dissing Nørgaard (Aalborg), Jette Sunesen and Lise Kloster Gram (Aarhus), and produced by Nicole May.

You can read the anthology here.

This project has been generously supported by Manchester City Council, Kulturministeriet – The Agency for Culture and Palaces, Statens Kunstfond – The Danish Arts Foundation, Aarhus Municipality and Aalborg Municipality.

INHERITED RESILIENCE

(South Africa)

A community of like-minded black and dual heritage women from Oudtshoorn, Klein Karoo, South Africa and Moston, Manchester, UK embarked on a virtual four-part journey to listen, share, and learn from each other’s stories in a series of stimulating workshops and conversations.

Online sessions were presented in April and May, facilitated by South Africa’s Tshego Khutsoane and Shirley & Nicole May from the United Kingdom, using processes and methods inspired by their own collaborative theatre and performance backgrounds.

This project was designed as a springboard for long-term cultural collaborations between the project partners, with the voices of young female leaders at its centre.
The common thread and theme that has been emerging across the two continents in the discussions is Inherited Resilience.

Nine participants were part of this project: Glenisha Tarentaal (SA), Joan Turner (UK), Olive Oragui (UK), P.A. Bitez (UK), Shandré Harris (SA), Siyasanga Buillding (SA), Tiffany Saterdaght (SA), Faidat Ope (UK) and Medulla (UK).

SICK Festival, the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK), Young Identity and Empatheatre joined forces to create and implement the programme.

This project was made possible by the British Council’s Developing Inclusive and Creative Economies Programme.

Partners: Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Empatheatre
Funders: British Council, Arts Council England

British Council Literature Seminar

(berlin)

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities seeks to connect a new generation of writers and readers through workshops, discussions and readings.

Also known as the #BritLitBerlin, the event promoted by the acclaimed cultural institute invited students, academics, publishers, translators and journalists from across Europe to engage in the latest writings from the UK, as well as interact with award-winning or famous writers and their work.

For the 34th edition of the British Council Literature Seminar, the organisation invited Professor of Poetry at MMU, Michael Symmons Roberts to chair the event and UK poetry collective Young Identity to perform. The event explored the theme: “Cities in Contemporary UK Literature”, aiming to understand how modern literature in the UK has been focusing on, within this vast theme.