….when it’s rough out there

UNION 24, weekend 4 in Bradford!

Shout out to local participants Chemaine Cooke, Karol Wyszynski, Mosa Mpetha, Kate Jennings, Aekam Kaur based in Bradford and Leeds who collaborated with UNION team to make so many great activities happen!

In planning the weekend we looked back on participant questions, from weekend 1, to build our programme around…

Day 1

We began our time together, at Assembly in Bradford city centre, with a check in activity in groups of 3 reflecting on ‘what’s going well, what are the challenges?’

After amazing tacos from MiskiMex we enjoyed some Mindful Movement practice involving stretching dancing and a group game alongside an alternative art journaling activity exploring ‘what is static and what is changing in your life right now?’

To finish our evening we went on a fascinating short city walking tour from Assembly withBishop Blaise aka Glyn Watkins. 

Day 2

For Day 2 we met again at Assembly in Bradford city centre.

We had a busy day ahead on Saturday! We spent the first part looking into the weekend Theme and Questions in groups and discussing our inital thoughts

Throughout the day we had activities led by Chemaine and Karol with support from local artists and activists such as shine making, street art, photography, exhibitions… check out some of the day…

     

 

 

The generosity of Bradford continued into the evening with a big UNION party at 1 in 12!

After a delicious meal from Aziz Catering UNION participants alongside local creatives shared their talents with screen printing, film showings, poetry, dj sets, dancing, street art and more!

Thank you so much to the team at 1 in 12, everyone that shared their creativity and everyone who joined in the fun.

 

Day 3

Our final day was spent at the lovely South Square Centre in Thornton

We started with an intro to the space from Alice Withers before going into some further arrival activities through Movement and Journalling.

After a extensive day of exploring and questioning yesterday we looked at how to Models of Change could help us understand some of this learning. We looked at:

1. M Scott Peck (building community)
2. Joanna Macey (3 dimensions)
3. 2 loops theory (birthing & hospicing)

Then working in 3 groups to we delved into one model each asking ourselves:
How do we work together to make enduring change?
How could this model help or inform my work?
What other models can I draw on?
Are there new models? What might they look like?

After an autumnal lunch provided by South Square Centre we split into pairs for peer coaching, our task for this was to choose an issue that came out of the group discussion this morning and reflect on how we would take this forward into our own practice.

Thank you again to all our guests and hosts for your generous sharing throughout the weekend!

This year has flown by and we’re busy planning our final weekend at Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre (BOARC)