It is 11.20am at Euston station. Swarms of people are positioned on their starting blocks in front of the announcement board. The 11.40 to Liverpool has already been called on platform 8, yet the 11.23 to Birmingham has still not been placed. There is a sense of tension in the air - then suddenly it appears on the monitor. Release gives way to mass pandemonium as a stampede of … [Read more...]
Brum Brum Baree: A Decidedly Odd Arts Documentary
When we set out to make this documentary in the spring of 2014, we had a pretty good idea how it was going to go. But by the time we finished in autumn, it had turned into something completely different. Instead of making a thought provoking piece on the complex relationship between the arts and the political left… we accidentally made a documentary about Birmingham. This … [Read more...]
Spoz: Brummie Poetry & Alternative Forms of Education
Giovanni Esposito, more commonly known as Spoz, is much more down to earth than any preconceived image of a ‘poet’ you might have. Dressed in a vest and jeans and sporting a dark Mohican, he is an extremely friendly chap with a ready Brummie wit and constant stream of chatty opinion. This is partly because Spoz is a normal bloke, not some lofty artist. Back in 1980, aged 16, … [Read more...]
David Edgar: The Complex Balance between the Arts and the Left
It’s around 5.30pm, the rest of the conference crowd has disappeared off to dinner and we’re sitting in a brightly lit common room with playwright David Edgar. We’ve come up to Northampton University for the 50th anniversary conference of Searchlight Magazine, the anti-fascist, anti-racist publication that Edgar first wrote for back in the 70s. The Birmingham born writer has … [Read more...]
Birmingham: Forgotten Arts City?
In London-centric Britain most cities get mocked, derided or just plain forgotten. And poor old Birmingham manages to suffer from all three. Yet it is the second largest city in the country with an incredibly young, multicultural population and perhaps surprisingly to those not in the know, a blossoming arts scene. As part of our series on living arts on the ground, Searchlight … [Read more...]