2 – 4.30pm
The NewBridge Project : Gateshead
What “community” means is changing. Facebook and Instagram are determining how we interact with other people. You can support a cause with a click, say you are interested in an event by just saying you are going. It is much easier to get involved, staying in touch with friends, chat to people with similar interests and even dating is changing – swipe to say you like. This is coinciding with the focus on the individual being more important than society, everyone for themselves – no money for the undeserving. We are more connected, but with policies such as cutting automatic entitlement to Housing Benefit to 18-21, we are fractionalising society rather than bringing us closer together.
The Writers’ Cafe in partnership with the artist Sonya Dyer, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the NewBridge Project invited you to partake in a community writing workshop, on the theme of community. You had the opportunity to drop in and write, come and post a word on our Community Speaks Board, take a writing prompt away, or watch people write. You could also collect your copy of The Writers’ Cafe Magazine – ISSUE 2 “Community Active”, which is also available online.
About The Writers Cafe
The Writers’ Cafe was established in 2012, formed from the premise that writers needed a place to meet other writers, away from the distraction of home. Our workshops are quite unique, using ideas from science, myths and legends, divination and urban legends as inspiration for writing prompts.
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The Claudia Jones Space Station is part of Freedom City and has been commissioned by The NewBridge Project in partnership with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
The Claudia Jones Space Station is a temporary, living monument named after pioneering Trinidad-born journalist and activist Claudia Jones.
Over the course of four days, The Claudia Jones Space Station will perform an experiment in community formation, involving visitors, collaborators and participants from throughout the region.
Inspired by the model of the Space Station – where multiple experiments take place simultaneously – the CJSS invites you to take part in a range of workshops, events and screenings organised in partnership with artists, activists and collectives concerned with questions of social justice, from Newcastle/Gateshead and beyond. Private or individual meetings, conversations and exchanges can also take place within the space.
