“Future Fires made me feel like a leader and an expert in my field. More autistic women should have the opportunity to lead on their own projects.”
Jess Nolan.
Future Fires is a programme for young creative artists and activists who are interested in developing their own social change project or organisation over a 12 month period. Throughout the year they will receive creative development, marketing and financial training, whilst getting the opportunity to manage their own budget, run creative workshops and most importantly develop their own idea into a sustainable project.
Last year’s projects included a film around male mental health, and theatre workshops for autistic women. Many of these projects continue to grow from strength to strength and we look forward to seeing how they progress now beyond the Future Fires programme.
On the 24th October, to launch this year’s new programme, young people from Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham will be brought together to think about the state of the sector, the effect of the cuts, and how creativity is being devalued in our education system. The intent is to build a platform from which young people can be heard. These concerns are at the very heart of the Future Fires programme. Each project develops as a unique creative remedy to some of the contemporary difficulties facing a challenged creative society.
This year’s projects include a new Manchester zine exploring mental health and chronic illness and a youth led production company concerned with troubled modern masculinity. As always our new Future Fires will receive a bespoke programme of training and mentoring to develop their leadership skills and support them every step of the way to deliver a unique project in their own community.
The 2018 participants and projects:
Roxy Legane: Kids of Colour
A platform for kids of colour to explore their experiences of race, identity and culture in modern Britain.
Website: http://kidsofcolour.com/
Twitter: @kidsofcolourHQ
Fundraising page: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/kidsofcolour
Trish Cartner: The Crimson Wave
A charitable organisation working to bring reliable, safe and free sanitary wear to homeless women & women in need.
Twitter: @crimsonwaveorg
Samuel Remi-Akinwale & Palumi Fatayo: Base Productions
A youth led production company that focuses on discussing key topics like toxic masculinity and representation.
Hebe Reilley
A project based on using theatre workshops to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
Rose Sergent: Drawn poorly Zine.
A not for profit, Manchester based independent zine. Rose works with collaborators from the UK and beyond to share work responding to chronic illness and long term health conditions (physical and mental.)
Website: https://drawnpoorly.wordpress.com/
Twitter:@Drawnpoorlyzine
Nicola Varley: Noagenda
A project that tackles the negative gender stereotypes young people have to tackle on a daily basis.
Twitter: @NoAgenderseries