Impact case study: Aldair Reis

Aldair Reis, Young Writers’ City participant

Aldair Reis was one of the performers in our 2019 hip-hopera, Stitched.

He progressed from working with us on Young Writers’ City in both lessons and extra-curricular clubs, to joining Live Youth Theatre. Aldair also participates in our Newcastle Young Songwriters group on Wednesday nights.

New Writing North helps me tell my story

“Performing and writing is important to me. I can represent people that can’t represent themselves. I feel really passionate about that.

Like in Stitched we wanted to talk about knife crime, it’s happening in and outside of school. I know quite a few people who have been stabbed. I am related to a lot of people who are into that type of life but I try and isolate myself from people like that because I don’t want that for me. And in our next show we are thinking about trapping (drug running.) I understand why people make that choice, because it is a way of supporting yourself and your family. No qualifications needed. So I would like to use creative writing, a show or a film maybe, to help people understand how that becomes an option.

More people are living in poverty, I see a rise in it all around me. And there’s less jobs and less options so drug dealing becomes a viable business idea. So I am interested in presenting that empathetically, to help people hear that story in a different light. If we can raise awareness of that we can start challenging the politics that has made this mess.”

Aldair Reis, 2019