Lockdown Lives
We’re excited to finally be able to reveal our Lockdown Lives animation! This project began with weekly zoom sessions in summer 2020, and was revisited in early 2021 to allow the young people involved to document their changing feelings throughout this period, from despair and panic, through to optimism, disappointment and hope.
Rapper and spoken word artist Kay Greyson worked with young people and staff at Denton Youth and Community Project to explore these experiences and created a spoken word piece that gave young people an opportunity to voice these experiences.
When the young people were asked for their feedback, Molly said, ‘I liked getting to vent in a creative way. I wish Boris could see our poem and understand our views’. Olivia added, ‘The poetry project was really fun. I learned that poems don’t always have to rhyme which makes it all much easier. I can’t wait to hear the finished poem’.
The poem was recorded earlier this year and music producer Jordan Miller was commissioned to produce a soundscape to add atmosphere. We were so impressed with how the poem sounded that we decided to also commission artist Sheryl Jenkins to bring it to lift through an animation. The young people created lots of drawings inspired by the poem that Sheryl then worked with to produce the fantastic Lockdown Lives animation.
New Writing North have greatly enjoyed this partnership with Denton Young and Community Project and both parties hope to continue working together!
Sophie Crocker, Programme Officer at NWN and Producer on this project