Springboard: September 29 @ Powerhouse, Manchester

The Black Curriculum delivered a Manny on the Map Springboard workshop on the 29th of September, in partnership with the Poetry Place, a poetry collective based in Manchester who facilitated the session. The facilitators designed the workshop for young people that explored how poetry and music has been used as a form of protest, that speaks up against racial discrimination.

The young people used group exercises to explore their own experiences of racial identity, also looking at definitive moments in Manchester’s black historical community such as the Moss Side riots. Armed with their experiences, the young people learned about Dub Poetry inspirations such as Linton Kwesi Johnson, George the Poet and Vanessa Kissule and music by rapper Dave. They then created their own protest poems drawing on the learning from the sessions and performed them to each other.