Taking Up Space (2020 - 2021)
By
Gabriella Gay
A group of socially-distanced walkers, progress along a grassy playing field on a sunny day. Photo credit: Urban Wilderness CIC.
A poetry dance piece based on the experiences of black and brown women walking in Staffordshire.
Taking Up Space grew from conversations around walking during lockdown amongst women of colour. While some women, inspired by organisations such as GirlTrek , Sheffield's Black Men Walking group, and a love of nature saw walking an act of self-care, others were more reluctant to walk for pleasure, especially alone. There have been high levels of deaths in the black community due to Covid-19, and after the unjust killing of George Floyd, the world was racially raw. Some women were reluctant to go out walking, in a world where people were more vocal about their racial and political views.
With this in mind, Kwanzaa Collective UK* brought together a team of artists to work and walk with the women to explore the the question- How do women of colour in Staffordshire experience walking, considering Stoke-on-Trent is nicknamed 'Brexit Capital' and political leaders seemed keen for us to be less visible and take up less space? We explored the question through a series of walks and discussions on walking alone, in parks and in wild spaces.
These discussions and walks led by walk leader Monienne Stone and poet Gabriella Gay led to the creation of poetry, a dance piece , a film by Cynthia Coady and a well-being and walking group for women of colour. The poetry series written by lead artist Gabriella Gay were directly inspired by the words and reflections of the women on walking during lockdown. Dancers Shanice Harris , Shona Muraldo-Parks and Caroline Muraldo ( Artistic Director of Muraldo D.C) created dance movement based on each of the walks- walking alone, in parks and in wild spaces. Working online together , they fused their own dance style responses to music with Africanistic dance movements which reflect the feeling and stories the women told of walking. The project was documented by filmmaker Cynthia Coady, who also created Taking Up Space, a film which was selected for Culture Centrals Democratising Creativity and Culture Festival in September, which celebrated young creative talent across the West Midlands and it was projected onto a building at Keele University as part of 'Strong, British and Black' in collaboration with ArtsKeele.
The film shows three characters, taking up space in their own form but also showing that their imagination, minds and thinking takes up space as well. Cythia can be seen taking about the film here:
The dancers continue to work together and the women who walked during the project continue to walk and meet together at different sites in Staffordshire. When faced with further lockdowns they have stayed connected through online well-being, mediation, craft, chat , dance sessions, and WhatsApp walks which encourage an exploration of the local area, friendship and women of colour continuing to take up space.
Taking Up Space was commissioned by Urban Wilderness as part of the Wastelands project, supported by emergency funding from Arts Council England in 2020.
“The cinematography was beautiful, the lighting , the colours, making the melanin pop”
To watch the Taking Up Space documentary, click the video below:
