what Nuha, Rotimi, Selina are doing...

Latest news in about three of Shake's brilliant young participants from 2010/11 programme! 

Nuha Baruti and Rotimi Skyers are taking part in Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust's 2012 architecture and design exhibition 'People & Places', held with Scott Brownrigg in Covent Garden. Nuha was a Bursary recipient at SLCT and has played a key role in curating and organising the exhibition of young talent. Rotimi is studying architecture at University of the Creative Arts, Canterbury, and has developed a close ongoing relationship with the Trust since Shake! 
It's on til 30 Nov so if you're in London, get over there.

Meanwhile, Selina Nwulu is responding to a challenge: to write a brand new 20-minute poem as part of Apples and Snakes event 'The Word's a Stage', 21st November, in Hackney, London. Selina's been mentored by Malika Booker along with three other up and coming poets. Should be a brilliant night.

Guerilla video of us, on creating the Mission Statement...

Watch it here, dug out from Eric's Facebook page at last! Video made on 25th February 2011, at Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, Deptford...featuring Rotimi, Eric, Sai, Zena, Jane, Selina in the flesh, and the ideas of Kavi and Nuha (who weren't in the room for some reason...)

Supporting Malala, supporting girls' rights to education

(If you want to go straight to her interview, it starts at 1min 4 seconds. She speaks in English)

Malala Yusufzai, 14, who has been campaigning for girls' education and against religious extremism since the age of 11, was shot in the head last week in Pakistan, by members of the Taliban.  This assassination attempt shows not only the intense power of young voices, but also the depths to which oppressive forces will go to get rid of intelligent protest. Malala is a highly effective campaigner who has shown incredible courage in the face of armed intimidation on her streets, day after day, week after week, for years. Through her acts and writings, she has galvanised thousands at home in Pakistan and abroad. The BBC picked up on the campaign in January 2009 and helped it gain international profile by publishing Malala's blog on their website. 

Malala is gravely injured and undergoing treatment here in England. There are some signs of improvement. Her cause must not be silenced. 

HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR HER AND THE 10,000's OF GIRLS WORLDWIDE SEEKING AN EDUCATION:

Join the protest called by EdEqual Foundation, in central London, this Saturday 20th, 12.30 - 3.30pm

Sign a UN petition on girl's education "I am Malala"
or
AVAAZ's petition "We Support You Malala" calling on the Pakistan government to arrest her attackers and end violent extremism in Pakistan.

Check out and support campaigns for girls' education like "Girls Education International" 
or UNICEF.

Shake! Stars Poetry

Happy National Poetry Day (for yesterday...!)

Yes we just missed posting about this by a few hours but we do have a good excuse as we're busy busy in the exciting recruiting process for our new Shake! coordinator.

A revamp of this blogsite is also needed we realise but in the meantime and with the theme of National Poetry Day being "stars" here is the link to discover all the posts on this site from our Shake! poetry stars:

http://voicesthatshake.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Poems

Also a newly created playlist over on our YouTube featuring Selina's original poem and also Paris Kaur and Zodwa Nyoni from Leeds Young Authors at our 2011 Britain on Trial event:

Shake's 3-year programme starts...

Shake is GO! We are absolutely delighted that Esmee Fairbairn Foundation has awarded the project a £20,000 grant to underpin the project in 2012/13. They're particularly interested in any social action/arts projects the new youth participants might come up with so we're hoping this is the start of a long-term relationship. We heard good news from Arts Council England a couple of months back and now we've got the EFF grant it means we've got the green light and can now go ahead with the 3-year programme.

Straight away we're getting down to appointing a new dynamic Coordinator for the project who we hope will be recruited to start in October/November. Interested in the job? Visit Platform's 'Vacancies' pages for details which are going up in the next few days. Application deadline is 14th September.

Meanwhile three young people from Shake's pilot project are going to the Emergence Summit in Machynlleth, North Wales. This is a conference on arts and sustainability for artists and activists, technologists, environmentalists. It's organised by a great collaboration between Volcano Theatre (Swansea) and the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth. Platform and Emergence offered bursaries to young people,  and Samia, Selina and Rotimi from Shake! have taken them up. Together with young people from Wales and London they will be co-creating the Youth Delegate's Group, facilitated by Project Phakama, ensuring that the voices and creativity of the next generation are loud and clear on key issues such as energy use, environmental issues, racism, the role of arts in social change. I believe there are still places if you want to come to Emergence.

The winners are... Yorkshire!

Members of Ralph Thoresby team at the regional heats

At yesterday afternoon's National Poetry Slam finals, the team from Ralph Thoresby High School in Leeds were hailed as the overall winners. This group works with Sai Murray, our very own poet-facilitator here at Shake! How well deserved it was, and how hard it must have been for the judges to decide.

Because it was an afternoon of amazing talent and some extraordinary moments. The stage crackled with energy, commitment, and craft. Too many fabulous moments from many groups to recall here, but for me one of the things that stood out about the Leeds group was the political content. A lot of groups addressed tough issues but something about the analysis that the Leeds young people brought seemed sophisticated beyond their years, yet so authentic.

First Wave at 'Shake the Dust'

First Wave at 'Shake the Dust'

Last night's '100% Proof' event showcased the coach mentors for today's National Youth Poetry Slam final plus we also got to see an amazing performance by 'First Wave', a group from the Spoken Word and Hip Hop Learning Community course at University of Wisconsin, Madison (USA). 

This group, now touring the UK, used their own experience of race and racism in the US education system as the basis for this piece. It was mesmerising: a performance of such power, and such polish, and also such rawness, love, humanity. And great tenderness. I went with a friend completely new to this way of working with poetry, and he was overwhelmed by it. The slam groups from around the country filled the audience and you could have heard a pin drop from the concentration and appreciation.