Next week sees the launch of a brand new creative project devised by Manchester Libraries for young people to get involved in from their own homes.
Whilst their doors might be temporarily closed, the creativity and community spirit of libraries across the city is still going strong. As part of this they’ve recruited local artists and young creatives to put together a series of weekly creative challenges for young people to have a go at.
Designed for young people to take part in from home, ‘Express Yourself’ will launch next Monday 4 May with a 10-week on-line programme of arts challenges – including activities such as sketching, writing, beat-making, and dance.
Each week presents the opportunity to try something new and celebrates the spirit of our libraries through different weekly themes.
All the challenges have been devised by local artists and young creatives from the Creative Spaces community who were invited to design arts challenges in response to different themes, and to record videos for young people explaining their challenge.
Challenges relate to themes including strength, community, self and empathy. They are also bite-size and don’t take long to do, so can easily fit into the day.
Emerging artist and facilitator Jamie Lynch has created the challenge for ‘Strength’, which shows participants how to create a rhyme and rap along to a beat.
Writer and performer Hafsah Aneela Bashir created a challenge for the theme ‘Unlimited’. In her activity, participants are challenged to tune into their senses and write a short story in five minutes, responding to one of her prompts.
Young creative Yelena explores the theme of ‘Energy’ through movement in her challenge, inviting the audience to learn a short piece of choreography.
Project Producer, Beth Powell, from Creative City England CIC, said: “Express Yourself is a platform for self-expression and creativity. It’s a weird time currently so it’s important to stay connected to what you are feeling, and remember that your thoughts and feelings matter to your wider community too. Express Yourself is a great way to have fun, stay expressive, connect to others, have some mindful moments and learn some new creative skills. Give it a go and join the conversation online using the hashtag #CreativeSpacesMcr Can’t wait to see what you create!”
