Margate residents have been writing speeches to be delivered at The People’ s Podium – a national project first created in April 2020.
The People’s Podium is a playful twist on the government lectern used in coronavirus briefings. Brightly-coloured and eye-catching, it’s designed for people to recognise the power of their voice and deliver their own ‘briefing’.
Victoria Barrow Williams from People Dem Collective shared her dream for a ‘National Cultural Centre in Margate that celebrates Black British history’. Drag artist Dame Jame spoke about the importance of queer education and Alexander Roarke, who runs The Kitchen CT9 with wife Anne, spoke about people who have moved to Margate -including the DFLs aka Down From London)-integrating with Margate locals.
The speeches were recorded over Zoom, but the physical podium will be coming to Margate when restrictions lift, giving people another chance to share their story.
The project was organised by Margate based Experiential Designer Jess Hall with creative collective Glimpse. Jess saw the project online and nominated Margate to be part of it because of its deep sense of community.
Jess said: “I felt it was so important to bring this project to Margate – a true melting pot of amazing people and somewhere I feel like anything is possible… especially people powered change. A place I am fiercely proud to call my home.”
For lots of the participants, it was their first time making a speech. Amy Cook from Rise Up Clean Up was nervous to take part as she normally works behind the scenes as theatre designer. But everyone in the group saw the value in speaking up and using their voice.
The People’s Podium is a national project and will be touring the UK this year. Margate will be the first stop, followed by Redcar and Leicester.
It all looks very “woke” to me (I’m guessing none of them will be talking about the illegal immigrant stowaways mentioned in the previous article!).
So long as we all remember to come on here and get angry about absolutely nothing, so long as we obsess about wokeness and assume that these people do not contribute to our litter picking efforts or contribute anything useful to Thanet,so log as we have such a narrow view of our world that we actually think this is some threat to our wellbeing or our wonderfully nostalgic existence, there is still hope that we can keep that awful world in all it’s complexity out of our precious Thanet.
You can tell it is woke Peter, the whole thing is victimhood mentality like the King & Queen of woke virtue signalling-hard done by in their 16 bathroom, 14 bedroom mansion Harry & Meghan. Will say the drag guy does a very good impression of the late Divine at least.
Yes, he/she/they would make a great tribute act!
Are you supposed to put on clown faces to use it?
you should try it….
What is an experiential designer? What is a creative collective?
This world is leaving me behind. If I’m allowed to say so without causing offence to someone somewhere, I preferred it as it was, with everyday people doing everyday things.
Mike, you obviously need some “queer education”!
Seriously, these people don’t live in the real world, and they certainly don’t care about the issues that concern Thanet as a whole. They’d make a far greater contribution if they did some litter picking or volunteered outside vaccination hubs.
Rise up clean up is exactly litter picking. It seems you would rather cleave to your own preconceptions rather than read the facts as detailed. This “woke” scare thing is turning into Mcarthyism.
Don’t know what an experiential designer is? Ask one.
Think they don’t live in the real world? They have jobs and lives and loved ones, and are your neighbours, of course they care about where they live. That’s why they are doing something.
Disagree with what they say? Actually join in instead of making snide remarks.
Don’t like illegal immigrants? Heard of the phrase there but for the grace of god go I? Is it so awful to want a better life? Thank your lucky stars you have the freedom to live and work and complain about things other people do, online.
Why don’t you do something newsworthy? Wheres your litter picking stick?
I do plenty of “newsworthy” things thank you very much (Google me if you’re interested though I doubt if you’ll find it all that exciting) and nor do I feel the need to hide behind a pseudonym. As for “joining in”, I don’t think a white male who’s pushing 60, and who loves the Queen, still laughs at “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum” and thinks Mud was better than Bowie would have much in common with “dem” people. Thanks for replying though, and good luck! : )
I just had a closer look at those Zoom thumbnails and recognised an old friend (hi Jem!). A good person.