By Dan Thompson
In troubled times it’s hard to have hope for the future, but an event at Marine Studios in Margate will highlight some of the good things happening in the world, and send people away with practical actions they can take to make a brighter future.
How To Find Hope is the theme of May’s First Friday, the regular event which has been running since 2009.
Storyteller Bernadette Russell will inspire people by telling two stories through the evening, both for adults.
Bernadette is the author of The Little Book of Kindness and of How To Be Hopeful, described by Katherine May as ‘The perfect book for troubling times’. She has toured nationally with her show 366 Days of Kindness, collaborated with Folkdance Remixed, Teatro Vivo, and People Show, and been resident at the South Bank Festival and Royal Albert Hall.
Meanwhile, Marine Studios residents HOL Group will show the work they’ve been doing, not just to reduce plastic but to actively find alternatives. They will be demonstrating how they have made clothes hangers from Vivomer and Candee. Vivomer is made from the fat produced by microbes, and the same microbes will eat the material when it goes back into compost or landfill, leaving no residue. Candee is derived from sugar and will biodegrade in compost, landfill, or even the ocean. Both will disappear within 12 months.
The Bay Trust is an environmental charity based at the Pines Gardens, St Margaret’s Bay. They will be showing biochar made in their own kilns. Biochar looks like charcoal, and is made by burning wood and other organic material at high temperatures in an oxygen-free environment. Biochar offers a long-term way to store carbon in soil. It not only restores soil when used in compost, but offers a viable avenue for mitigating climate change effects by effectively sequestering carbon.
Marine Studios has an extensive library, and resident librarians Dan Thompson and Connor Sansby will be pulling out a selection of books on the theme of ‘hope’, and sending people home with hopeful quotes to inspire them.
“This event isn’t just about identifying things that are wrong and finding a temporary fix, but about new ideas that are making a better future,” Dan says, “If we’re going to change the world, the first thing you have to be able to do is imagine a better world. And since 2009, Marine Studios has been where that imagining happens.”
Dan is also making a giant ‘Mappa Mundi’-style map of hope, which visitors will be able to contribute to. It will be on show in Margate Writers’ Room. The room is a partnership between Co-relate, design firm HKD and Kent Poetry CIC. It provides desks for writers, and a programme focused on training, skills, and professional development.
First Friday happens on Friday 3rd May at Marine Studios, Albert Terrace, Margate. Doors open at 6pm, with performances by Bernadette Russell at 6.30pm and 7.30pm. The event ends at 9pm. Admission is free.
For more information about Marine Studios and the new Margate Writers’ Room, visit www.marinestudios.co.uk
Leave a Reply