by Author Lottie Brook

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Young People people are just too COOLture

It has been a gargantuan year for culture in the north, with Hull UK City of Culture 2017 continuing to flow through everything, and as part of the Music4U programme, the National Centre for Early Music worked with Hull City Council's Creative Voice programme, to develop an impressive multi-cultural performance event, in celebration of the 10th birthday of the COOLture Young People's Cultural Arts Festival.

It has been a gargantuan year for culture in the north, with Hull UK City of Culture 2017 continuing to flow through everything, and as part of the Music4U programme, the National Centre for Early Music worked with Hull City Council's Creative Voice programme, to develop an impressive multi-cultural performance event, in celebration of the 10th birthday of the COOLture Young People's Cultural Arts Festival.

 

Under the COOLture Conversations umbrella, a whole host of diverse collaborations took place across Hull, York and the East Riding of Yorkshire, culminating in a final performance in Hull City Hall on 17 June.

The COOLture Conversations were designed to reflect the experiences of young people growing up across this region, exploring their ‘roots and routes’ – where they come from and the how they journey through life.

 

Their stories were presented through a musical melting pot of Javanese gamelan, Japanese Taiko, South Asian artforms, urban & electronic music and spoken word. These were all created by regional youth groups, supported by Hull-born author Cassandra Parkin, and musicians from well-established ensembles including SAA UK, Music4U, Humber Taiko, Tang Hall SMART, Castaway Goole and the University of York.

Comments from those taking part included;

"That was something new - never experienced anything like it before!"

"It was brilliant because it was all about identity and sense of self...and everyone contributed"

"I loved that we could express ourselves, coming up with our own work, all from scratch!"

Collaborations included:

  • The exploration between rap and traditional gamelan, working with home-educated young people and members of the local Tang Hall community, and gaining insight from the Tang Hall SMART, gamelan musicians and members of the University of York Gamelan Sekar Petak ensemble. The work was premiered during the York Concerts Series in May.
  • A partnership between Hull & East Riding Hindu Cultural Association and SAA-UK, enabling Hull-based young people to develop their skills in South Asian instrumental playing and ensemble work and to receive specialist professional tuition.
  • Local writer Cassandra Parkin meeting with and interviewing young people from diverse backgrounds (including the Libyan School, the Polish community, Hull & East Riding Hindu Association, St Michael's Youth Project, and others), exploring their views on cultural identity and using their responses to create a series of poems, which were subsequently set to music by musician Emily Crossland and performed as part of COOLture Conversations on 17 June in Hull City Hall.

COOLture Conversations was part of the celebration of the 'Roots & Routes' season of Hull City of Culture 2017.

It was organised and supported by Hull City Council (Arts Development and Youth Development Service), in partnership with Music4U, and was a Creative Voice event. 

Watch a short clip of the performances here...