Re-Staging Croydon Program
Introduction
3rd February – 5-7pm
This introductory session is a chance for everybody to get to know each other and learn in more details about the program, what it offers and what is expected of participants.
Making Worlds
19th March – 11am-6pm
Providing opportunities for world-building through the lens of the unheard stories from the diaspora and how they manifest in the urban space. The session will explore diasporic activity in Croydon with the immigration reporting centre as a major node of conversation. Through writing and narrative exercises we will create scenes of different worlds, imaginative and fantastical, that are better suited to portray the perspectives and experiences of the cohort’s participants. Those core stories will become the narrative for a series of podcasts.
Workshop leaders: Shaniqua Benjamin, V.V.F.A (Sitraka Rakotoniaina and Andrew Friend)
Sounding landscapes
15th April – 11am-6pm
This session will employ methods of role play and world-building and invite participants to enter an atmosphere composition within the Whitgift Centre. The atmosphere composition will be made up of a set of sensorial physical and psychological conditions that participants will need to respond to and negotiate with in order to find solidarity. The session will be recorded to form a soundscape for solidarity and build a sonic world for the podcast series.
Workshop leaders: Harry Bix, Lou-Atessa Marcellin
Gaming Infrastructures
13th May – 11am-6pm
In this session we will explore the potential of games as a tool for public participation in urban planning processes. At present those who plan, design and build our cities do not represent the breadth and experiences of people living in them. Using Croydon’s town centre as our canvas we will use games playing and making to explore ideas around cultural infrastructure and imagine bottom-up alternatives for its future development.
Workshop leaders: Hannah Martin, Cecily Chua
Mobility Justice
17th June – 11am-6pm
This session will focus on mobility justice, exploring the collision between building, object, traffic and person in Croydon’s North end Quarter. Centring on movement and embodied practice, we will explore the physical and invisible codes that restrict our movements using the body as a tool to test the accessibility and limits of shared urban spaces. This session will become the ground for a public performance presented during the PolyVocalCity Festival.
Workshop leaders: Alisa Oleva, Resolve Collective
Summer School
29th 30th July – 11am-6pm
The Summer School will be a two day series of creative workshops developed and led by PolyVocalCity’s participants.
Hosted by: Turf Projects
Zine Workshop
18th-19th-20th August
Drawing together materials collected and produced across the four workshops (Writing, Sound, Infrastructure, Choreography) and the Summer School we will co-create a series of four zines.
Workshop leaders : Print Collective, Rhea Martin (Cohort22 alumni)
Podcast Workshop
2nd-10th September
V.V.F.A will lead two sessions focusing on podcast production, covering scripting, editing, recording, and broadcasting.
Workshop leaders: V.V.F.A
PolyVocalCity Festival: Re-Staging Croydon
8-10th September
A series of public events celebrating the work produced by PolyVocalCity and delivered in partnership with Turf Projects and Croydon’s Placemaking Team. This festival features new commissions, the launch of a new podcast series and zines, creative workshops, and a series of talks that explore social and environmental justice for Croydon.
Hosted by: Turf Projects, Croydon’s Urban Room, Stanley Arts, plus more locations TBC
