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Performance poet Donald Jenkins releases a series of videos with a call for action to save Newcastle’s cultural spaces and city nightlife
Photo & video by Shutter Productions
It’s been well reported that music venues, theatres, comedy clubs, nightclubs and other cultural spaces have been struggling to stay open due to the global pandemic. It’s an issue that is a cause for concern for all creatives in the region and something that performance poet Donald Jenkins is hoping to raise awareness of by releasing a series of hard hitting spoken word videos.
Over the course of 3 interconnected videos, Jenkins rhymes about the various artists and coordinators who keep local venues alive and how their jobs are at risk. He is calling on everyone to take responsibility for the live arts scene in their own city and to support them either financially, by donating on their crowdfunder pages or by contacting your MP.
In reference to the Government’s 1.57 billion relief package that was announced in July, Jenkins warns of the dangers of money not being fairly distributed amongst small and independent venues. “Yes, a package may have now been given, but we’ve learnt from an age to not place trust in trickle down decisions. This machine’s cogs come in differing sizes, each component needs to be tended to. Not just eaten up by organisations, corporate enough to do so.”
As the host and promoter of the city’s leading poetry night, Born Lippy, Donald relies on spaces like Cobalt Studios and Alphabetti Theatre to stage events and create a platform for local and national poets, comedians and rappers. He understands the effect potential closure of venues will have for artists and the events that showcase their talents.
The videos feature a variety of links for fundraiser pages and websites for venues like Cobalt Studios, Alphabetti Theatre, Live Theatre, Gosforth Civic, The Stand and Northern Stage. It encourages people to check out their digital and online programmes as well as links to national save venues’ campaigns like #saveourvenues – the support Grassroots Music venues campaign and sign the open letter to Save Live comedy.
The videos will be released across social Media and the Born Lippy YouTube channel.
