Artist, Producer and BEYOND poet-in-residence, Keisha Thompson, weaved her observations of Day 01 into verse, to provide this wonderful closing poem.
Beyond, Beyond, Beyond…
How many of us feel that pre-conference anxiety?
Queuing up for your lanyard wondering,
“How much of this is going to be beyond me?
Go over my head? In one ear out the next?”
Well, being a speaker doesn’t save you.
I’m ushered backstage by a friendly woman called Josie
I can feel the nervous energy all around me
panelists clutching their scripts testing their mics
looking for the clicker asking if they’ve pronounced names right
Nihal leaps onstage to kick us off and typically the first response
from the crowd is not good enough…
but we’re being hosted by a pro it’s not long before we feel warm
Speaking of temperature, Rachel, Laia, Corey and I are comparing
dry cold in Montreal with wet cold of the UK
Rachel tells us that if you know how to dress you can do anything
like going to an event called Igloo Fest then Laia is taken from us
It’s time for her to deliver the first speech it really chimes with me
she talks about the work she does across 45 cities by 2060, 70% of us will be in urban spaces with jobs that don’t exist yet
It reminds me of when I was little… people would ask, “What do you want to be?”
I’d say, “I don’t think I know what it is…” like Nihal said – his favourite album is yet to be heard…
Laia’s work is all about fostering creative skills that feed the ecology describes culture as a golden thread what is magical about her talk
is the great balance of hope with pragmatism she warns of the loop of gentrification how to cope with over-tourism she wins this mathematician’s heart by ending with a quote from Einstein – “Logic can get you from A to B but the imagination can take you everywhere.”
Next up are Rachel and Hilary (I love that talks so far have been female-heavy) as they unpack the innovation of Montreal city – how closely it is linked to its bi-lingual-ity – I share the same thought as Nihal by adding it to my travel list (I mean to be honest, she had me at Igloo Fest…)
In no time at all, it’s time for Corey and I to grace the stage sharing our stories of how we’ve been shaped by this space Corey AKA Superlative smashes it out the park with a calm demeanour then I rock up and burn through my slides trying to dodge the timer alarm! I wedge my story into an egg-timer and hope it makes sense I manage to give a nod to Arthur Lewis but have to cut out the Pan-African Congress and some other references… but whatever, I tried my best.
I appreciate the all the people who find me at the break to say it resonated with them but hang on I’m getting ahead of myself I step off stage to an Andy Burnham handshake I comforted by how much he talks about young people and their need for our attention and investment – a topic that is suitably prevalent.
On my stroll into Salford this morning, I was listening to a podcast called Making Manchester Fairer. I was reminded of the statistic that in Greater Manchester 44% of our children are living in poverty as I strolled up to the beautiful scenes of MediaCity, I couldn’t help but think – how can this be? But that’s the reality… that’s why we’re here today, right?
To ask those questions that feel Beyond belief… to advocate for those that appear to be Beyond reach?
To go Beyond doubt, Beyond reason, Beyond hope
Like Christine said – the real work isn’t pretty like a cushy job and an apartment overlooking the Thames no, it’s negotiating with a community of sex workers and bats to take over a depot creating a Chinese opera called Monkey and being asked, “Who will come?” and saying “I don’t
know…”
But guess who was there?
Yep. Me. I was in a community choir that did a curtain raiser with an original song.
Before getting to watch a preview of the show.
Can you see why I’ve never wanted to leave this city?
Naturally, the conversation touches on the digital space and the threat of technology ironically, I’m surrounded by five people on their phones all trying to connect… attention is moving towards a
Deficit.
People are
starting to
get rest-less, Nihal requests that we hang tight for our final speaker who has come all the way from Bangalore.
Jahnavi delivers an insightful talk that leads us nicely to our first break. I take the opportunity to explore the Compass Room for the Beyond EXPO…
I’m suitably met by a human in a lab coat branded Immersive Futures Lab… but the troglodyte in me is so strong that I find myself drawn to this floridly orange bench made of concertinaed card…I wonder about the tessellation the weight distribution before giving my head a shake! NO Keisha, you’re here to review the demos for goodness sake!
I’m blown away by VR Shoes, CurfewVR, a computer from Bedford called J.E.S.S which stands for Just Examining Systemic Stereotypes, these people are making me feel so seen – using tech for heritage decoloniality and political female empathy!
They are going above and Beyond what people think we can do with technology like Jay Taylor’s description of small music venues to underfunded communities…
Back in the main room, the next panel helps me get a better sense of what this conference is about how can we share good practice of what it means to go Beyond expectations? I know that I’m surrounded by innovation not least by all the new words that I’ve picked up this crowd really likes a word-blend: co-petition, phygical, artivism, glocal.
My head is starting to bubble as I start to think about what I have to say about Beyond…my notebook is swelling up so much you could mistake it for a Joconde! (That’s a little reference for my fellow bakers out there…
My brain keeps going on tangents.
I wonder what word-blend would represent me like my love of the arts and maths: martist? or creati-mat-ician? NO
Keisha
FOCUS) Beyond…
Beyond…
Beyond… Ok how do I respond?
I’m feeling super ambivalent,
obviously inspired by all the brilliant speakers but undeniably despondent…
I’ve stepped out of this sector now (actually, let’s call it a secondment)
At least three people have approached me to say how much they love Contact, how it shaped them like it shaped me, it’s such a symbol of what it means to be in this city but as Kiran said, “You have to work at feeding the ecology” Andy Burnham stated that, “Diversity is in jeopardy”.
Jay Taylor told us that, “We’re dancing on the edge of sustainability” things feel like they are Beyond me until Brian bolts onstage, all the way from Kenya he shares his epiphany that led to the creation of Black Rhino.
His mantra was, “How do I build something that is Beyond me?”
I cast my mind back to a chat I had with a friendly man called Pod – with one fluorescent pink fingernail – at the coffee break we talked about the book I referenced in my talk about anti-fragility which is a state of mind a state of being that allows you to benefit from the unknown and unprecedented negativity that belongs to the future inherently it’s knowing that things may be out of your control but you still have agency.
Like Nihal joking about the end of Jools Holland and Rachel Davies saying, “NOT on my WATCH”.
Like Moky resetting the dial for African cities in the face of Bob Geldof’s misplaced charity, a tower of giraffes against a city-scaped Nairobi Martin from MediaCity stating that we’re operating in a space that was envisioned 15 years ago which makes me think that we are
stars, we are the glittery, decay of our ancestors we are the solidarity found between Liverpool and Ukraine in the shadow of war…
We are questioning who and what are creative cities built for.
We are coming together once a year to air our hopes and fears merge child-like dreams with functionality like the wings of Buzz Lightyear
so back to my mission, how do I respond?
By asking you to continue on your brilliant journeys – “to infinity and
Beyond…”
Keisha Thompson
Beyond Conference 2024
27/11/2024
_ _ _
Keisha Thompson FRSA is a Manchester-based writer, performance artist and producer. She is currently the Programme Manager for Legacies of Enslavement Programme at The Guardian. She is Co-Chair of the Independent Theatre Council, a trustee of Olympias Music Foundation and recipient of the DARE Art Prize 2024 from Opera North and the University of Leeds in association with National Science and Media Museum and The Tetley.