Past Events
This page lists some of the events we have been involved in over the previous months. You can read about The Big Issue in the North’s part in Manchester’s International Festival and the success of our recent Poetry Competition. Plus there are also some nice photos of the recent run volunteers took part in at Heaton Park.
Most recently, we did a huge food collection, 16,000 children who come to sing at the MEN arena, were asked to bring food (harvest festival style), and staff, along with Prince's Trust volunteers collected the food for parcels at Christmas.
Christmas Food Collection
The Big issue in the North would like to thank The Prince's Trust for their support with our food collection. The team members were great, helpful, friendly and really supportive of the work we do. They also presented The Big Issue in the North Trust with a cheque for £230 that they had raised during their 12 week course.
Our first annual poetry competition was a great success. We had over 300 entries including one from as far away as Hong Kong. We then had a great afternoon at Apotheca in Manchester where the winner got to read out her poem to a receptive crowd. The five short-listed poems can be found here.
The Winner!
The Rain Dog Man by Clare Kirwan
He had a voice like someone shaking
a pan of rusty nails and his hair
was an electro static conduction experiment.
His hands were rough as emery boards
with seven year’s growth of rich, black earth
under the nails where he grew tiny vegetables.
His mouth was a great dark hole full of
tombstone teeth, with worn away lettering:
Here lies the body of… safe in the arms of...
He had a tattoo of a combustion engine
and when he flexed his muscles, those pistons
really worked and steam rose off them.
He answered to anything but his own name
and he sang songs about the olden days
before electrocution, before dinosaurs.
He’d offer you anything he had,
which wasn’t much – an old tin mug
that smelled of whiskey, pliers black
with dried blood, a handful of postcards
from St Petersburg in the 20’s,
some false eyes, or a coat with gold buttons
which he never wore. And when he laughed,
it carried all over town like seed heads
exploding and when he lifted you up
you felt it would never stop; you’d fly
on up into the stratosphere.
I wathced him take his shirt off once
and I saw he was branded like cattle,
the scar so old and pitted.
He drew a finger around it’s shape
and said to me: No man ever owns you.
When he died all the neighbourhood dogs
went to his grave and stayed until
the first rain of autumn, and in the spring,
it came up with flowers no-one had ever
seen or had a name for.
Jane Logan (Event Organiser), Clare Kirwan (The Winner) and Mandy Coe (one of the judges)
Loads more photos can be found here!
Vendors out on the streets of Manchester were the inspiration behind part of a massive procession, which was a highlight of this year’s Manchester International Festival.
“Procession” starred 10 vendors, who took part in workshops to create a traditional parade banner to carry on the day. The concept was created by Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller, whose aim was to bring together diverse groups of people, all of whom capture the spirit of Manchester. Jeremy Deller won the prestigious Turner Prize in 2004 for “Memory Bucket”, a documentary about Texas, featuring the Waco siege, Willie Nelson and three million bats.
Vendors took part in four workshops led by Jeremy himself, Cornerhouse staff and craftsman Ed Hall, one of the country’s last traditional banner makers, who listened to the stories and experiences of vendors out on the streets meeting the public and selling the magazine. “It was an excellent day,” said one of the vendors who took part in the day. “So many people, loads of support for The Big Issue. It was really cool to hear everyone cheering as we walked down the street.”
And being a part of the International Festival certainly helped raise the profile of The Big Issue in the North after the BBC’s Culture Show filmed the vendors during a workshop and in the parade. Ash Croft, from The Big Issue in the North office, said: “Vendors in and around Manchester are an integral part of city life and one of the city’s most recognisable groups of people.
“We were delighted to be chosen by Jeremy Deller to be a part of the procession, which celebrates the social diversity of the people who live here.”
Lots of pictures of the Procession can be found here!
A couple of lovely photos taken after the run in Heaton Park, thanks to all the volunteers who took part, and to our volunteer Stephen for taking this entertaining picture.
If you want to take part in any runs in aid of The Big Issue in the North Trust please email our Regional Fundraising Coordinator Jane Logan.