Speaking Solidarity: Gentle Listening, Thoughtful Talking

Speaking Solidarity: Gentle Listening, Thoughtful Talking
From September 2024
Free with Brighton Museum admission, members free

This new interactive poetry display was created by young people from the local community in collaboration with Brighton Museum and The University of Sussex. With the help of local poet Maria Jastrzębska participants were invited to create collaborative spoken poetry responses to the Harriet Elphinstone-Dick automata, on display in the Queer the Pier exhibition, which celebrates her record-making seven-mile swim on 9 September 1875 from Shoreham Harbour to Brighton’s West Pier. They explored the themes of self-expression, identity, and belonging, promoting tolerant and inclusive dialogue – not only between object and viewer – but also between generations and communities.

Poems were inspired by the Harriet Elphinstone-Dick automata, made by Lisa Hinkins for the Queer the Pier Exhibition at Brighton Museum.