Speaking Solidarity – a new poetry installation at Brighton Museum

This week we are excited to open Speaking Solidarity – a new poetry installation at Brighton Museum, created by the @sussexunimah with local young people.

In poetry workshops led by poets Maria Jastrzębska and Erin James, the young people were asked to think about the importance of listening and communicating with empathy and kindness. Participants were tasked with creating their own collaborative responses to a specially commissioned poem written about an object on display at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.

Maria Jastrzebska’s poem ‘I am the swimmer’ responds to the Harriet Elphinstone-Dick Automata on display in the Queer the Pier gallery, which tells the story of a woman’s record-breaking open water swim from Shoreham Harbour to Brighton’s West Pier in 1875.

Speaking Solidarity works with poets from the LGBTQIA+ community and local young people to encourage tolerant, thoughtful and creative forms of self-expression. Emerging from research at the University of Sussex on the importance of oracy in secondary school and university education, this project was created in response to reports on the continued and widespread rise of homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic language amongst young people.

The young people’s poems delve into themes of expression, belonging, and the possibility of overcoming our greatest fears – inviting listeners to think about their own reflective responses.

This interactive installation can be found in Brighton Museum’s Fashion & Style gallery. Come and listen to the poems and have a go at writing your own!