Black Country Voyages at Birmingham Weekender

Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September

On the weekend we brought the boat back to Birmingham. Moored up underneath Brewmaster Bridge in Brindley Place, this is the closest event that we have held to Ikon Gallery. Events and activities were taking place all around the city for the Birmingham Weekender and we expected big numbers of people.

On Saturday we dedicated the boat to poetry. Serena Arthur, Young Poet Laureate Birmingham 2015-16 and Nabila Irshad, member of Young Writers, Writing West Midlands, joined us on the boat to hold small, intimate performances. Members of the public were invited onto the boat for 30mins of poetry and encouraged to ask the young poets questions. It was great to get an insight into what inspires them and how they develop their ideas. Bringing poetry to Birmingham Weekender for one day was a huge success. We welcomed new faces onto the boat, who will hopefully return in the future.

The following day we opened the boat for creative workshops. We encouraged the public to join us in making paper bunting for the boat. Using polyblock printing, we printed small panels, taking inspiration from Jacques Nimki’s work with plants and weeds. These panels were then attached to rope on the exterior of the boat to form bunting. To finish off the workshop we used the same designs to print blank postcards, to allow people to share their creativity with friends and family around the world and also spread the word about Black Country Voyages.

Both days were thoroughly enjoyable and we received great feedback from the public, we will hopefully bring the boat back for the same event in 2016.