We were delighted to welcome over 40 young people to Headgate Theatre on Saturday 25th January for our 4th Manifesto for Essex Youth Action Climate Summit: an annual county-wide meet up of 13-25-year-olds from Essex who are passionate about making a positive contribution to reducing the impact of Climate Change via cultural activity.
We were particularly pleased to welcome Fousseny Traore, a Climate Refugee from Mali, who spoke about the environmental devastation that is already happening in parts of Africa as a result of the Climate Emergency, and the very real threat to those who speak out about it.
Read a copy of Fousseny’s deeply moving speech here.
Participants took part in a range of workshops during the day led by Eco-educator/Dramaturg Dr Andrew Burton (University of Essex), Theatre Director/Founder Wise Ram Theatre Company Sofia Bagge, Radio Producer/Presenter Michelle Durrant (Chelmsford Community Radio) and Theatre Director/Founder Mad, Who? Theatre Marina Cusi. This was followed by a feed-back and ‘what next’ brain-storming session.
It was, as ever, a very positive day. To have so many eloquent and motivated young people in one space was inspirational and a real credit to Essex. To welcome Climate Refugee Foussney Traore to speak about his journey from Mali to Colchester, and the personal sacrifices he has made along the way, was both a privilege and deeply moving (see attached photograph c. Essex Book Festival).
Ros Green, Festival Director
The Manifesto for Essex, which was set up in 2020 as part of Essex2020, goes from strength to strength. This year will be working with young people from Harlow to Harwich to help raise awareness of the positive actions everyone can take to mitigate the Climate Emergency. We look forward to celebrating their work as part of this year’s Essex Book Festival.
Thank you to Young Reporter, Ellious Woodroof, for this great write-up about the Youth Climate Summit:
Manifesto For Essex: Art and the Climate Emergency
By Ellious Woodroof,
Colchester Sixth Form College
This article was written by one of our Young Reporters, a scheme that gives 14 to 18-year-old school students a chance to write for a real newspaper. Find out more at the Young Reporter website.
This January I attended ‘Manifesto for Essex’ at Headgate Theatre for my third year.
This event aims to help young people tackle the climate emergency through all forms of art – the focus of this year was theatre.
The opening speech from Foussney Traore (a climate refugee from Mali) was incredibly powerful – he spoke in French with translation to English.
He described how women and girls spend days searching for food and water; how Mali and the Sahel have become Climate Change warzones; how his peoples’ subsistence life is collapsing; and how the work of multinationals is destroying the environment, his home.
There were references to the beauty of nature that his uncle taught him to appreciate, countered by the fragility of how the lakes he used to bathe in had become football pitches.
To combat this, he started an online movement ‘Action Sahel’ and is taking his activism international, warning that although extreme impacts of climate change do not reach the UK currently, it is only a matter of time.
I found someone recounting personal experiences brought home the reality, showing how stories shape our view and therefore our actions.
This was followed by a panel discussion on tackling the Climate Emergency through performance, chaired by Marina Cusi.
The panel included a representative from SPARK Chelmsford (a group giving young people a role in shaping Chelmsford’s cultural identity); Richard from Headgate Theatre’s youth troop; Hattie Philips (studying for a degree in Sustainable Futures, and with experience in many areas of activism such as being a youth ambassador for WWF); and Sofia Bagge from Wise Ram Theatre (a group using theatre to explore the climate crisis in ways which are funny and heartfelt).
There were discussions of how theatre can be a space for play and fun while trying to untangle the mess of the climate emergency.
Theatre is also accessible, only needing a space and an audience to bring people together, communicate ideas and create connections.
Hattie highlighted that simple communication is a creative practice and engaging people on issues is an artform itself.
The discussion also explored how interdisciplinary ideas are becoming more important in education, which is particularly significant for the climate crisis which is a huge web of linked issues.
I then did an Eco-Script writing workshop with Andrew Burton where we generated ideas through questions about emotions – what makes us angry, sad, gives us hope – and then linked these to anecdotes of our own, which was a great exercise in being creatively free with writing.
My final workshop was Eco-Podcasting with Michelle Durant from Chelmsford Community radio, and we interviewed Peter Donaldson (chair of Essex Book festival) about climate and books.
This was a great experience of how immediate and responsive audio journalism can be.
The other workshops included Eco-Performance with Sofia Bagge and Eco-Poetry with Marina Cusi.
I found the event extremely valuable for the discussions it sparked, the community it created and the hope it gives me that action is possible.