Speakers Corner
Speakers Corner was established in 2016. It was a collective of girls and young women, predominantly from South Asian backgrounds
Speakers Corner was led by the young people, giving them autonomy on the subject of the campaigns and the form they took.
It ran as weekly sessions culminating in personal and public campaigns to instigate change on subjects that mattered to the collective, including mental health, body image, bridging generational gaps and international activism.
Key projects included:
Peaceophobia
A car rally to protest against the rise of islamophobia across the world and more locally the racial profiling of drivers in Bradford. The teenagers of Speakers Corner worked with the Bradford Modified Car Club, 25 cars formed a circle outside City Hall, drivers and teenagers spoke of their experiences of Islamophobia, how the word Islam means Peace, and the day finished with a big mass paint fight. Members of Speakers Corner went on to co-direct the performance project, Peaceophobia, which has now toured to 12 cities in the UK.
Sisterhood Exhibition
Speakers Corner collaborated with photographer Vivek Vadoliya and creative director/stylist Neesha Champaneria to create a series of photographs, exhibited outdoors, which were a celebration of femininity, pride and collective strength. The exhibition was part of Bradford’s Art in the Park series and was displayed at Lister Park in summer 2021, and went on to tour with Peaceophobia to cities across the UK. Sisterhood was covered by Vogue and Dazed magazines and was featured in the British Journal of Photography.
Fly Kites Not Drones
We linked with the Afghan Peace Activist campaign Fly Kites Not Drones to fly kites in Bradford City Park to raise awareness about drone attacks. We were joined by lots of families and two groups of boys from Afghanistan who shared their kite knowledge with us.
Take Your Place
An international live skype collaboration with Chicago based youth theatre, Albany Park Theatre Project, which looked at how it felt for young people to inherit major political shifts that they didn’t vote for (Trump in America and Brexit in the UK). Devised by Common/Wealth and APTP in Chicago with live skype conversation and performances from young people at Speakers Corner in Bradford.
Remember Kunan Poshpora
Following our International Activism session with speakers from Kashmir and the Congo, focusing on rape as a weapon of war, Speakers Corner felt it important to take action. To remember the rape of 90 women in the village of Kunan Poshpora in Kashmir by Indian soldiers in 1991 we held our first protest in 2017 and later held panel discussions and further protests to mark the anniversary.
Speakers Corner ran until spring 2025 when we decided to pause for a short break. Our plan is to re-launch it as several major public campaigns per year that we recruit participants for specifically.
We will share more information on this page and on socials when we re-launch, but should you have any questions in the meantime, please contact us via [email protected]
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