Voices of the City: A Collective Performance

This project is inspired by Delaine Le Bas’s exhibition Un-Fair-Ground and the histories she engages with — particularly Roma communities, resistance, and storytelling — as well as Manchester’s own history of political assembly.

📅 Thursday 21 March

⏰ 13:00pm - 14:30pm

📍the Whitworth

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The aim is to create a space where queer communities in Manchester can come together to reflect and respond creatively.

The workshop will begin with a short introduction, where Hḗrā Santos will share some context around Le Bas’s work, particularly Shelley’s The Masque of Anarchy. This is intended to frame ideas of collective assembly and resistance, and to show how moments of people coming together across time, which continues to resonate today.

Participants will create hand-held signs or visual statements responding to contemporary political and social issues affecting queer communities, and the right to protest. These are not intended to be literal protest placards, but rather self-authored responses that can include text, images, symbols, poetry, or a combination of these.

We will finish with a collective moment in the exhibition, which could take the form of a slow procession, a shared stillness, or standing together holding the signs. The intention is not to stage a protest, but to create an embodied gesture of visibility and solidarity.

About the venue

The Whitworth is a venue with level access throughout, and facilities to support you during your visit. Alongside this our visitor team will be on hand to assist you in the gallery. Find out more about planning your visit to the Whitworth and accessibility information for you.

If you’d like to speak to a team member about any access or additional needs, please get in touch with the gallery and we will be happy to assist you. Email whitworth@manchester.ac.uk or telephone 0161 275 7450.

The Whitworth art gallery and gardens is driven by a mission to work with communities to use art for positive social change, and actively addresses what matters most in people’s lives. We are proudly part of The University of Manchester, operating as a convening space between the University and the people of the city.

(Image courtesy of Hḗrā Santos)