On 26th October, we’ll gather at Signing Tree to explore the foundations for ABUELOS and contribute to building a robust strategy. Alongside a series of talks, there will be workshops which you can sign up for OTD. As we say at ART SCHOOL, go where your spirit takes you. If you need to dip in/out throughout the day, that’s welcomed too.

All talks & workshops will be BSL interpreted.

Talks

10am - Introducing ABUELOS

Kicking off the day, we’ll reground back into… What is ABUELOS? What’s the context and lineage behind it? What is ABUELOS trying to address, now and in the future? And how do we make it a reality?

10:30am - Land, Spatial Justice + Reparations

At the foundation of the ABUELOS project, is a spatial justice proposition, to move land out of the private speculation market, into an entity held in perpetuity for Black thrivance. In this panel, we will situate the relationship between land, spatial justice and community by exploring the reparative underpinning and possibilities of Black community stewardship.

Other Speakers/Facilitators:

Connie Bell [Decolonising the Archive]
Connie Bell is one of the founding members for Decolonising The Archive (DTA). She is a Memory Work Practitioner, Cultural Producer and Theatre Director. Her work explores decolonisation, memory as time travel and diasporic narratives. Decolonising the Archive (DTA) is a Pan-African “living” archive based in the United Kingdom, that seeks to facilitate heritage-based therapeutic interventions for people of African heritage rooted in our archives, cultural principles and technologies.

Patricia Noxolo [University of Birmingham]
Pat Noxolo is an award-winning researcher and teacher, whose work brings together the study of international development, culture and in/security, and uses postcolonial, discursive and literary approaches to explore the spatialities of a range of Caribbean and British cultural practices.

11:45am - Climate and Ladywood

Earlier this year, Civic Square and Dark Matter Labs released a new piece of research that seeks to understand the current risks UK urban neighbourhoods face over this century due to climate and ecological breakdown, the likely result of which will be a rise in average global temperature of 3ºC.

For this lightning talk, Civic Square will share what their research means in the context of Ladywood and how we collectively prepare.

LUNCH

1pm - Resituating Cultural Infrastructures  

ABUELOS intends to be part of a growing ecology of infrastructures engaging culture and community as a strategy for transformation.

For this panel, we celebrate precedent organisations and peers from across the country who are resituating the role of culture in this time, away from sector norms, into the making, sharing and preserving of life-affirming culture.

Workshops

10:30am - ABUELOS Architecture: A Community Deep Dive

Join us for an immersive workshop exploring the architectural vision and journey of ABUELOS. MAIA’s Sites of Imagination Lead, Mariam, will lead an interactive workshop in which we get to dive deeper into the concepts, design logics and guiding principles that are shaping the architectural direction.

11:30am - The Peopledem's Skills Audit 

Resisting the scarcity logics that tell us this scale of infrastructure isn’t possible, The Peopledem’s Skills Audit is a participatory space where we crowdsource the existing skills within our community, and explore how we can collectively manifest ABUELOS with the abundance that surrounds us.

Other Speakers/Facilitators:

Steven “Polar Bear” Camden
Steven “Polar Bear” Camden is one of the most respected spoken word artists in the UK. Internationally performing his work since 2007, Camden has graced stages from Kuala Lumpur to California via Glastonbury and The Royal Shakespeare Company. His work has featured on BBC Radio 1, 3 and 6. A published author, Steven has written three Young Adult novels for HarperCollins: Tape, It's About Love, and Nobody Real, and three for Macmillan: My Big Mouth, Summer School and Cyborgs and Stand Up, Ferran Burke. He has written two poetry collections Everything All At Once was published in July 2018 and The Last Chronicle published by Bloomsbury in 2022.

LUNCH

1pm - Disability Justice and Architecture 

Accessibility in architecture is often a cold, functional afterthought. In this workshop with Disordinary Architecture we'll be using a Disability Justice lens to think through what a space built for disabled joy, beauty & equity would truly look like, including what processes, commitments & discussions our architects will need to bring it into reality.

Other Speakers/Facilitators:

Jos Boys [Disordinary Architecture]
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project is a not-for-profit platform that starts from the experiences, expertise and creativity of disabled artists. Led by diverse disabled artists, designers and architects, DisOrdinary Architecture aims to shift paradigms about disability, access and inclusion across built environment and cultural sectors. 

In-person tickets

Join us for at YARD for a panel and screening, as we explore ABUELOS in the context of land and the violence of displacement and dispossession with co-conspirators who are actively organising to preserve and nurture communities and ecoystems in Birmingham and across the UK.

We’re fortunate enough to be joined by Nabil Al-Kinani (Privatise the Mandem), Lynda McFarlane (With Nature in Mind), Kathy Jane Hopkin (Save Birmingham) and researcher + activist, Dr Marco Di Nunzio.

Food and refreshments will be served and after the panel, we’ll join together for a screening of Boyz N The Hood.

Boyz N The Hood follows the lives of three young males living in the Crenshaw neighbourhood of South Central Los Angeles, a place navigating engineered violence by way of its political context. Through their story, the film dissects questions of race, relationships, violence, and future prospects.

This is a ticketed event. Please book soon to avoid disappointment. If you have any questions or if there are ways we can support you to attend more comfortably, please reach out to programme@maiagroup.co

This event will be BSL interpreted. Read more about Access at YARD

In-person tickets

Virtual tickets

Join us for at YARD for a community film night featuring two thought-provoking short films that explore the intersection of Black life, self-determination and space, from the perspective of housing.

This event will be BSL interpreted. Read more about Access at YARD

Film screenings

These films offer different ways of thinking about the precarity of Black space:

Bathsheba (2024)
Written and Directed by Myah Asha Jeffers
Running time: 15m

Living as a precarious property guardian and facing eviction, a grieving widow is forced to live with a younger woman. Little does she know, the new tenant holds the key for her to move on.

Tomorrow is Built Today
Directed by Tim Oshodi
Running time: 23m

A film telling the story of Fusions Jameen, a Black-led co-operative that built their own houses across South London.

Tickets

This is a ticketed event. Please book soon to avoid disappointment. If you have any questions or if there are ways we can support you to attend more comfortably, please reach out to programme@maiagroup.co

In-person tickets

Virtual tickets