LeftLion March 2024 Issue 169

Credits

HustALer Alan Gilby (alan.gilby@leftlion.co.uk)

Head Designer Natalie Owen (natalie.owen@leftlion.co.uk)

Music Co-Editor Gemma Cockrell (gemma.cockrell@leftlion. co.uk)

Stage Co-Editor Ian C. Douglas (ian@leftlion.co.uk)

Community Editor Rose Mason (community@leftlion.co.uk)

Literature Editor Andrew Tucker (literature@leftlion.co.uk)

Editor-in-Chief Jared Wilson (jared.wilson@leftlion.co.uk)

Partnerships Manager Adam Pickering (adam.pickering@leftlion.co.uk)

Music Editor Maddie Dinnage (music@leftlion.co.uk)

Stage Co-Editor Dom Henry (dom.henry@leftlion.co.uk)

Food Editor Julia Head (food@leftlion.co.uk)

Photography Co-Editor Dani Bacon (photography@leftlion.co.uk)

Environment Editor Eleanor Flowerday (environment@leftlion.co.uk)

Cover Charlotte Thomson-Morley

Editorial Interns

Freddie Stringer

Louis Clevett

Alfie Beswick

Writers

Sofia Jones

Nadia Whittome

Sarah Manton

Annie Warren

Richard Minkley

Faye Stacey

Phil Taylor

Claire Jones

adVertise WitH us

Karl Blakesley

Cathy Symes

Jennifer Brough

Helene Laanest

Beth Green

Dani Bacon

Rachel Imms

Finbar Ansbe

Photographers

Phoebe Fox

Declan Creffield

Peter Grimes

George Brumpton

Laura Mitchell

Peter Taylor

Samuel Tucker

Would you like to advertise your business or event in LeftLion? Email partner@leftlion.co.uk to discuss available options.

Editor Sophie Gargett (sophie.gargett@leftlion.co.uk)

Web Developer Tom Errington (tom.errington@leftlion.co.uk)

Fashion Editor Addie Kenogbon (fashion@leftlion.co.uk)

Screen Editor Oliver Parker (oliver.parker@leftlion.co.uk)

Photography Co-Editor Fabrice Gagos (photography@leftlion.co.uk)

Art Editor George Dunbar (art@leftlion.co.uk)

Distribution Dom Martinovs

Perm Ghattaura

Simon Ferrigan

Beth Green

Mateusz Majewski

Acoustica Photography

Here to There Productions

Illustrators

Kate Wand

Zarina Teli

Zhara Millett

Tanya Chulkova

Matt Cole

Tracey Meek

Sally Taylor

Christine Dilks

Featured Contributor

Andrew Tucker

Andrew Tucker is a freelance writer from Beeston who’s currently studying English and Creative Writing at UoN. He once moved to London and tried to make it in a band, but unhelpfully the rest of the band did not move with him.

Back on home turf, Andrew joined the team at Notts’ yearly Young Creative Awards - you can read about how, when and why to enter these on page 24. A fan of puzzling local history, he’s also a trustee at the two-hundred-year-old Bromley House Library. Last summer Andrew started editing LeftLion’s Literature section, and now most of his monthly expenditure seems to go on bookmarks.

In his spare time he enjoys narrowly escaping Heavy Goods Vehicles on his bike, forgetting his keys, and writing about himself in the third person.

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Nottingham Her-story

From comedians and athletes to activists and artists, there’s a diverse number of inspiring women from Notts. We present twenty from our ever-growing list…

Yard Activity

Sisters of Sound

DJ Sonia Hawkes, AKA Stiff Kittens, has a new allfemale DJ collective. We caught up to talk about Notts nightlife on the other side of the decks and where to buy vinyl in Notts

They’re class! They’re top! They’re Yard Act and they’re coming to Rock City this month! We had a chat to find out about their rise to fame and that Elton John collab

Boat Life

From the serenity of sailing to sorting the sewage, we asked a canal boat owner to give us the scoop on life on the water

Raw Talent

We catch up with previous winners of Nottingham’s Young Creative Awards, including musician Serena Jasmine, photographer Luke Brennan and illustrator Kate Wand

The Ready Room

Reclaiming the neglected stories of Black women in science and mythology, Lenton gallery Primary hosts Sonya Dyer’s speculative installation where hard science meets science fiction

Damn Good Read

Dragons in bow-ties and faraway worlds are just a few elements of Frances White’s ‘magical gay murder-mystery’ novel Voyage of the Damned

In the words of Irish podcaster Blindboy, January and February have the same energy as the last people sitting up at 4am at a house party. I rather agree, they are the most dull company, and they seem to take forever to depart.

Gladly, they’ve finally shuffled off, and now March is here we’re seeing lighter evenings, sprouting snowdrops and the promise of spring. If you’ve yet to consider some resolutions for the year, I hope you can take some of the vim from the air to help you get motivated.

This month we’re celebrating International Women’s Day on 8 March and the Vernal Equinox on March 20. Inspired by this, the wonderful Charlotte Thomson-Morley has whipped up some beautiful Maid Marian themed cover art for us. I always adore how the topics in LeftLion somehow weave into each other every month, not to mention the exceptional illustrations we receive from local artists. Big thanks to all of you

Cosmic Rays

Within intricately layered large-scale collages, Martin Rayment whips imagined worlds onto canvas. We sat down to chat about his creative process, merging music and art, and staying curious as an artist

Baring the Soul

One of Nottingham’s best-loved live performers, Rob Green talks music, mental health, and masculinity

Let’s Paint Tit

Creating a diverse community on and offline, feminist artist Di Ali-Arab reclaims feminine sexuality via cheeky images with powerful messaging

Bringing up (tree) Babies

Fancy looking after some sapling trees? Local project Canopy 2050 has already created 500 mini nurseries across Nottingham gardens and allotments

Marian Re-Maid

Think you know the story of Robin Hood’s beau? Think again. We delve deep into the myth of Maid Marian and her many guises

Truth or Legend

St Ann’s was once home to a medicinal spring. Were the waters truly magical or was it merely a meeting spot of old? We take a dip into this local legend…

talented creatives! (Don’t forget, if you sign up to our Patreon you receive each LeftLion cover as a poster each month - plug!)

Over on page 12 we’ve gathered a list of some of our favourite women in Notts (and of course it is a list that can only grow!), while on page 14 we’ve spoken to Sonia Hawkes, all round lovely lady and DJ extraordinaire, about spinning records and DJ life. I also very much enjoyed learning about life on a long boat on page 18, and finding out about local tree planting initiative Canopy 2050, which you can find in our Environment section on page 35.

Now you have a copy of this humble local rag in your hands, I think that’s an excellent excuse to get yourself a nice tipple, put your feet up and absorb some of the wonderful things happening around Notts.

It's

Being naked just makes things easier

Person 1: 'The doctor said to put olive oil in that ear. Turns out it was chilli oil.'

Person 2: 'Bet that hurt.'

Person 1: 'What?'

Yeh, she left her own dad on the roof for about 5 hours

Chickens love likespaghetti.Itlooks worms 'Oh, I didn't know! When did he die?’ 'Just before the funeral.’

Did you know there are 37 trams? I don't know how I know that

For ages i thought it was called *pizza me, sue* and correctedno-oneme

Pick Six

For this month’s pick we turned to Vice President of Nottingham City Women’s Institute, studio owner at Sneinton Markets Curious? and all round creative queen Sarah Manton.

I'm not sitting on anyone's face. I'd rather have a bag of chips. Mum to small child: ‘Can tell you’re my kid when ya Wetherspoonschoosingover McDonalds.’ School kid to her friend: ‘We’re twins because we have the same uniform’

Song - Purple Rain by Prince

I was fourteen years old when Purple Rain was released. I absorbed the album cover artwork (and painted it onto my dressing table), I learned every lyric of the entire album and lying in the dark, immersed myself in Prince’s incomparable guitar skills. It’s where a lifelong love story began and anyone who knows me knows that Prince is still my co-pilot today.

Film - Withnail & I

The most quotable film of all time. Although I was quite late to the Withnail party (I watched it on a regular loop with my beautiful friend, Mel from 1998 onwards), Mel and I actually attended the red carpet ‘celebrity premiere’ at Leicester Square Odeon in February 2000. I have found myself some splendid friends over the years, when a familiar line is used and an instant bond is formed between strangers. I give you ‘I’m not from London!’

Notts Spot - Rock City

Music is everything and Rock City is the main reason I settled in Nottingham from my hometown of Melton Mowbray over twenty years ago. A myriad of huge nights out dancing and singing at the top of our lungs, so many amazing gigs with the best of friends on the stickiest of floors and of course it is the spiritual home of my girl gang, the Rampant Rock Bitches. The Darkness at Rock City was our first gig after being locked down. I was terrified to be in a crowd after so long trying to avoid each other. It seems unreal now, but I cried tears of absolute joy and relief to be back in the crowd, hands above our heads, grinning from ear to ear. Nottingham, Rock City. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Meal – Kushi-Ya

It was my birthday on Valentine’s Day. Not the easiest day of the year to orchestrate a lovely meal out with the family, but my son, Tom and his girlfriend, Kaća, managed to bag us a table at one of my absolute favourites, Kushi-Ya. Oh my Lawd, the Furikake Prawn Toast! The Tofu Tsukune! That Pickle Plate! Utterly delicious and not a sniff of a cynical romance-tax price-hike. Love you and your work, Kushi-Ya friends.

Book – How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran

Books that make me fall in love with their characters, fully invest myself in their fate and page-turn until 2am are my absolute favourites. Caitlin Moran is a hero of mine. She’s funny, brave and I enjoy ‘hearing’ her voice when she writes. I am essentially still seventeen in my heart and the twists and turns of How to Build a Girl brings back all of those gut-wrenching, headspinning, mortifying moments of wading in out of your depth in your pursuit of ‘adulthood’. The ‘just out of reach’ yearning – argh! I laughed. I cried. I even enjoyed the film version.

Holiday Destination – Ghent Belgium?! No-one expects you to pick Belgium as a holiday destination, but I absolutely love it and in particular, I love Ghent! Ghent was brave enough to become a car-free city, with an efficient tram, bus and park and ride system. The retail shops are closed for three Sundays of the month to give the staff time off and instead there are independent artisan markets in all of the squares and empty buildings. There are trees everywhere and in particular oak trees surrounding the city squares. Ghent’s heritage is in lace making, it has a castle, a river running through it, Belgian chocolate, Belgian beer, AND it’s twinned with Nottingham –we could learn so much from Ghent and I’ll throw my hat into the ring here and happily offer to lead a research visit!

Nottingham’s most opinionated grocers on...

International Women’s Day

There are a lot of inspirational women from Nottingham we can think of, our mother and sisters for starters. But if we had to pick someone in the public eye it would be Dame Stella Rimington. She was a student at Nottingham Girls High and went on to be head of MI5 for a long time. They modelled Judi Dench’s portrayal of M on her in the Bond films. She was completely fantastic.

Warhammer

We’ve seen a bit of this about, but never really played it. Our brother-in-law has lots of the figures in his house. Is it all based locally then? How fantastic! We’ve driven past the Games Workshop offices in Lenton and seen an Aston Martin in the car park so they must be doing okay out of it. We’ll have to give it a go sometime. Maybe we can stick that Martika song Toy Soldiers on repeat in the background while we are playing.

Upcoming Gigs

We bought some gig tickets recently that we’re quite excited about. We’re going to see Alice Cooper in October, although we had to settle for Birmingham as there’s no Nottingham date. We also got tickets to see the Torvill and Dean farewell tour at Nottingham Arena next year. It will be amazing to see them one more time. It’s forty years since they did the Bolero this year, you know.

Seeing someone reading a book you love is seeing a book recommending a person.

words: Dani Bacon

UNDERCOVER ARTIST

Our wonderful cover art this month is by Charlotte Thomson-Morley, a South Notts illustrator and printmaker who makes work based around folklore and Paganism. We sat down with Charlotte to ask about her ideas, inspiration and other work.

What was the inspiration behind the cover?

I wanted to depict our local heroine Maid Marian in a positive and powerful light and also feature some local wildlife that you will see this time of year. I’m inspired by Art Nouveau, psychedelic rock posters and (although this piece is digital) using limited colours and layers the way I do when I’m doing practical lino printmaking.

How does it compare with other projects you’ve worked on?

I’ve had a lot of creative freedom which is wonderful, I love making work for LeftLion.

What was the biggest challenge that you faced in creating the piece?

The dimensions of a LeftLion cover are a little different

to a standard A-size so allowing room for the logo but still making the design balanced can be challenging, also choosing colours that will work well on newsprint paper.

Tell us about some projects you’ve worked on in the past…

I’ve been an illustrator for nineteen years. I create a lot of book covers, posters for bands and also have my own range of prints, postcards and other gifty bits that I sell at local creators markets and on Etsy.

What have you got planned for the future?

I’ll be exhibiting during Nottingham Open Studios month on 25 and 26 May. I’m developing my lino and intaglio printmaking and developing more digital artwork in this style. I’m working on a pagan Wheel of the Year series and busy working with small business clients.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell the LeftLion readers?

We’re all part of an amazing creative city and county, share the love with your local creative friends, we can all lift each other up.

charlottethomsonart.etsy.com

Q

Nadia on...

the recession

words: Nadia Whittome photo: Fabrice Gagos

On 15 February, we woke up to the news that the UK economy officially entered a recession.

“What, only now?”, might have been your reaction. You’d be entirely forgiven for thinking that we’ve been in recession for at least the past two years. After all, most of us have been feeling noticeably poorer. In fact, we’ve experienced the fastest decline in living standards since records began.

So why is the announcement only coming now? That’s just because the technical definition relies on the simple and imperfect measure that is Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - the value of all goods and services produced in the country. If it goes down for two quarters of a year in a row, a recession is declared. However, that figure alone doesn’t take into account some crucial factors - the most obvious one being population. When we look at GDP per person, it turns out that the UK had already been getting poorer since early 2022.

Neither does it reflect the fact that the downturn hasn’t been felt by everyone equally. For example, while millions were skipping meals to pay their bills, energy companies were announcing record profits. We recently learned that British Gas’ profits increased more than ten times in a year. No recession for them, then.

What caused this turmoil? It’s convenient for those in power to blame unexpected global events. Undeniably, the UK government didn’t cause the Covid pandemic or the energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it did have the power to influence how well or badly we coped. Liz Truss’ infamous mini-budget, which sent the pound into freefall, wasn’t some natural disaster. Neither was the government’s handling of Brexit, which has also done us no favours. For all his talk about growth, Rishi Sunak has offered no real solutions, preferring to focus on attacking refugees and trans people instead.

But it’s not just the past couple of years that have felt

like a never-ending crisis. I was eleven years old when the financial crash happened, and since then there’s not been a moment when the economy seemed to be in a good state. The recession of the late 2000s was followed by brutal austerity. Benefits were cut, public sector pay was frozen; youth centres, sure start centres and libraries shut down one by one. Rough sleeping, demand for food banks and NHS waiting times all soared. The dire state of healthcare and other services made us less prepared for emergencies like Covid.

Undeniably, the UK government didn’t cause the Covid pandemic or the energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it did have the power to influence how well or badly we coped

The government promised that a few years of pain would result in growth and prosperity, but this never materialised. In fact, the average worker’s pay is today worth £12 a week less than in 2008, when I was just out of primary school. The strategy clearly hasn’t worked.

So how do we stop this endless cycle of crisis and misery? The answer might seem counterintuitive, but many economists agree: we need more government spending.

Conservative politicians like to compare managing public finances to setting a household budget: you shouldn't spend more than you have, or you’ll be in trouble. But that’s just not how a national economy works.

If you have a stable job, you usually know exactly how much money you’ll be bringing home the next month. For a government, that’s less obvious: how much it’s able to raise in tax depends on how much people earn - a figure that can go up or down, depending on its actions. A

government also has more flexibility: it can print money, raise taxes or borrow to invest - and if it spends well today, it could well have more funds available tomorrow.

Let me give just a few examples. Properly funding the NHS would mean more people with long-term health conditions being able to return to work (it’s no coincidence that we have record waiting lists for treatment, and record numbers of people out of work due to illness, at the same time). Guaranteeing genuinely free childcare would allow more parents and carers, especially women, to get back to the workplace if they choose to. Investing in publicly owned, cheap renewable energy; building infrastructure like good quality public transport, and insulating buildings would bring down costs for individuals and companies while creating well-paid green jobs up and down the country. We’d all benefit as a result.

Another myth that the Tories want us to believe is that the way to boost growth is to cut taxes for the rich. In fact, the opposite is true. When ordinary people are better-off, they spend more: in shops and restaurants, on the arts, hobbies, travel or learning new skills, which in turn supports jobs. Handouts for the wealthiest, who can afford these things already, don’t work the same way. Instead, any extra money is more likely to be stored in savings accounts, used to buy up properties or disappear in tax havens. That’s why redistributing wealth from the top to the majority is not just the fair thing to do: it makes economic sense too.

Personally, I’m tired of living through crisis after crisis, constantly hearing that working class people must tighten their belts for the sake of a prosperous future that never comes. It’s time to stop this vicious circle and do what Clement Attlee successfully did after World War II: invest in a recovery and improve the lives of the many.

nadiawhittome.org

Notts Her-story

Our fair city has been home to some spectacular women in its time, from comedians and performers to activists and artists. To celebrate International Women's Day we thought we’d round up some of the fabulous ladies who have made us proud and continue to inspire…

Helen Watts

A key figure in establishing the Nottingham branch of the Suffragette movement, Helen Watts was born in 1881 and moved to Nottingham at age twelve. Despite being from a comfortable middle class family, Watts was inspired to join the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) after hearing Christabel Pankhurst speak. Following her involvement with a demonstration outside the House of Commons, she was imprisoned for a time, but was not deterred from the cause of women’s suffrage. "Votes for women will not be won by drawingroom chatter,” Watts said. “It has got to be fought for in the market-places, and if we don't fight for it, no one else will."

Rebecca Adlington OBE

Born in Mansfield, Rebecca Adlington started swimming with Sherwood Colliery Swimming Club. She was selected for the Nottinghamshire County Elite Squad and swam in local swimming leagues for Nottingham Leander Swimming Club, before representing Great Britain in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where she was the first woman to win swimming gold for Great Britain since 1960 and the first British swimmer to win more than one gold medal at a single Olympic Games since 1908. Adlington's great-uncle was Terry Adlington, former goalkeeper with Derby County and she is a keen Derby supporter, but nobody’s perfect…

Dame Laura Knight

From growing up in a struggling home to becoming a Dame at age 52, Laura Knight’s career contained much of the classic trials and tribulations of an artist. After developing her skills as a painter at the Nottingham School of Art, Knight went on to paint ballet dancers, poor communities, Romani people, circus performers and other outsiders, whom she often befriended too. She was later appointed as an artist at the Nuremberg war crimes trials. She died at age 92, just days before a retrospective exhibition of her work at Nottingham Castle Art Gallery and Museum.

Maid Marian

Most people have grown up knowing the name of Robin Hood’s beloved, but the story of Maid Marian goes much deeper than damsel in distress. Rooted in mythology and folklore, Marian’s character has been developed and dismantled to suit the times, moving from symbol of fertility and strength to dainty lady in peril. Check out a deep dive into this curious figure on page 36!

Veronica Pickering

With such a lengthy list of accolades to her name, Kenyan born Notts resident Veronica Pickering has crafted a mighty fruitful life so far. Working in the public sector for over 25 years in social work and child protection, she is currently an Executive Coach who champions diverse communities, whilst also acting as Nottinghamshire’s first Black female High Sheriff. A trustee of the RSPB and Nottinghamshire YMCA, and ambassador for The Woodland Trust and UK RAF Museums, to top it off this year she has been appointed LordLieutenant for Nottinghamshire.

Vicky McClure MBE

Best known for her roles as DI Kate Fleming in the BBC series Line of Duty (2012–2021) and Lol Jenkins in Shane Meadows' film This Is England (2006), Vicky McClure is one of many successful actors to come through Nottingham’s renowned Television Workshop, mentored by another fellow woman on this list, Samantha Morton. Most recently, you may have caught her on ITV’s Trigger Point, or if you’re an avid festival-goer, on the stage of Splendour in 2023 with Our Dementia Choir.

Florence Boot

The name Jesse Boot is of course eponymous with Nottingham, but throughout his career his wife Florence was also instrumental in expanding the popularity of the now worldwide brand. Along with designing the interior of Boots store on Pelham Street, she introduced stationery, books, artists' materials, gifts and in store cafes at Boots stores, along with considering employee welfare with clubs and schools to promote learning.

Paris Lees

One of the UKs leading voices in the LGBTQI+ community, Paris Lees is an author, journalist, presenter and campaigner. Originally from Hucknall, she experienced intense bullying growing up due to being gender nonconforming. Lees began transitioning when she moved to university to study English, before going on to pursue journalism. She became the first transgender Vogue columnist and cover star in 2018. Her memoir What It Feels Like For A Girl (2022) is now set to become a BBC TV drama.

Emily Campbell

Bulwell native Emily Campbell made sporting history at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics (held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic) when she won the first ever British Olympic medal for female weightlifting, winning a Silver medal while competing in the +87 kg category - all while being vocal about the injustices and racial barriers that Black athletes face, as well as getting involved in a lot of important conversations about body positivity and inclusivity in the fitness world. More recently, in 2023, she confirmed a hat-trick of three successive European titles.

Ada Lovelace

Overshadowed by her debauched poet father Lord Byron for well over a century, Ada Lovelace’s work has only begun to be appreciated in recent years. As a mathematician, she worked alongside Charles Babbage on The Analytical Engine, which provided the first examples of a computer memory and processor during the 1830s, and she is now recognised as an integral figure in computer programming and women in STEM. She was buried, at her request, next to her father at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall.

Charity Shop Sue

The Nottingham-based character who navigates the peculiarities and challenges of the retail environment with her humour and wit. She brings the quirks of charity shop culture while showcasing themes of generosity, community and the importance of giving back. Filmed in Bulwell in 2019, it received praise from The Guardian for being ‘bleak, relatable and so funny’. Since then, Sue has become an internet legend and DJ.

Dr Rose Thompson

Rose’s journey to becoming a significant figure in BME cancer services began after she lost her mother and two sisters to cancer at a young age. Becoming a radiotherapist, then radiographer at superintendent grade, she later became director of B’Me Against Cancer Charity, bringing a wealth of both professional and personal experience to patients. Rose sadly passed away in June 2023, leaving a huge legacy in the community.

Rastarella

Rastarella is a world music event producer, an empowerment speaker and a host on Nottingham’s urban radio station, 97.5 Kemet FM. Launching her signature event Cultural Vibrations in 2009 at Hockley Hustle and founding the Nottingham Global Roots Festival in 2015, this year marks her fifteenth year in business, a massive milestone as a grassroots promoter who is consistently showcasing music from around the world at numerous venues, events and festivals.

Jayne Torvill OBE

Born in Clifton, Jayne Torvill is most known for her free programme at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics with her skating partner Christopher Dean, performed to the music of Maurice Ravel's Boléro, for which they received twelve perfect 6.0 marks. Of course, this is the namesake of Lace Market’s Bolero Square, where you can find Nottingham’s National Ice Centre and Motorpoint Arena. This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the legendary Olympic performance, so it is definitely worth a revisit on YouTube if you need a reminder of just how spectacular it was.

Su Pollard

Born in Hyson Green, actress and singer Su Pollard has been a household name in the UK for over forty years. Best known for her role in the classic eighties sitcom Hi-de-hi!, she’s also written books, starred in countless stage shows and pantomimes, had a number two single in 1986 with the song Starting Together and in 1995 became the face of the National Egg Awareness Campaign.

Samantha Morton

Known for her work in independent cinema, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. After spending her childhood in and out of foster care and children's homes, joining the Television Workshop when she was thirteen years old. Her early film roles include Emma (1996), Jane Eyre (1997), and Under the Skin (1997), with more recent appearances in Harlots (2017–2019), The Walking Dead (2019–2020) and The Serpent Queen (2022–present).

Mary Earps MBE

Winner of the 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, Mary Earps is best known for being the goalkeeper of England women’s national football team, where she was named England Women's Player of the Year for the 2022–23 season. During the World Cup that same year, she played every minute of all seven matches, conceding just four goals and keeping three clean sheets. This resulted in her being awarded the Golden Glove for the tournament. If you haven’t seen it already, go and check out the mural created by Art of Football near the canal and Nottingham Station.

Ellie Downie MBE and Becky Downie

With a wealth of awards between them, these two sisters are Nottingham’s gymnast extraordinaires, competing in numerous world sporting events for the UK teams. Ellie was awarded BBC Young Sports Personality Of The Year in 2015, before going on to become the all-around European gymnastics champion in 2017. Meanwhile, older sister Becky competed in the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and Rio in 2016. The pair were both appointed MBEs in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to the sport of gymnastics.

Alice Levine

Alice Levine is an esteemed radio and television presenter, who has won numerous awards and is one of the most sought after voices in broadcasting today. She has featured in Neighbours (2014) British Scandal (2021) and Kevin McCloud’s Rough Guide to the Future (2020). Her ability to balance wit and warmth with a sophisticated journalistic tone has made her the first choice for hosting duties at the likes of The Mercury Prize, The BRITs and the BAFTA awards.

Of course this is an ever-growing list, and there are many names we didn’t have space to mention! Head to our website to read about more wonderful local ladies, including Margaret Humphreys, Stella Rimington, and Alice Zimmern.

illustration: Tanya Chulkova

Sonia Hawkes has been spinning records under the name Stiff Kittens for many years, playing at places like The Angel, The Bodega and Malt Cross. Now she’s joined forces with a host of other female DJs to create the Sisters of Sound collective. We caught up with Sonia ahead of the SoS International Women’s Day event to talk about life on the other side of the decks, buying vinyl, and how she organises her huge record collection.

Can you tell us what originally got you into DJing?

It’s quite funny… I used to do the school discos with my friends because we were all into indie and alternative music and that was the only way to hear it I guess. That’s when the vinyl collecting began and I still have a lot of those records now and love playing them.

A few years later I got into dance music and raves, but when they introduced the Criminal Justice Bill some sound systems had to start club nights. I luckily found myself DJing at some of these around the Midlands and ended up co-running our own night The Experience which we later brought over to Nottingham, putting on events at The Marcus Garvey and Deluxe. That was it… I was hooked again!

What do you notice about the Nottingham nightlife scene from the other side of the decks?

I think the nightlife scene in our city is very exciting, it seems a lot of folks are collaborating and putting on a real mix of events. That’s one reason I was so happy when I first moved to Nottingham, all the different sound systems doing parties together, it was fantastic!

Also the positive reaction from other women when they see a female DJ, I believe it’s encouraging and refreshing for them to see. Also from blokes too, the last few years receiving much more positive recognition, it’s very refreshing! Always get lots of smiles!

Tell us a little about your collective Sisters of Sound… Wow, yes!! I’m really so happy that this all came together! I met up with my dear friend and fellow vinyl DJ, the super lovely Sue, known as Starstruck, a few years ago at Broadway. I was stoked when she suggested we should join up and see if there’s any other female DJs who fancied setting up a female vinyl DJ collective! I’d already thought up the name Sisters of Sound a while ago thinking about sound engineers as that’s my other profession, but it didn't materialise. So it seemed like serendipity for us!

There’s five of us…Tess, Cherry, Sue, Kat and me! We have all found each other by chance from going to gigs around the city and

realising we all love the same thing… playing records! With such a diverse taste in music it’s just perfect and we are so happy to have our long running residency at The Bodega, playing 6-10pm every first Saturday. We also have a special International Women's Day event there on Friday 8 March from 6pm till 3am, what a bonanza!

I only buy vinyl from record shops. The atmosphere and knowledge are so much better than a screen for me!

The ever important question - why vinyl? There are many reasons why I choose and love vinyl… I have got so many records that I’ve collected over time that to replace them all would be very expensive and time consuming. But that’s not the most important reason. Vinyl delivers a far more accurate representation of the recording as its analogue and not a sampled waveform. If you buy records the artists are far more likely to benefit financially over downloads or copying, so they’ll be able to afford to create more. The artwork is a really special element, just as important creatively as the recording. As they’re instant access and visible you can actually read the grooves and see where the breakdowns are, so even if you don’t really know the recording you can see the structure. I’ve done sets using vinyl I’ve never heard before and been able to see where to mix in or out, something I taught students to do when I taught DJ skills.

Do you know how many records you own and what is your preferred way to organise them at home?

Oooh that’s a good question! I think I must have a few thousand and that’s just the albums and twelve inches. If I think about all the singles as well, I reckon I must have a few hundred of these too! I always organise by genre as I do lots of different gigs and so when I’m planning for these I know exactly which section of my collection to go through. Also I have a lot of white label 12” of which I don’t know the name or it’s limited info on the sticker so impossible to alphabetically organise them.

What are your favourite places in Nottingham to buy records?

I’m really into finding random vinyl at Rob’s Records, and I’ve now started collecting cassettes which I’ve noticed he’s started selling! Got to say Rough Trade is phenomenal for pretty much everything… I’ve got really into buying film soundtracks recently and was over the moon to find Stranger Things there the other week!

There’s a really cool new shop called Fac1968 that’s opened on St James Street. I've been visiting and finding some classic singles and they are very well priced too! Sometimes it’s not just about the vinyl but also the shop… this is definitely one of those places! In fact, this is why I only buy vinyl from record shops. The atmosphere and knowledge are so much better than a screen for me!

It’s early doors, the bar is filling up but people are glued to their seats, what track do you put on to fill the dancefloor?

Well this kind of depends on the venue as I play different vinyl in different places. However, I’ve got an amazing remix of Beastie Boys ‘Ch Ch Check It Out’, which is an absolute belter! I’ve also got a few releases on the Disco Deviance label, that always goes down a treat!

Tell us about your International Women's Day event and what else you have coming up! Fantastic yes… we have a bonanza going on at the fabulous Bodega, we normally do an early evening set but for this occasion we’re rolling from 6pm till 3am, in the downstairs bar. We have got Cherry Fuzz, Kat Among The Pigeons and Starstruck playing 6-10pm, then me and Starstruck till close, with more tbc.

There is more future fun ahead as we have been asked to be part of a special woman only night entitled ‘Cyndi Says Relax’ at The Malt Cross, with an idea to create a venue that’s a safe space for women with inclusion of non-binary and trans communities.

Head down to the Sisters of Sound International Women's Day event at The Bodega on Friday 8 March from 6pm till 3am

E @SistersOfSoundFemaleDJcollective Q stiffkittensdjs

interview: Sophie Gargett photo: Sonia Hawkes

Yard Activity

They’re ace, top, mint, boss - they’re Yard Act! Ahead of their forthcoming return to Rock City, we spoke to bassist Ryan Needham and discussed blowing up, working with Elton John and the new album Where’s

Since I first had the pleasure of discovering Yard Act around 2021 it seems like you’ve exploded in terms of fame. What's the past few years been like?

When we started in 2021, we hit it hard with touring and everything that comes along with it. We’d all been in bands before, but they had a year or two lifespan, so we were taking it seriously, but it was a heady abandon and we kind of just said yes to everything. And then we quickly ran out of steam and we pulled it back in. And then the lockdowns just kind of weathered the storm.

It was kind of odd, just one outlandish thing after the other kept happening. The Elton John phone call and you've been offered this and that. It was kind of wild. I mean, it's easy to forget what the world felt like at that time as well.

When we got to the middle of 2023, as we got into the second album, that was when we had a chance to take stock and look back, because you can't really do that when you're in the middle of it. It just kind of feels like just let's just get through this next few days. But it’s been great.

Speaking of Elton John, how did that collab come about? He played one of our songs on his Apple radio show, and James responded. And then we had to do a cover for something and we thought we know Elton’s a fan, let's do Tiny Dancer for a laugh. Then he obviously somehow heard of that and got James’ phone number one day and he thought it was someone winding him up, but they’ve kept in touch. When we went in the studio with him he was doing his final tour, but now I feel like he just can’t stop and he wants to make weird prog records and collaborate with people, and we said yeah sign us up for that man. In terms of the new album, I feel like it's got a bit of a

party while the ship goes down to it. You've had loads of fun with the videos as well. So like what's changed with all of that new stuff?

James’ lyrics went a bit more internal. He was basically describing our experience over the last couple years, which did often feel like the ship’s going down. But yeah, I think he just got to a point where it's like I'm clearly writing about my experience here. So he kind of lifted the curtain on a few abstract things and I think he just found confidence to make it a bit more of a personal record really.

It’s deep. I think even though it’s personal there's a lot of universal themes. Yeah, and it's still got the humour and the party vibes. It's a classic thing that bands like Belle & Sebastian or The Smiths do so well, like slightly miserable lyrics over banging songs.

we were taking it seriously, but it was a heady abandon and we kind of just said yes to everything

There’s some sampling and some new voices on the record, can you talk a bit about that?

Yeah, on the first song there’s an announcement, that is a sample we paid for, but then for the rest of them we recreated them ourselves with comedians. We kind of just rang some mates up. So Nish Kumar does a bit that sounds like someone from the 1920s. Rose Matafeo is on there - she was in our last video - she does a song at the end of Down by the Spring. The sort of Shakespeare parts that sound like old weird vampire stuff, that’s all David Thewlis. So we really had fun making all that stuff.

My Utopia?

You’ve gone from playing places like The Bodega at Dot to Dot to festival main stages and now Rock City. Do you have a preference, and do you worry about going too big? We still have a bit of a measure of both at the minute. I’m a big fan of The Strokes, and seeing them play new stuff, you can tell that kind of space and that size of stage influences the way they write. That first Strokes album, for example, has that small dingy club vibe.

I'd love to play those stages but on our terms and not have to do the anthemic rock thing. I don’t think we’ve got it in us. But someone like Pulp occupy that space well. Obviously they’ve got a huge legacy behind them, but they used to write about bedsits and that kind of thing.

It's just a lot more comfortable. Especially, since I’m 43 now, doing like 250 shows a year, it's kind of nice to have a bit more space, backstage showers, all that kind of stuff. Makes your job a little bit easier to do. But when you play somewhere like Bodega and you turn up, get plugged in and play. You can't get that feeling on a big stage.

So the new album Where’s My Utopia? is released on 1 March and you’ll be playing at Rock City a few weeks later. What else do you have coming up?

Rock City I’m really looking forward to. I’m from Derby originally, so I went to loads of gigs in Nottingham as a kid. In the mid 2000s I saw The Strokes there, Queens of the Stone Age, Interpol, some of the NME tours. I actually saw The White Stripes at The Bodega when it was called The Social, and they were just breaking, so that was pretty wild.

Yard Act play Rock City on Thursday 14 March 2024.

Q @yardactband

interview: Sophie Gargett photo: Phoebe Fox

BOAT LIFE

Living on a canal boat is a dream of many, but what is life on the water really like? We asked a local liveaboard to give us a run down of a day in their life. From the serenity of sailing to sorting the sewage, this is the reality of boat life

7am I am woken up by the sound of barking. The sound’s canine culprit lives on a boat that’s moored nearby (with a human, obviously) and is a lovely, mop-like thing - but she’s territorial, and enjoys kicking up a fuss whenever anybody goes past.

Unfortunately for us, we’re moored on a public footpath, so people pass by often. The silver lining is that we haven’t had to set an alarm since we’ve been here! As a freelancer, my work lacks routine - so it’s nice to have something reliable to start my day, even if it does come in the form of an ear-splitting woof

7.30am I’ve lived on a boat with my partner for three years now, and I love it - but it is true that this lifestyle presents unique challenges. In winter, for example, it can get very, very cold, and we have to work hard to keep the temperature inside comfortable. It’s freezing this morning as I force myself out of bed - the thermometer in the boat reads 8°C - and I rush to get the fire started.

9am It’s boat move day! The fire has done its work and the boat has warmed up to a much more manageable 18°C. I’m showered and ready to start prepping the boat for the journey. People often ask us how the water situation works, since we obviously can’t be plumbed into the main water supply system; for us, this is actually one of the relatively easy aspects of boat life. Provided we’re moored close to a water point (which isn’t always the case!), we just have to attach a hose to the tap and let it run for an hour or so while our tank fills up; this minor chore allows us to have running water until the tank is empty, which takes about a week.

10.30am We’ve finished preparations for the journey and are ready to set sail. The checklist of things to do before we get moving is relatively long; we have to take down the pram hood and take the chimney off, clean out the engine (which involves my partner sticking his entire arm into murky water up to his shoulder and pulling out anything that’s got caught there; we pray nothing really gross is down there), unhook the electricity, and get ready to untie the ropes. That’s always the trickiest bit, as the current in the river is strong and takes the boat quickly if we’re not careful - so one of us has to be poised and ready to start moving as soon as the ropes are untied in order to stay in control of the vessel.

12pm We are positively flying along the Trent in the direction of Nottingham at our breakneck top speed of… 4mph! Watching the river path as we chug along, I see us get overtaken by joggers, women pushing prams, elderly people with walking sticks… only joking, but you get my point. It’s definitely life at a more relaxed pace!

We take trips fairly regularly. We do this because it’s fun, but there is usually a practical purpose to our outings too: we tend to stop off at a marina where we can fill up with diesel, buy supplies like gas canisters, and… empty the toilet. This is the part that most often puts people off what is otherwise a pretty idyllic way of life! There are various boat-worthy solutions to the poop problem onboard; we have what’s called a pumpout, which functions like a normal toilet, except that when the tank gets full we have to take the boat to a place with the right facilities. This is less grim than it sounds because it doesn’t involve coming into contact with actual human waste (if everything goes right, that is…).

2pm We’re finished at the marina and looking for a spot to moor up on the canal for the night. People often ask why my partner and I decided to live on a boat; there are lots of reasons, and one of the main ones is financial. We are both freelancers in creative industries, which means our income is unpredictable. Living on a boat was one way we found to help reduce our costs, because, generally speaking, it’s more cost efficient than living in a flat. As a boater, you have a choice over how you manage your mooring costs: you can live as a continuous cruiser, which means that you don’t pay mooring fees but you have to move your boat to a new spot every two weeks. The other option is to rent a mooring, but fees are still usually a fraction of what it would cost to rent a flat. It’s also amazing to be able to move our home to where our work is, which could be anywhere in the country, and it allows us to experience some consistency while still choosing to work in somewhat uncertain careers.

I’ve noticed more wildlife than ever before - Woodpeckers! Kingfishers! Otters! Badgers! - and being forced to take life at a slower pace has quelled my anxiety

6pm We’ve found a nice spot in which to moor up for the night and are feeling tired but happy after a day of navigating through narrow canals. We’ve stopped off in lots of places over the years; the more remote locations tend to be prettier and quieter, but mooring up in town centres allows more opportunity for exploration and access to amenities, like electricity hook-ups and takeaways!

9pm We made a curry for dinner and the aromas must be drifting along the canal, because we can hear the people walking past commenting on how good it smells! Now, the fire is on and we’re relaxing, watching telly and looking forward to an early night ahead of moving the boat back to the river tomorrow.

Living on a boat has undoubtedly been the single best thing I have ever done for my mental health. Of course, there are certain things that we have to do on a boat that you wouldn’t have to deal with in a flat, but for me the advantages of the lifestyle far outweigh the drag of extra chores. I’ve noticed more wildlife than ever before - Woodpeckers! Kingfishers! Otters! Badgers! - and being forced to take life at a slower pace has quelled my anxiety. I don’t go to the gym any more, but hauling my bodyweight on and off the roof, tugging on ropes and wrenching locks open keeps me active, and my sleep has improved too, provided it’s not a breezy night when the wind howls through the vents and the boat rocks violently. It’s certainly not a life that would work for everyone, and we do have to deal with the occasional formidable flood, living on a boat suits me down to the… water.

illustration: Zarina Teli

NOTTS SHOTS

Want to have your work featured in Notts Shots?

Send your high-res photos from around the city (including your full name and best web link) to photography@leftlion.co.uk or tag #nottsshots on Instagram.

Workin' at the car wash George Brumpton @george.picture

City skyline, the human zoo Laura Mitchell @wrong.laura

Bright light city Peter Taylor

There's always a reason to look up Dani Bacon @danibacon

The Pigeon Times

Samuel Tucker

Fast industry Perm Ghattaura @picsbyperm

Still scrolling Simon Ferrigan @Simon_Ferrigan

Turn Up the Sun Peter Grimes

Cosmic Rays

Within intricately layered large-scale collages, Martin Rayment whips imagined worlds onto canvas. We sat down to chat with Martin about his creative process, merging music and art, and staying curious as an artist.

How did you get started making art, and was collage your first medium?

It was discovering a lot of my Dad’s books on surrealist artists that intrigued me and set me on this wild path of wondering what art is. At that point, I had no context of who Salvadore Dali and Rene Magritte were. It's quite a wild thing to try and interpret as an eight-year-old.

Around that time I was making decisions about what to be in life and I was captivated by this ability to create worlds and concepts that are in your mind and figure them out or display them in an art form. It kind of felt like a superpower. I read a book on Rene Magritte a lot as I was growing up and it covered his whole life up to being an old man and having a huge body of work. He had a big exhibition at the end of his life and it made me think how that would be great to do, that I would be happy with that.

You’ve mentioned the surrealists, who else would you say influences your work the most?

The tutors that I had while studying fine art at NTU taught us how to think outside the box. They made us do things like create sculptures out of things scattered around the room and at first, I thought this was ridiculous but it formalised the idea that anything can be art. It made me understand and appreciate why some minimal art exists. They were super challenging in terms of any ideas that we had, they would push us and make us explain why we were doing things.

You are co-founder of The Carousel, a Nottingham-based creative space in Hockley - can you tell us a little bit about the thought process behind it?

It’s about getting people to be inspired and sharing the wisdom that I've attained. I am getting on a bit now, I am no longer a Trent graduate, so sharing the things that I figured out over time is a real passion of mine, because no one needs to make the mistakes that I've made. You often feel a bit abandoned by university after you’ve finished, you’re out of the cosiness of uni life and you're out in the realness.

You've recently made a short film about your work, how did that come about?

So that came about by working with Tom Dennis who’s a filmmaker also based at The Carousel. He saw what I was doing and was interested in filming stories, so he began shooting me in 2021 and then we started

collecting footage. I was looking for a way to visualise my process as well, to explain it all. I thought having a filmmaker as talented as Tom would be really important. He’s really good and going into the nooks and crannies of a person and what they're about.

In the film, you seem to be an avid gardener as well as an artist. How does art, as well as working on your allotment contribute to your mental health?

It’s really important to me. I'm a big lover of plants, it's the one thing that grounds me in life. Nurturing plants in the allotment is just really good for my mental health fundamentally. It creates a serene contrast to making this kind of work that can be intricate, detailed and a bit of a slog. Having that release of getting my hands dirty and being within nature is important.

I always come at it from the perspective of a child trying to figure out what life is. Arguably we never really grow up!

Your website mentions Embryology and Eschatology, birth and death - what is the importance of these ideas in your work?

I think within the piece up there [points to his work Dead Atom Shore] is that feeling of being born and having a life. You have the big image of the woman who’s kind of the universe and she's just watching everything going on in this chaotic world. Then it ends with the figure on the bottom left who’s an old man. I think I'm still figuring it out and that's what keeps it exciting. It puts me on a journey, if I’d figured it all out then I probably wouldn't be doing it anymore.

How important is it that you keep innovating in your work, continuing to be curious about new methods and new media?

I suppose it's discovering all these avenues that I can take the work down and different ways that I can explain the ideas. It's almost overwhelming. You can have wild energy in some parts of a work but then almost graphic design elsewhere. I find it inspiring but also challenging. It’s sort of how I see music as well, the end product is there, you just have to work for it to get it. Sometimes that means getting through some bad ideas to get to the good ones.

Can you give us some insight into what you're working on now? Or otherwise what’s currently inspiring you?

My latest project, Earth is Doomed, is a project that is the soundtrack to what my artwork is, comical, immersive, and chaotic. It’s a collaboration between me and Harry Cooper, and we're basically on a journey reflecting on what’s happening in society. We also look at myths and legends of British folklore and kind of look at that all-encompassing idea of what it means to be British in this time when things are quite polarised.

From the film, it sounds like the music incorporates elements of drone?

Yeah and also very different instruments clashing with each other, lots of effects causing random outcomes, that ties in with the approach I take to making artwork because that's what makes the work truly unique, so you can't replicate it. The pure chance of it - that’s what keeps it exciting. Not trying to make it sound really grandiose, but it's inspiring and it makes me want to keep trying. I never want to stop making work like this so that by the end of my life there will be a big volume of work. I don't feel like I need success to enjoy what I'm doing. I'm lucky enough to kind of have built a life where I'm able to make artwork.

Do you see yourself continuing to make bigger artworks then?

Yeah, one hundred percent. I think it's important in terms of respecting the viewer as that size is a really important factor in people experiencing the artwork. Being able to be immersed within it means you can think about all the little things that are happening, you’re able to find those easter eggs, the moments that make the artwork. A lot of those ideas will be rooted in me trying to figure things out as a human but I think we are all on that same journey. I always come at it from the perspective of a child trying to figure out what life is. Arguably we never really grow up!

Catch Martin’s exhibition and performance Earth is Doomed on March 29 at The Carousel @mr.ray___

interview: Freddie Stringer

photo: Fabrice Gagos

Raw Talent

words: Andrew Tucker illustration: Kate Wand

As Nottingham’s Young Creative Awards return for a live ceremony after five years, we catch up with previous winners including musician Serena Jasmine, photographer Luke Brennan and illustrator Kate Wand, who are now beginning to blaze their own trail…

Having moved back to Nottingham from London five years ago, I found myself doing a good trade in wiping up spilled milk. There was no point crying about this, of course, because that’s life when you’ve donned the logoed apron of a worldwide coffee chain.

Now, ferrying pumpkin lattes is a bit better than cracking your knuckles down a salt-mine, but a life of grinding wasn’t for me the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream, and at the back of my mind I had the hope that there was a life somewhere beyond the mocha. What changed the course of my life in the end was the Young Creative Awards.

That night in 2019, The Nottingham Playhouse was filled with nervous teens, whooping friends, and perilously hyperactive grandmas. There was an exhibition of our work, a performance from a live orchestra and, well, some intangible feeling of shared kindness and inspiration. It’ll always be, I think, one of my best memories.

The YCAs have now been going for sixteen years, but that was the last time the awards were held in person. After winning one, I joined the team at the charity and covid soon forced our hands when the ceremony became a broadcast. While we were happy to keep celebrating the work of the city’s young talent, there’s nothing like a knees-up and we’ve missed being in a real place. So now, several fingers crossed, we’re going to bring the awards event back.

But what do our young people want to get from the awards? I decided to chat to some of our past winners to get to understand the motivations behind their entries. First up was Serena Jasmine, a soulful up-and-coming singer and a YCA music winner from 2023 who, alongside her band, has just played Rock City’s main stage as part of her prize for that year.

“Young Creatives was my first step towards sharing my music. It was something I’d always kept to myself, but this organisation felt so welcoming,” Serena told me. “Even just submitting my song was an achievement, to try to get rid of that imposter syndrome. I’ll forever be grateful for the confidence and opportunities that the YCAs have provided. It reassured me that my creativity is worth something.”

At the Beat the Streets festival, remarkable young photographer Luke Brennan was snapping some shots, including of Serena’s performance. Luke himself is a winner from 2022. There’s reams of talent in this town, and we love to see those connections form.

“The awards gave me that extra push I needed to take myself seriously as a creative,” said Luke, “Having my work recognised in that way gave me the confidence to pursue a career that I really love.”

The colourful image above this article is Kate Wand’s handiwork. She won the Graphic Design category in 2020 and last year she joined the YCA’s board of trustees too.

“Initially I didn't think much would come of it,” said Kate. “I decided to create a Nottinghambased children's book for the YCAs, as a project to help me get creative post-university…

I ended up winning my category and a few months later the charity commissioned me to illustrate a car wrap…”

There’s reams of talent in this town, and we love to see those connections form

Kate’s multi-coloured wrap was fitted onto a real car, which I can attest is sharper than your average Volvo. “I also attended a YCA workshop with Hana Glover who runs The Bead Shop. She offered valuable advice on how to start a successful creative business which was useful because I had no prior training on how to run one! Since then I’ve made connections in Nottingham and have had paid work as a direct result of being involved with Young Creatives. It’s put my foot in the door of the art scene in Nottingham.”

I ask Kate if all young people believe in their own creativity, if not, then why not?

“Creative subjects weren’t taken seriously by some of the schools that I went to,” Kate told me. “So they weren’t funded very well and even if I had a very passionate teacher, we weren't pushed to try new things due to budgeting.”

Indeed there’s always a danger of seeing creativity as a bit of a frivolous bonus. If a Neandarthal called in to work to say that they were going to spend the day cave-painting, you can imagine the tribe rolling their eyes.

But we’ve come a long way, and where would Nottingham be without its spiky murals and red-turreted buildings, its thundering amplifiers and flying plimsolls? Without our creativity, there’d be a lot of brushing our teeth and filing our taxes. There'd be a lot of people asking me to take back a cappuccino and make it again but hotter and with less froth, there’d be some vital glow missing.

Serena, Luke and Kate are just a few of the thousands of young people that have entered our awards. They’re the people who offer that brightness. Not all of them will win every year of course, but they are all the next generation in training. So, this is an open offer to you youngsters: Let’s get stuck in.

You can find out more and submit your creative pieces at youngcreativeawards.org. The deadline for entries is the 15 of March 2024

Q @ycreativesnottm

tHe nigHt stuFF

interview: Sofia Jones

photos: The Red Carnage Company

Thieves in the Night is the first feature-length film to come from The Red Carnage Company, an independent production organisation founded by Matthew Button, Maximilian Feurstein and Ted Dontchev - and we speak to the latter about his role as writer and director, as well as one of the film’s stars, and Nottingham native, Liv Paige…

As we begin the interview, Ted Dontchev and Liv Paige seem excited. Perhaps this is aided by the fact that, unlike most dual interviews, they are together behind a shared screen as we connect over Zoom. Of course they’re excited: their feature-length suspense thriller has just landed on Amazon Prime Video.

This is no mean feat in the underfunded, highly competitive world of British cinema. Dontchev quickly acknowledges this, recalling, “I wanted to get into feature films as soon as possible. There’s no money in short films, and there’s no guarantee that, even if you have an Oscar-nominated short film, you’re going to get a budget for a feature film.”

If you can’t lean on fancy explosions every thirty seconds to keep the audience's attention, then you have to focus on character

Despite their success in securing a budget from individual investors and crowdfunding, Dontchev admits they were still ‘constrained’ by money. Yet there seems to have been a sense of freedom in that constraint, the type that arises when just enough discipline allows you to soar. Or, as Dontchev puts it, “If you can’t lean on fancy explosions every thirty seconds to keep the audience's attention, then you have to focus on character.”

Staying true to its status as the first feature-length project from producers The Red Carnage Company, Thieves in the Night delivers on its promise of carnage: high stakes, violence, and death are its backbone.

But, as Dontchev alludes to, the film is more cerebral than that. There is a sustained focus on getting character right, its driving force. In the script’s early days, Dontchev – and his writing partner Maximilian Feurstein – only had ideas for the first and last scenes. The rise, the fall, and action in between were all splinters, yet to be teased out.

Just like removing a painful splinter, this teasing out of action and character was done slowly. Each player – and their reaction to the tense circumstances – were crafted one by one. Dontchev explains: “We wrote iterations of the script from each different characters' points of view, forgetting everyone else for a moment. We thought, ‘How would they react to this?’”

This careful thinking creates characters in the film who feel real. At the beginning, the film seems neatly divided into good guys and bad guys. The bad guys are three criminals searching for a house to lay low in overnight. The good guys are the family whose house they choose and who, when the criminals realise they’re home, are taken hostage. The criminals are threatening and violent, so we expect the family to toe the line, but they are far from willing to play submissive hosts. As the film progresses, the line between good and bad, innocent and killer, soon blurs.

Just like real people, the characters’ morals are fluid, and who we thought was good and who we thought was bad gets thrown into question. This fluidity is reflected in the film’s production. After Dontchev and the team had finished their teaser trailer – used to secure investors – they took stock and recast the actors portraying the family. At this point, Dontchev laughs, “Apart from Liv, she’s the only one that survived the recast.”

Liv Paige plays Mia, the sharp and spirited daughter of the family held hostage. Paige explains why she was attracted to the project: “It sounded like a film I would like to watch. I read the script, and it was great. As a working actor, sometimes you just take jobs because they’re jobs, but it’s nice to genuinely enjoy playing that character as well”.

It’s reassuring to hear that Paige enjoys playing Mia, a character whose plotline is rougher than most in the film. While held hostage, she is singled out by one of her captors who takes an unnerving shine to her. Not only must she survive, but she must also endure lewd comments and unwanted advances. The threat of a dark alley, the so-called friend at a party; the fear of being a woman is distilled in these scenes.

Despite her threatening situation, Mia stands out as a character who thinks on her feet and refuses to give in to her captors. Perhaps with a little bit of Mia-like strength in her, Paige explains that the sexist, threatening, and relentless comments made to her during the film didn’t prove “a challenge”. For Paige, the challenge comes from “the physical stuff”. “Although I didn’t have too many stunts, I had to hit one of the characters. I was more anxious about that and remembering my mark at the same time as my lines.”

It sounded like a film I would like to watch. I read the script, and it was great

In fact, Paige confesses, it was “hard to act scared a lot of the time because the set was so funny”. “I was surprised when I watched the film because I was like, ‘This is tense.’” The joyous feeling on set was a product of the hectic and intense filming environment. The film was shot over three weeks, with all the cast and crew living across two houses in the Isle of Wight – one of which was the location for filming. This shooting schedule meant that those who began as strangers left as friends, another benefit of that budget “constraint”.

Maybe these conditions are not conducive if you need to act scared for your life, but maybe they are just what is needed to stay sane when acting in a suspense thriller – especially one that does not shy away from difficult scenes. There’s a remedy in there somewhere: watch Thieves in the Night, and once you’ve made it through the suspense-filled violence and death, watch the blooper reel that Dontchev is making to forget all about it.

Thieves in the Night is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Bar Gigi

To get to the point rather quickly, we are lucky to have a restaurant like Bar Gigi in Nottingham, and I feel I've wasted a lot of time not wining and dining here as much as I should have. However, that is about to change, because I’ve stumbled across a true gem.

In fact, in my humble opinion, I’d go as far as to say that this is one of Nottingham's best eateries, and it's smoothly slotted into one of my top favourite restaurants to visit in the city. This Italian-style bar and restaurant is set in an impressive 14th century building in Flying Horse Walk, housed above luxury clothing boutique Gigi Bottega. Inspired by a trip to Milan Fashion Week, the concept is inspired by the cosmopolitan Milanese way of living. I can get on board with that.

As you come up the stairs of the listed building you are greeted with a display of fashion magazine covers, as well as, rather surprisingly, a lime green original 1958 Fiat 500 - a nod to Italy’s iconic car. How they got that in there, I will never know.

The premises is also home to a wine cave and cellar – afterall, it wouldn’t be Nottingham without a little cave action, now would it? Cantine Dell’Angelo, which was found by a fortuitous accident during repairs and later restored to a wine cellar, is available for group bookings with the cave spanning to a hundred metres with the capacity to hold up to 80, 000 bottles of wine. Yes please.

The menu offering isn’t your typical fare of pizza and pasta; the menu serves modern Italian small plates with a few options of bigger plates for mains. They recommended two or three small plates per person, however, I noticed that the portion sizes were quite generous, and we ended up over-ordering again - but nothing new there.

The premises is also home to a wine cave and cellar – afterall, it wouldn’t be Nottingham without a little cave action, now would it?

It's been some time since a restaurant's food has left me awestruck. I'm a lover of vegetarian food so I mainly stuck with veggie plates, and each perfect dish ticked all the boxes. Our rather hefty order to share consisted of fried courgette flowers filled with ricotta and honey, artichoke with cannellini beans, as well as a giant, show-stopping scamorza arancini. We also indulged in a rich and decadent butternut and gorgonzola risotto, and for the meat-eater: chicken Milanese with ‘nduja ketchup. And if you don’t include a portion of the celebrated parmesan pillows you will be doing yourself a disservice.

If you're after top notch service in town, it must be noted that Bar Gigi excels in this too and is not to be missed.

Find them at 1st Floor, 15 Flying Horse Walk, Nottingham NG1 2HN

For bookings visit bargigi.co.uk/

YUMACHA

Set on Central Avenue in West Bridgford, Yumacha is hardly a hidden gem, but to me it felt like an undiscovered delight. I had previously visited sisterrestaurant Uchi to revel in their Japanese dishes and bargain Sunday sushi deal (25 % off, you can thank me later), but a visit to Yumacha was a first, and one that had been on the cards for some time.

For those who don't know, Yumacha is an Asian-Fusion restaurant offering evergrowing in popularity small plates from around the Far East. For this visit I decided to stick to the vegan and vegetarian menu, but there are meat dishes in abundance for those who prefer that option, so fear not.

With no time to lose after a warm and cheerful greeting from our friendly server who had thorough knowledge of the menu, we placed a hungry order for six dishes to share between the two of us, plus some cocktails.

Crunchy vegetable gyoza with a sweet chilli dipping sauce; tempura vegetables covered in a sticky sweet ‘n’ sour sauce; fiery strands of Singapore noodles - the perfect heat! Chai

spring rolls filled with marinated vegetables and glass noodles; Crispy pumpkin katsu; and fresh vegetable and Quorn mince lettuce wraps.

We loved every mouthful of every dish, although it must be said that the sweet ‘n’ sour tempura vegetables in their sticky sauce with some added pineapple stole the show, as did the spicy Singapore noodles. The fact we didn’t order any meat dishes was not felt whatsoever, and we weren’t left wanting more either. A total win.

The sweet ‘n’ sour tempura vegetables in their sticky sauce with some added pineapple stole the show, as did the spicy Singapore noodles

We enjoyed everything so much that we were craving it again mid-week and promptly placed an order on UberEats for the Singapore Noodles and a portion of spring rolls. It was all, as they say, ‘chef’s kiss.’

Good to know: word on the street is that they offer a fantastic Bento Box deal for £9.95. Find them at 17 Central Ave, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 5GQ

www.yumacha.co.uk

words: Julia Head photo: Julia Head

words: Julia Head

photo: Julia Head

tHe ready room

words: Jennifer Brough photo: Sonya Dyer

Reclaiming the neglected stories of Black women in science and mythology, Lenton gallery Primary hosts Sonya Dyer’s speculative installation where hard science meets science fiction and the artist reimagines an alternative journey for immortal HeLa cells beyond the laboratory’s confines…

Outside of the main exhibition space, Dyer lays the groundwork with a selection of curated books including N. K. Jemisin’s HOW LONG ‘TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH?, Dark Matter: Reading the Bones edited by Sheree R. Thomas, and Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Opposite, a short film shows clips of Oprah Winfrey discussing the role of Deborah Lacks (Henrietta’s daughter) and her fight for justice in an adaptation of the aforementioned book, alongside a Black female astronaut discussing her career.

Before beginning, it is important to know about Henrietta Lacks, an AfricanAmerican woman who died in 1951 from cervical cancer at 31 years old. Samples of her cells were taken, without permission or knowledge, and eventually became one of the most important discoveries in medical research due to their ability to reproduce indefinitely. HeLa cells, as they are known, were even the first human materials to be sent into space. Now you are primed to enter The Ready Room

Through the curtains, the viewer enters The Ready Room. In naval culture, this is the place where senior crew receive their mission briefs. Here, our brief takes the form of a two-channel moving image work: Action > Potential. The short film traces Andromeda, protagonist and personification of the Andromeda galaxy and the Aethiopian princess of the same name in Greek myth. Andromeda finds herself uprooted from her home galaxy, having landed in a science lab at King’s College London. She picks her way through the corridors and equipment and overhears two scientists discussing the importance of HeLa cells in an exchange oscillating between abstract and emotive. As cells from the immortal HeLa line are spun in a centrifuge, a rogue mitochondria escapes from beneath the microscope. Vibrant blue and urgent, the cell (Lucy) is a messenger. Pulsing with code, the cell reaches out to Andromeda: ‘Come home / it’s time’. Confused, our voyager asks, ‘How?’ And so the journey begins.

Through a series of interpretive movement, trippy visuals of symbiosis, and frantic Google research, our mission is to witness Andromeda return to her world. The interaction between these imagined beings is both urgent and playful. As Andromeda quickly learns responses to Lucy’s Morse code-like instructions, their relationship strengthens. In a delicious sci-fi sequence, the two screens show Lucy and Andromeda facing one another. Where Lucy is thrumming with life, Andromeda is calmly awaiting further guidance. Despite being mitochondria, Lucy’s cellular walls expand and contract, reforming into beckoning tentacles that enter Andromeda. While Dyer’s otherworldly narrative is grounded by its linearity, scenes like this lend to a hum of possibility. As Dyer asks in the exhibition notes, ‘What if the HeLa cells found a better way to live?’ And, in the film, what happens when an immortal cell meets a celestial body? A journey of expansive wandering and wondering.

Nearby the screens is an accompanying sculpture titled Lucy. Lit in purple and red hues, the vibrant cell from the screen has calcified into something resembling an asteroid. This physical representation of the rogue mitochondria grounds the film by offering a tangible piece of Dyer’s elsewhere. The dualistic narrative of history and speculative futures mesh again, as Lucy – the accompanying text informs us – was named after three enslaved women who were the experiment subjects of an infamous 19th-century American gynaecologist. While the historic and institutional roots that inflict the misery inflicted on the Black female body are easily traceable

to medicine today, Dyer balances this weight with wonder. She employs a speculative gaze to shine a light on historic injustice while hinting towards a better future. Andromeda is a playful character who actively experiments with her form. She dances, communicates, and grows as a result of her interactions. The sculpture of Lucy not only evokes an Easter Island-style head, suggesting a powerful archaic being beneath the surface while prompting the viewer to wonder what journeys this being took before ending up here. The questions are endless.

While the historic and institutional roots that inflict the misery inflicted on the Black female body are easily traceable to medicine today, Dyer balances this weight with wonder

Like all good speculative narratives, Action > Potential is grounded in the political. By centring Henrietta Lacks’ life with care and as a site of reimagining, Dyer invites us to do more than witness passively, which is why some of the dialogue between the scientists is wince-inducing as it emphasises perpetual tension between the scientific advancements made possible by a non-consenting Black woman’s body. As a young scientist enthuses that HeLa cells are ‘easy to work with and resilient’, her colleague intones, ‘we forget they are cells […] they need to be looked after’. He traces a clear path from lack of informed consent and medical malpractice to Lacks’ cells becoming the ‘gold standard for biomedical research’. By holding Lacks’ presence in the laboratory, a place that would have been alien to her as anything other than the subject of study in 1950s America, Dyer opens a spatial doorway to Andromeda’s arrival. Here, the two ‘immortal’ women are time-travelling parallels, the key difference being Andromeda is an active narrator who represents and reclaims ‘the neglected stories of Black women of science and mythology’. A fact: the body of one Black woman can change the course of biomedicine is a marvel that should be celebrated. Another: this overdue recognition is one hard-fought for and the result of the medical industrial complex’s negligence and discarding of raced, gendered bodies. A question: how can we imagine a better world without exploitation of any body?

As the film’s title suggests, action is greater than potential. Potential here is a pleasantly ambiguous word, one that requires the continuation of our own learning and imaginative journeys beyond the mission statement issued in the Ready Room. After leaving the exhibition, there are plenty more journeys to embark on: learn Henrietta Lacks’ story, read N. K. Jemisin, Octavia Butler, Akwaeke Emezi, and so many other visionary Black women rewriting a genre that had previously negated their existence. Speculative fiction reminds us that there is always more than what we’ve been told to believe and Sonya Dyer’s work reminds us of exactly that.

You can find The Ready Room at Primary until Saturday 30 March

Q @weareprimary

Paul

exhibition

Fascinating Finds from Nottingham’s Caves

words: Andrew Tucker

So, for whatever reason, you’ve started reading this column. But can you finish it? Around you is a world of escape rooms, leather girdles and bubble tea. Here I can only offer you 307 static blobs of ink. Isn’t that your microwave pinging? Why is it getting so hard to read?

As we know, the human brain can be moulded in all sorts of ways. It’s more plastic than the Love Island Meccano playset. When the Greek phonetic alphabet was invented in 750 BC, western thinkers started moving from a chattering oral culture towards literary nib-dipping and until the 13th century this writing mimicked how we spoke, in ‘scripta continua’, a continuous flow of words withnogapslikethis.

Adding spaces reduced the mental strain required to read (give that monk a promotion) and so as the centuries went by, more of us became insufferable bookworms. The Gutenberg press went and got itself invented and the Protestant reformation encouraged Europeans to crack open the Bible and interpret the world for themselves through the written word. Sales of torches and pitchforks fell by 284%, letters made us better and in a few short centuries we went from burned-at-the-stake to stepped-on-the-moon.

Is that plastic brain now working against us? When we read online, Nicholas Carr tells us in his fascinating book The Shallows, we’re forced to constantly make decisions (should I tap this cartwheeling Doritos bag?) rather than absorb what we’re reading. Faced with clips and links, pop-ups and noise, even our ability to convert short term memories into the long term gets damaged.

All hope is not lost. Plastic brains can be remoulded. Boring books are still ten-apenny. And you’re about to successfully finish this column, with only six breaks to check the Carabao Cup scores/your housemate’s dachshund’s new haircut/the level of humidity in Koh Phi Phi.

Q andrewtucker.uk

damn good read

interview: Finbar Ansbe

photo: Acoustica Photography

illustration: Sally Taylor

Do you like your stories part myth, part magical gay murder-mystery cruise? Enjoy dragons in bow-ties and faraway worlds? Then perhaps Voyage of the Damned, the debut novel from local author Frances White is right up your street. We sat down with Frances to talk about finding your voice, getting published and being perceived as a writer.

Frances White, ever-giggling, is an absolute joy to be around. Her triumph of a debut novel, Voyage of the Damned, was released into the world back in January and I was lucky enough not only to get my hands on an early copy, but to chat with her a week before the launch too. When I asked how she was feeling about the release she said she was ‘half way between excited and very, very anxious’. Excited because ‘it’s a dream come true’ and anxious because ‘ahh, I’m going to be perceived!’ After reading the book though, I got the feeling that if this anxiety was coming from the book being perceived, she didn’t need to worry in the slightest - Voyage of the Damned is nothing short of genius.

Set in the faraway world of Concordia, the book follows a voyage of the Emperor’s ship, aboard which are the heirs of the land’s twelve provinces. As the heirs start being found murdered, our hero Ganymedes, a joker and a persistent underachiever must ‘become the hero he was not born to be’ and attempt to crack the case before all nautical hell breaks loose. Frances herself has coined the term ‘magical gay murder cruise’ to describe it and it’s what publishers call ‘not easy to shelve’.

Yes, Frances taught me this term. And yes, I will be using it to describe every weird and wonderful thing I come across from here on out. Part myth, part murder-mystery, the novel is both hilarious and heart-breaking. It has about as many twists as you can fit into one book, yet still develops deeply real and fleshed-out characters - and a lot of them! This is Frances’ first published book, but not the first that she’s written. I asked her what the story was behind that - had it taken her a while to find her authentic voice?

“I think it takes a while,” Frances says. “It takes most writers a bit of exploring to find their voice because to get published you’ve got to get an agent first and then you’ve got to get a publisher. There’s a lot of hurdles to get over. And when you’re doing that you get so entwined in that world of ‘what do they want to see?’, ‘what should I be doing?’, ‘what books are being picked up?’,

that it’s easy to think you should be doing what has worked for other people. You sort of end up writing for a box that might not necessarily fit.”

“It’s hard to take a risk in publishing,” Frances tells me. “Because publishers are usually a bit reluctant to take a risk. I’m really grateful that mine did, because they acknowledged that Voyage of the Damned is a bit, you know, quirky in that it doesn’t really fit anywhere. But they said ‘we love it, so we’re gonna go with it’.”

As the heirs start being found murdered, our hero Ganymedes, a joker and a persistent underachiever, must ‘become the hero he was not born to be’

“I think for a while, I was still writing stuff I liked - I don’t want to pretend that those novels I wrote before had nothing to do with me. But it wasn’t until I was writing this one, when I was frustrated, that I thought ‘I just want to write something where I ignore all the voices and just go for it’. And I did.”

A beautiful depiction of young queer love forms the spine of the novel, and even without all the murder and magic, the book is worth reading just to hear the way that our hero Dee talks about his love interest. Voyage of the Damned is a 468-page standalone, but within this one volume it creates a fun and unique world that had me immersed by the end of the first chapter. It manages to offer a nuanced exploration of mental health, and the impact that secrets can have on our wellbeing, while also having characters express their frustrations through incredible phrases like ‘dragon’s dick’. Throw some dragons wearing bowties into the mix and what more could you ask for from a book?

frances-writes.com

Are you a writer with an itchy pen-finger?

Do you want to get your musings published on one of the world’s most prestigious literary pages?

Honestly, we can’t really help with that, but we are going to try printing some of your weird and wonderful pieces of creative writing right here in the LeftLion lit section! For now we’re asking for microfiction or short poems - Submit your prose under 150 words, or your poem under fifteen lines, to literature@leftlion.co.uk. Get scribbling!

stage

A Hedda Above The Rest

interview: Cathy Symes photos: Here to There Productions

With a fresh adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler' coming to the Nottingham Arts Theatre at the end of March, we sat down with director and writer Andrew Whittle, to talk about developing unlikable characters and what it's like getting into directing in his forties.

Andrew, thanks for meeting with me, for people who have no knowledge of Hedda Gabler and without giving away any spoilers, why Hedda?

Hedda is such a roller coaster story, compelling and fast-paced. Hedda has just returned from her honeymoon and over a mere 36 hours we watch how her life spirals out of control. It’s quite mesmerising to watch and because of that it seemed like a good play to do. It fitted with a season of European plays we were doing last year. I read a few adaptations, liked bits of some of them, but not all of them so I decided to write my own, and quite enjoyed it.

How is this adaptation different or similar to the original?

It hasn’t deviated from the original in that it’s still set in 1890’s Norway, but what I’ve tried to do is explain some of the loose ends that I found in other adaptations. Like what happened during the honeymoon to make Hedda so unhappy on her return, and why the character, Lövborg, a rival of her husband, is also a threat to Hedda, which in turns leads her to do what she does.

There are different ways of looking at Hedda, one is a feminist view, that she is a woman trying to gain control of her own life, and alternatively, she can be seen as a woman trying to control the lives of others for her own entertainment. What’s your take on her?

I think it’s both. She was brought up living a very sheltered and secluded life with her father, in army barracks, and doesn’t know much about the outside world but is desperate to find out. Before the action starts, we know that her father has died and that she needed somebody to support her, so she had to take control of her own life. Which is why she marries someone she doesn’t like. Using her influence over him, she gets him to buy a house that they struggle to afford, and this again is her trying to take control.

However, when she comes back from honeymoon, she finds that she is looking at a very unhappy life, so to alleviate her boredom, she manipulates people, which backfires on her. Which is what you see happening over the course of the play. Some of how she behaves is not just for the sake of it, the way she manipulates the likes of Lövborg for example is for her financial wellbeing. So yes, she is trying to manipulate people and take control of her life, the two go together.

Do you like Hedda?

It’s difficult to like her, but her life hasn’t been a bed of roses. Her circumstances have forced her into a marriage she doesn’t want, so you do have sympathy for her, but you can’t condone what she does.

Tell us about your production company ‘Here to There Productions’? How did you become involved? I believe you set it up?

I did, I came to acting quite late. I was 43, working as a solicitor, which I still do, and saw an advert for acting classes for beginners for over 40’s and decided to give it a go. I went to classes for about a year and really enjoyed it. We then found out that a theatre company was looking for a few extras and most of the class went along to the auditions. I was lucky as I was cast in a fairly substantial speaking role. It involved lawyers, so that may have helped! Again, I enjoyed it and did a few more plays for local amateur dramatic societies.

I then became interested in doing the plays The Hound of the Baskervilles and Anne Boleyn which no one else was putting on at the time and thought, ‘what’s stopping

me doing it myself?’ So I set up the company. The Hound of the Baskervilles needed three male actors and only two turned up to the first auditions, but we muddled through, it went down well. Then I did Anne Boleyn which got us up and running as an amateur company. We did about four or five plays until someone left, and we couldn’t get a replacement in time, so we hired a professional actor to fill in, which worked so we became ‘pro-am’ and over time we used more professional actors until became a professional independent company, which is what we have now been for six or seven years.

I never thought that I’d have the vision or confidence to tell professional actors what to do, but I find if you treat people well and are able to justify what you are saying then you always get the best out of people

What does it mean to be an independent theatre company?

I use the term independent to mean that we are not tied to a particular theatre. We’re free to go wherever we want, and to do the plays we want. This weekend we had auditions for the Cherry Orchard which we intend to put on later this year and had over 150 people turn up. About eighty five per cent of our professional actors return to perform with us and it’s also nice to have a fresh dynamic.

Nottingham Arts Theatre is a well-loved community theatre, what attracted you to it as a venue for your play?

Because we had such a successful first run of Hedda in Malvern last March the cast were keen to take it on tour. This is the first time we have ventured out from the West Midlands, and I wanted to start in the Midlands, so I looked to Nottingham, which I know well and then to Nottingham Arts Theatre who were very accommodating and approachable.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in treading the boards or directing or writing?

Give it a go and enjoy it. Don’t feel intimidated or frightened. People worry they will make a fool of themselves or make mistakes and I say, ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ At the end of the day, it’s a play, it should be enjoyable, so don’t be too anxious about it, just make it fun. You’ll also find that you meet people from all walks of life and they’re interesting, so it gives you a great social life. I’ve made lots of friends from doing this. The same applies to directing. I never thought that I’d have the vision or confidence to tell professional actors what to do, but I find if you treat people well and are able to justify what you are saying then you always get the best out of people.

Suited and Booted

Nottingham Trent University has joined forces with popular charity clothing shop chain, White Rose, to launch the UK’s first ever professional student wardrobe, aimed at helping to empower students to get out into the working world. But what does a wardrobe have to do with career support? We popped along to a very special launch event and fashion show at NTU to find out more.

Nottingham Trent University has become the latest spot in the city to welcome a branch of popular sustainable fashion brand, White Rose, marking its eleventh Nottingham store. However, this one has one major difference. All items are absolutely free.

What’s the catch I hear you say? Well, you need to be a student to access it. Dubbed ‘The Professional Student Wardrobe’, the NTU White Rose store is stationed at the university’s Newton Building, and is chock-full of smart dresses, suits, shoes, blazers and more - everything you need to get suited and booted.

With students able to pay the shop a visit ahead of an interview, placement or the first days of work, and take home free items of professional clothing, it offers a very different take on career support for the many students about to embark on the journey into the working world.

The launch follows a recent NTU survey, which revealed that 76% of students surveyed in the academic year 2021/2022 stated that the expenses of a potential interview impacted their decision to apply for a role or attend an interview.

We were invited down to the official launch of ‘The New Professional Student Wardrobe’ during a special fashion show at NTU. Debra Easter, director of employability services at NTU and the driving force behind the initiative said, “Many students can’t pay for professional clothing and I asked myself, ‘how do we actually address this issue around clothes for recruitment and interviews, where there’s the need to dress up?’”

Commenting on the need for such an initiative, Jane McNeil, Pro-Vice chancellor for education at NTU, said, “We want our students to find a fulfilling graduate role after they finish their studies, without worry about costs associated with that journey. And, our Employability Team’s project directly addresses this need.”

Over the years, NTU has financially supported students through a range of initiatives, including the Opportunity Fund as part of its Student Success Endowment, however, the new Professional Wardrobe goes even further Debra explains, delivering a real and meaningful social change. Debra and her team made the decision to collaborate

with White Rose, a preloved clothing shop chain launched by NTU alumnus, Grace Walker back in 2009 to raise vital funds for the Aegis Trust charity, an international non-profit organisation which builds peace in communities at risk of genocide. Its work also involves fostering long-term peace by encouraging change from mindsets of mistrust and prejudice to a position of shared responsibility for peace and stability.

The collaboration will see both NTU and White Rose operating joint donation drives where professional clothing will go to NTU and non-professional items will go into White Rose shops. To facilitate this, NTU has a collection point at the Newton Building where anyone can donate looking to give their wardrobe a clear-out. These items will be either stocked at the new Professional Wardrobe or sent to White Rose shops, ready for a second life in someone else’s wardrobe.

The eleventh store opens of sustainable fashion brand, White Rose. However this one holds a major difference. All items are absolutely free

When browsing through the new Professional Wardrobe located on the ground floor of the Newton Building. The new shop is well stocked with high-quality clothing, many of which are top-end highstreet brands such as Zara, with students even able to get their hands on a few designer pieces too.

Care has also been given to ensuring the shop is as inclusive as possible. “It’s been really important to us that we’re size inclusive, gender neutral and culturally appropriate,” says Debra. “So we've tried to make sure that people don't feel they have to go through male or female sections. Instead it’s actually about just wearing what you feel is appropriate for yourself.”

Students are able to take home two free items a year which can be brought back and swapped for other items should they wish, as long as they’re in good resellable condition, ensuring that the whole process is fully sustainable and circular, in keeping with White Rose’s ethos.

For those who are unsure of what to wear, NTU offers guidance and advice through a team of fashion advisors as well as the university careers advisors. Debra says, “ We currently have a team of fashion advisors running the shop. They’ve done some work with employers and offer advice to students that come in.” The university also offers additional support and guidance. This includes coaching, masterclasses and mock interviews performed by a range of businesses from across the city that the uni has partnered with.

In the ever-evolving world, there are some that argue whether there’s still the need for people to dress professionally for interviews and work lifeespecially post pandemic. However Debra believes there’ll always be a need. “We recognise that the working world has changed and it’s incredibly difficult to negotiate dress codes,” says Debra. “ We advise students to always do their research on the organisation. Look on LinkedIn. Look at what people are wearing.”

To help launch the new initiative and demonstrate the amazing pieces available, the students and staff put on a fashion show, with looks curated and styled by the students themselves, based on the students’ dream future roles. As the models took to the catwalk, it brought to life just how special the initiative was, and the sheer difference it could make to students’ lives.

“We’re committed to finding solutions to unlock all our students’ potential, no matter their background,” says Pro Vice Chancellor, Jane McNeil. “Around a third of NTU students experience financial barriers, so to level the playing field and create an experience of higher education that isn’t tied to financial circumstances is crucial.”

To find out more, or if you’d like to donate, donations can be made at any White Rose store or via post through the website. Alternatively, if you’d like to set up a collection drive at your place of work, White Rose will come and collect the items from your office.

ntu.ac.uk/c/ntu-professional-wardrobe

words: Addie Kenogbon

photo: Mateusz Majewski

baring tHe soul

He is one of Nottingham’s best-loved live performers, whose iconic sets at festivals like Splendour, Hockley Hustle and most recently, Beat The Streets, have become the stuff of local legend. This was confirmed by the fact his upcoming show at Nottingham Central Library completely sold out in less than a week. Ahead of that show and him then hitting the road for The Undercover Tour, we sat down for a chat with soul-pop sensation

ROB.GREEN

You released the MANHOOD EP last year – I understand the inspiration for that project came from reading Viola Davis’ book?

I love autobiographies and I had a list of them by black women that I really look up to that I had been meaning to read for a long time, and Viola Davis’ was one of them.

The first chapter in her book, she says she’s had a certain degree of success, yet she still felt like she was running. So, she went to therapy and her therapist said to her: “I want you to invite your childhood self into the room and introduce her to me.”

Viola Davis was shouting: “I don’t want to, I’ve spent my whole life trying to get away from being that girl; I was a mean kid, we didn’t have running water, I used to wet the bed, the kids used to bully me.” Just I don’t want to go back to that time.

And her therapist said, “Tomorrow, I want you to imagine taking this girl to work with you. And you must do that because that girl survived. She didn’t get thanked at the time, but you can thank her now – you can show her that it all works out.” As somebody who grew up closeted in a Catholic school and got physically, verbally and mentally bullied every day, I read that chapter of her book and I wasn’t ready. I suddenly couldn’t get eight-year-old me out of my head, thinking I need to say thank you to that kid.

So, this EP was me finding the words. Manhood, the spoken word track that ended up being the name of the whole thing, that poem came out of me like a dam busting! I just wrote it, I didn’t even edit it – what is on the track is what I wrote. And it’s my favourite song on there, it’s not very long but it’s my favourite.

Those who are strong together, sing

together’ is one of my cue lines and Nottingham always just goes full lung!

And the accompanying short film, did you know early on that was something you wanted to do for this project?

The way that I funded the project, I applied for it as a visual EP. At the time, I just knew I wanted to explore masculinity, racial identity, my sexuality – I didn’t know what it was going to be, but I know I love continuous shots. The opportunity to do a nine minute continuous shot that can tell a story both visually and sonically – I love a challenge so that’s a dream come true for me, because it sounds really hard!

And now you’re taking the EP on the road and you’ve chosen to partner with mental health charity Talk Club for this set of shows - how did that collaboration come about?

My project manager for the tour is an incredible person called Hannah Marsland, who – amongst the many things that she does - works for Sofar in Nottingham.

We had a big onboarding conversation where we talked about everything under the sun, and she mentioned Talk Club. What I like about Talk Club is the fact it’s a national organisation built around creating a community of people that can support each other. And it starts by asking, how are you out of ten? It’s so simple, but I tried it with my dad, with my brother - people who

I have a great relationship with and speak to all the time – and it was just a great exercise. Honestly advise doing it, even just with yourself. It helps put things into perspective and starts a conversation in a culture where your knee jerk response to ‘how are you?’ is just to say, ‘I’m fine.’

I had this idea to have a wellbeing wall where people can take photos, leave a piece of advice for their younger self, like a word of encouragement or something that they needed to hear. Then they leave it there, and we take the wall to the next venue on the tour. However, for people to add theirs they have to take one off – so then we have this thing that lives and breathes with the tour. Hopefully it can connect people, if they put their social handles on, people can tag each other and be like ‘I really loved your piece of advice!’ Talk Club loved that idea, so we’re doing that together.

The venues you’ve chosen for this tour aren't your typical gig venues – what did you look for when choosing these venues? The venues were a collaboration between me and Hannah. I was just clear with how I wanted the venues to feel, I didn’t want them to feel like music venues. I didn’t want you to go there and know the rules. When an audience walks into a show at Rescue Rooms, they’re walking into every other show at Rescue they’ve ever been to, until your set starts. Whereas their rules in their head for going to a music event at a library, probably don’t exist. Going to a gig in a co-working space, there’s no rules – and that’s what I like about Sofar shows.

The first ‘gigs’ I ever did in my life was in living rooms to my family. So the brief was: they have to be non-traditional music venues and they have to feel cosy or welcoming.

Are there any shows particularly in Nottingham that stand out as some of your favourites?

Nottingham is my favourite city to perform in - not just because I’m from here, but because the love for the show is next level. You don’t need to warm up a Nottingham crowd - AT ALL. ‘Those who are strong together, sing together’ is one of my cue lines and Nottingham always just goes full lung!

How I got through that Hockley Hustle set is a miracle - the string quartet were absolutely sending me, it was unbelievable. I think I’ll Be Around had been out a couple of weeks, and people KNEW the words. To the verses, not even the chorus! I was trying to teach them and they knew it already!

Finally you’ve got the EP done, you’re now taking it on tour –have you started to think about plans beyond that?

The big challenge is that over this next year, I just want to be able to scale up my live performance. This is sort of a tester, if this can work I can add dates and increase venue sizes, which means I can do more with my band.

For me, I always want to be evolving. It’s about stepping up from doing this intimate acoustic thing that’s all about connection in terms of vulnerability and openness, to something that can just be really epic, empowering and fill everybody with rocket fuel! That’s what I want to make next. Q @robgreenmusic

Music and Manners

Been to a gig recently and found yourself watching the headline set through the phone screen of the person in front? Straining to hear the support act over the relentless chatter of the crowd? You’re probably not alone.

Concert etiquette seems to be a very hot topic right now. Online debate divides concertgoers between those who believe we should just “live and let live”, and those who are ready to pack in attending live performances altogether.

Though it seems it’s not just audience members who are feeling the impact of increasingly bad behaviour at gigs. When did we normalise throwing things at artists? Who thought it was a good idea to throw their mother’s ashes at Pink as she performed onstage in London?

The digital age is used as a scapegoat for many a modern quandary, but it seems that fans are in unspoken competition with one another to get the perfect viral clip, using any means necessary to get their idol to notice them.

So maybe it’s time to stretch our empathy muscles before attending a gig. If I was bearing my soul onstage to a room of strangers, I can imagine it would feel quite nice to have their undivided attention for thirty minutes.

interview: Karl Blakesley photo: Declan Creffield

Whisky Stain

My New Religion (Single)

Blues rock two-piece Whisky Stain have been a pillar of Nottingham’s music scene for ten years now, and after a recent hiatus I am personally very happy to see them back gigging and releasing music. Slick vocals, stomping drums and seductive riffs is what drives the Whisky Stain sound, and new single My New Religion doesn’t stray far from the formula. But this isn’t a tired concoction - fresh, potent and catchy, I dare you to not develop a swagger after listening. Sophie Gargett

Otala Commedia (Single)

Lacey

This Is All We Are (Album)

Lacey's long-awaited album This Is All We Are marks a triumphant return after a five-year hiatus. Graham Turner's soul-baring vocals guide listeners through an emotional journey, addressing every conceivable human emotion. The band ensures long-term fans leave completely satisfied, possibly gaining new admirers along the way. This Is All We Are reaffirms Lacey's importance in the music scene, making it a must-listen for anyone craving an emotional and authentic musical experience. Faye Stacey

The latest track from Nottingham’s own post-punk, jazz quintet begins with a set of ominous bells - the melody of a gravekeeper’s jangling keys. This track creeps up and sinks its teeth into your neck without the kindness of a warning. Charlotte Foulkes’ saxophone melody lurks among the shadows, biding time before striking at the end of the track, aided by the crash of Fin Hills’ merciless cymbals. Oscar Thorpe’s spokenword vocals are both urgent and blissfully haunting, matched only by his equally stirring lyricism ‘there is no applause, just the sound of worn-out studs and incessant chatter to mask any chance of self-reflection’. Each musician’s influence is deeply essential to the track, particularly during those signature moments of perfect dissonance, in which each instrument is violently at odds with the other. I suspect that this powerhouse track is only an indication of what is to come for this up-and-coming band. Maddie Dinnage

Hallowed Men Hollow Man (Album)

LeftLion contributors Bassey and Rich Higton (aka Jarrow Junction) have come together to release Hollow Man, a project which, in their words, is “a pretty dark album with some pretty dark themes.” With tracks such as Sew Sweet and Notice (What We Have Become) discussing a relationship which is frozen in time, to themes of depression, conflict and loss of hope on Black Dog, this album covers a lot of ground in a relatively short tracklist of seven tracks (plus three remixes). As for the track Badass John C. Woods, he’s a real person so look him up. Villain or hero? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

Gemma Cockrell

The debut offering from this local alternative rock duo who clearly have a penchant for interesting names. Elements of grunge revival and garage rock meet heartfelt themes echoing through straightforward, impactful lyrics. This is good old-fashioned songwriting delivered with punch and panache: there are satisfying riffs; a section of swirling guitar effects; rich and appealing vocals; and great use of space. Blu Syrup are the pub band you stumble upon one night, and quickly embrace as a new favourite. One to keep an eye on.

Phil Taylor

Cappo & Kong The Artisan Canon (Album)

With beautiful, personal and poetic articulation of universal human experiences and emotions, CANON is Cappo’s first full-length recording since he completed his PhD into the techniques and literary devices used in rap artists to convey personal trauma. Touching on themes such as grief, addiction and masculinity, the work celebrates the landscape of Nottingham through the medium of rap and features local legends such as Vandal Savage, Midnyte and Liam Bailey. Informed by this literal Doctor of hip-hop’s studies and rich life experiences, and produced by Kong the Artisan, Chapter one, “Pain” is a subtly emotive album, to be followed by Chapter two, “Escapism”, and Chapter three, “Absolution”. Purchase from Bandcamp to access exclusive instrumentals, which will not be released elsewhere. The LP’s available at Rough Trade and Rare Kind Records, and a limited-edition cassette will be released in the near future – keep an eye out! Rachel Imms

If you’re from Nottingham and want to get added to our list of music writers, or get your tunes reviewed, hit us up at music@ leftlion.co.uk

Blu Syrup Scissors & Cigarettes (Single)

Clet’s paint tit

words: Beth Green photo: Beth Green

With Friday 8 March marking International Women’s Day, what better way to highlight its importance than spending time with self-proclaimed feminist, artist Di Ali-Arab. The 25-year-old is spreading a message; to turn the archetypal objectification of women on its head, and replacing it with empowering graphics of the female form. LeftLion HQ joined her in RSP Studios, where her work is currently being displayed and sold.

As the daughter of a graphic designer, Di’s artistic gift was rooted in her from the beginning. “I’ve been drawing since I was able to hold a pencil,” she explains. “My mum always pushed me to explore what I do and don’t like with my art.” In education, she was able to embellish her gift by taking GCSE Art, and then eventually A-level Art. It was during one of her A-level exams, she was given freedom to express herself. “All I wanted was to draw naked ladies,” she remembers. “My art teacher told me not to, and that the female form is pornography; this really riled me.” Understandably so, Di was upset and went to one of her trusted sociology tutors, with no intention to get the art teacher in trouble, “it was purely to vent how I felt.”

It was here that the two of them looked over the exam paper together, and her tutor pointed out the option to do a piece on a political or social movement. Initially unimpressed with this suggestion, her tutor planted the seed to cover the “Free the Nipple” movement. With a new sense of confidence, Di felt encouraged; “Instead of getting modest nudity of backs, or stylistically covered images, what my art teacher now had was full frontal nudity of breasts. I could back it up too, by saying ‘ha, it’s a social movement, you can’t stop me.’ He completely shot himself in the foot by the end.” It was this encounter that sparked her passion for feminist art, and to dismiss the idea of objectification. She was going to regain control, “because us in our normal form, should not inherently be sexual.”

Di expresses she is a proud feminist, longing for equality for all, regardless of gender. One of her favourite quotes, by American poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou, is: “I’ve been a female for a long time now, it would be stupid not to be on my own team.”

Us in our normal form, should not inherently be sexual

One of her biggest inspirations is Erica Callado, a watercolour artist that she researched for her A-level project. “It was her images of the female form that opened the door for me.” Once 2020 hit, like so many of us, Di was spending her time endlessly scrolling through various platforms, when she encountered a common theme. “It was Covid, I had just started drawing graphically and my feed was full of feminist ideology, often paired with nudity, such as the erotica publication Moanzine. It was all very empowering.”

The original starting point for her work came from her emotions, “I would see something negative in the headlines targeting women that enraged me. I’d find a reference photo, and sketch the outline and base colours.” These would predominantly be seen in lingerie, though nudity is depicted in some, which can be problematic for those wanting to grow through social media. “A lot of the time nudity can result in being shadowbanned, or account suspension, so for socials, I will usually stick to lingerie.” Once chosen, the shading and any body modifications are added before the quote. “I will always try to get this to fit somewhere, often on the underwear, or the body so it doesn’t get lost and fits each unique piece.” Finally

she will pick the colour scheme, which will be based on both her previous works, ensuring she creates diversity, as well as her own artistic preferences.

Di speaks fondly of how she has worked hard to create a safe and positive community on her Instagram - “I’m in a bubble of people that love it!” It is only on occasion when she is reposted to a bigger page that she may receive some hate. Although, it’s not the actual drawings that generates the trolling, instead it is targeted towards the quotes that accompany the images. It seems pretty telling, don't you think, that what angers the haters are the powerful words that project how women can be strong figures and in control of their autonomy.

Though, for the most part, her work receives a lot of love and support. She does joke, “My mum will regularly tell me how talented I am, but simultaneously asks if I would please stop drawing naked ladies - unfortunately Mum, that’s not going to happen! Plus, it’s not all bad, she still talks about me to people wherever she goes, I often get messages from them, so I know she’s proud despite everything.”

Expressing feminism through art has been popular for almost a century; Frida Kahlo is one of the first to come to mind. However, today unless your social feed is somewhat anti-liberal, there does seem to be an increase in how overt work can be - which is definitely not a bad thing! For Di, focussing on the female form is about reclaiming our sexuality.

Along with fine tuning her niche in feminist art, Di has also created a sense of continuity on and offline. Di has recently branched out on new endeavours, and put on her second “Let’s Paint Tit” event at the end of February. For these events, she makes a number of unique clay dishes, each with their own pair of breasts. They will be ready to decorate with as many colours and patterns as you like.

“The dishes can be used for little trinkets, rings, earrings, anything really. We will discuss different ideas and look for references before we paint.” This ticketed event is a fun, safe and welcoming place for all to express themselves, create some art and even make new friends. “There’s no right or wrong way to paint, it’s yours to keep. I’ll also be giving out information on how to correctly check your boobs, so you may learn something too.” At the time of our chat there were only a handful of tickets left, so it’s safe to say it’s proving to be a hit!

Where can you next catch her I hear you ask? Di tells LeftLion of her plans to do another “Let’s Paint Tit” workshop and an art exhibition soon. More immediately, she’ll be at Cobden Arts Market on Saturday March 16, with plenty of prints, keyrings, stickers and more to buy. Plus looking further ahead, she is hoping to be back at Nottingham Pride for the third year. In what she calls both one of her favourite and chaotic events, “It’s always so much fun, so I’m hoping the budget allows me to continue coming!”

Buy Di’s work directly via her Ko-fi - Art by Kerdisha

Q @art.by.kerdisha.

bringing up (tree) babies

words: Helene Laanest illustration: Zhara Millett

Helene Laanest, director of Canopy 2050, and her collective of tree guardians are working hard to restore Nottinghamshire’s canopy. Helene tells us about the project and how she sees it growing…

One day during lockdown, I was walking on the Bramcote Ridge and I picked up a few acorns which I later planted. As I planted them I thought, wouldn’t it be good if lots of people did this? Then we could help our councils by providing free trees and labour, and help them to meet their national tree planting goals. The idea just wouldn’t go away until eventually I asked my local council what they thought of the idea. They were really enthusiastic and supportive and committed to finding locations to plant trees grown by Broxtowe residents. Really I was planning to start in Autumn 2021 with seed collecting, but a surprise ‘gift’ of six sacks of sprouting acorns from an old tree in Bramcote prompted me to start sooner. I took this gift as a sign that this project had to start ASAP.

I started Canopy 2050 back in the Spring of 2021. Based in Beeston, the community based tree growing project has found full enthusiasm from our tree guardians. Connie, a guardian from Beeston, has adopted twenty sprouting acorns near the start of the project, of which fifteen are now planted in Bramcote Hills park. She now has fifteen Buckthorn, five Blackthorn, an Alder and some Guedler-rose. “At 76, it is great to think that well after I’m gone, there will be mature trees around Nottingham because I nurtured them” she says.

But what exactly do we do at Canopy 2050?

In a nutshell we collect native tree seeds and then distribute them to people who then plant them and nurture them until they are ready to plant out. Right now there are about 500 mini nurseries spread across Nottingham in peoples’ gardens and allotments.

People feel so helpless in the face of climate change and this is something that anyone can do and feel that they are making a real, if small, difference. It doesn’t cost money and it is so satisfying. Claire, one of our guardians over in Wollaton says, “It feels like I’m making a small but tangible contribution to improving the environment in our local area. It is an interesting thought that some of my seedlings might still be around in hundreds of years!”

Ideally I like the guardians who grew them to bring them along and plant them out themselves. That way they know where they are and they can visit them in years to come, maybe water them in dry times. So far the planting sites have been given by Broxtowe Borough Council but as the project grows I hope to get other councils on board and include private land too. I’ll try to get trees planted anywhere where there is an obvious lack of tree cover. One of the next plans is to offer free trees and the planting of them to residents in tree depleted streets. We have to increase the urban tree canopy in every place we can in order to keep temperatures down, improve biodiversity and open new green corridors for wildlife.

We’ve got a really broad range of people becoming tree guardians. In terms of age, there are some really young children growing trees with their parents and teachers and I think the oldest guardian (that I know the age of) is 86. It’s something anyone can do with very little space, you don’t have to be an avid gardener. But of course the main driver for peoples’ participation is the desire to fight the climate crisis.

Ingrid, another one of our Beeston-based guardians put it perfectly as to what’s motivating people to join the project. She says, “I passionately believe in the UK needing to plant more trees and hedges, not just for carbon capture, but helping our wildlife. Instead of just giving money to organisations for other people to plant trees, I am pleased I can contribute by growing and looking after saplings in my garden. I also like the fact that this project is local to where I live, so that in the future I will be able to see my saplings growing and showing them to my grandchildren.”

It feels like I’m making a small but tangible contribution to improving the environment in our local area. It is an interesting thought that some of my seedlings might still be around in hundreds of years!

Canopy 2050 has already gone so much further than I ever imagined. It’s so nice to meet so many like minded people, and people who come to share the passion for growing trees, it truly is a rewarding experience, so exciting when the first shoots come up, so exciting when the first leaves open, so worrying when the leaves drop in winter and such a relief when new leaves come the following Spring. I don’t want to say that it is like having a baby… but there is an amazingly compelling connection between a person and their tree babies!

My aims are ambitious right now, it’s working amazingly in Broxtowe now and I’m now recruiting guardians from further afield and talking to other councils and businesses with land where we could potentially plant. I’m always on the lookout for possible planting sites and I plan to start working on tree depleted streets across the county. But who knows, tree growing is something that anyone can do, who knows where it might end?

Over in Stapleford, Chantel says, “I find it rewarding, it's pretty cool to watch the little tree grow in my garden and become strong enough to go into the world and be planted. It's a really proud and exciting moment.”

Want to get involved? Get in touch at info@canopy2050.org to get seed delivered or posted to you.

www.canopy2050.org

The Dilettante Society: Marian Re-Maid OUT OF TIME

words: Claire Jones & Sophie Gargett

illustration: Christine Dilks

Ah, Robin Hood: provider to the poor, v-flicker to the rich, shooter of arrows, merry fellow. You are a mascot for our dear Nottingham and a bearing on England’s map for confused foreigners . We treasure you, Robin, but we’ve heard your tale many a time. So please politely hop aside, for there is an unsung hero in your merry band whose myth is as intricate and intriguing as your own, Maid Marian

Lady in waiting, damsel in distress, unlikely warrior, outlaw informant, romantic interest – Maid Marian is a complex lady whose story has been deeply obscured through countless retellings. In fact, she has been seen throughout Western European mythology long before her entrance into the adventures of Robin Hood. As mediaeval shepherdess, ancient goddess, and May Day Queen, Marian is found in folklore, literature and legend of the past two millennia as more of a female archetype than mere side character in someone else’s story, making her a most diverse lady indeed.

In the strange and serendipitous way that folklore evolves, the etymology of the name Marian itself is steeped with religious connotations, and we see her in various guises across European theology. A blend of the Latin name Mary, meaning ‘star of the sea’, and the Hebrew name Ann, the mediaeval derivative Marian is strongly associated with the legend of the ‘merrymaid’, or mermaid as we now know her. Marian, an ancient virgin sea goddess, was known for seducing ‘merriners’ (mariners) and also bears much resemblance to the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, who too was said to be ‘born from the ocean’. A similar character appears in the tale of St Mary of Egypt, who sold her body to sailors while on her pilgrimage to the holy land, and was later renowned for her visions of the Virgin Mary.

Fast forward to the eleventh century. While the Crusades raged in an attempt to abolish mystic and monotheistic beliefs and enforce Christianity, the tales of these holy women enjoyed an unlikely renaissance. As their stories were spread across Europe, they captured the public imagination. In England, the people became so fascinated that many began covertly practising ‘Mary-worship’ under the cult of ‘Mary-Gipsy’, which would eventually lead to the moniker ‘Merry England’.

Meanwhile, across the pond in France, the character of Marion was already cavorting with her Robin, although not quite as we know them. Popular mediaeval French pastourelle songs told about a shepherdess named Marion who shunned the affections of a knight to remain loyal to her shepherd lover, Robin. After this well-known folk tale was developed into the first known secular french play Jeu de Robin et Marion in the late thirteenth century, the couple gradually began to be associated with spring festivities, not only in France but England also. These celebrations were marked with dancing, feasts and general frivolities in which communities gathered together outside to rejoice in the passing of the long, often more solitary winter months.

Marian became entangled within a longstanding tradition of the May Queen or Lady May, a robust and somewhat lusty figure, symbolic of abundance, new life and the fertility of spring. In a fitting extension of her rich mythological past and links to Aphrodite, she became a cultural expression of divine femininity. Meanwhile, Robin Hood Games, folk plays based on the outlaw’s already well-known escapades, were becoming increasingly popular as part of Whitsun festivities, and eventually the two performances merged with Robin and Marian united as the King and Queen of May Day.

In the early ballads of Robin Hood, Marian is remarkably absent and, before she was introduced as his lover, it was the Virgin Mary who was the significant female relationship for Robin. As England became increasingly Protestant, Robin’s devotion to the Virgin Mary was replaced by his attraction to Marian. With her associations to nature, Marian was a natural match for the outlaw of Sherwood Forest, although social attitudes towards women ensured her character would change dramatically, transforming her from a symbol of lusty fertility to a demure maiden and a model of virtue.

Once Marian was embraced into the

stories of Robin Hood, accounts of her background, social status and character vary dramatically. Despite at times conforming to the clichéd damsel in distress in need of rescue from unwanted suitors, Marian is often portrayed as a far more complex character. In many legends she is a woman of action, an outlaw with fighting skills that occasionally eclipse Robin himself. When her character remains in the sheltered confines of Nottingham Castle, away from the action she sometimes acts as an informant, courageous and loyal to both her personal beliefs and to her love of Robin.

Contrary to a time when women were often forced into unwanted marriages, she remains an unmarried maiden, and despite her unconventional lifestyle throughout the stories, she was always depicted as a woman of honour.

Unfortunately, throughout the nineteenth century, a rather degraded version of Marian emerged, lacking the strength and power of her previous incarnations and rich symbolic legacy. Relegated to a dainty, chaste and highborn maiden, she became defined almost completely by her relationship to Robin. Their tale became a respectable Victorian love story, complete with a happy ending when the pair were married in St Mary’s Church, Edwinstowe, by King Richard Lionheart. This idyllic narrative sanitised the story for Victorian audiences by allowing Robin and Marian to take on a civilised life and put their rebellious past aside.

..social attitudes towards women ensured her character would change dramatically, transforming her from a symbol of lusty fertility to a demure maiden and a model of virtue

With the advent of film in the twentieth century, the character of Marian has again been rewritten many times, her heroic potential increasing alongside the progression of the women’s rights movement. The popular eighties television series Maid Marian and her Merry Men saw her as the unlikely leader of the gang, with Robin as her haphazard companion, while in 1991’s Prince of Thieves she fought as well as any man could, despite ultimately needing rescue. The latest offering of Robin Hood films from director Ridley Scott sees Maid Marian as refreshingly independent, strong and astute. Finally breaking free from the shackles of the traditional damsel in distress stereotype, she is given a competent backstory as a woman fighting for the rights of her people.

Maid Marian’s story is a perfect illustration of how elements of traditional folklore are merged, appropriated and amended to suit the current times. As an archetype used to express ideals of femininity, her status and strength has wavered, reflecting social attitudes towards women over an extensive period of time.

From seductive sea goddess, mystical May queen, and courageous warrior, through to dainty maiden and back again, she’s got a hell of a reputation behind her. We are now getting closer to representing a Marian of strength, depth and potential, who is a testament to her character’s rich legacy. Let’s ensure our modern Marian is a local icon to be proud of.

Q @thedilettantegazette

We Might Not Be Here This Time Next Year

As LeftLion enters its 21st year of publishing independent journalism in Nottingham, it’s fair to say that it’s harder financially to keep this all going right now than ever.

You might notice there’s not a lot of free magazines of the quality of this around. There’s a reason for that. The cost of creating, publishing and delivering LeftLion has increased by more than 50% since 2019. Unfortunately advertising revenue, which covers the bulk of the costs for each issue, has also decreased in that time.

Why is this? Nottingham’s once-thriving events and hospitality industry – a core part of our advertising revenue –has come straight out of a pandemic and into a global energy and cost of living crisis. Their costs are rising dramatically, which is why there are currently more empty units around Nottingham than in any time since we’ve existed. Those who still have their lights on have less to spend on marketing.

The cuts at Nottingham City Council are affecting us too. Although we are not directly funded by them – or indeed any other public body in the city – a side effect of the Section 114 notice they have had placed on them is that some of our biggest advertisers are not currently able to advertise with us. This is despite the fact we help them to make more money when they do.

It's a mess, and we don’t mind admitting it’s putting us in a tight spot.

We are increasingly aware that there might be a time when we might not be able to keep printing this magazine each month. So if you’d like to do something to support LeftLion and help make sure that doesn’t happen there are two main things you can do:

1. Become a LeftLion Supporter

It’s a monthly donation of £2-10 via Patreon. You can cancel it at any time and there are various perks involved too. Visit www.patreon.com/leftlion to find out more. Or if you’d prefer to make a one-off donation another way please email support@leftlion.co.uk for details.

2. Tell anyone you know with a business who would like to feature in this magazine about us

Our rates start at less than £100 and unlike most of the corporate-owned media, local people trust us, our readers make us. Email partners@leftlion.co.uk to discuss.

LeftLion gives us a chance to take a breath and reflect on life in Nottingham; shining a light on the positive in our city, lending an ear to the quieter voices and giving you a space to be (sometimes Over)heard. We’ve never been more needed and yet we’ve never been more at risk.

If you love LeftLion #SupportLeftLion

TRUTH OR LEGEND?

THE CASE OF ST ANN'S WELL

Amid the sprawl of suburban streets surrounding our dear city lurks a lost treasure of Nottingham's history; an ancient holy spring whose icy cold waters were once revered for their magical healing properties.

Back when the expanse of Sherwood Forest engulfed the small dwelling from which Nottingham grew, the area we now know as St Ann's was renowned as a site of unique interest: a place of sacred pilgrimage, mysterious rituals and later, decadent revelry. First recorded in 1301 as Brodewell, it would soon become known as the Owswell, in likely reference to 'Eostre', the goddess of fertility, which was later absorbed into the Christian festival of Easter. Each year on black Monday as it was then known, the townsfolk would descend on the site for a jolly good knees up.

Much to the annoyance of locals, the spring was appropriated by the monks of Lenton Priory in the early 14th Century, who dedicated the well and the adjourning chapel they built on the site to St Ann. Yet despite lending the district its enduring name, the monks didn't have long to enjoy their ill gotten gain, for the priory was dissolved within a year, and the site became devoted to increasingly secular and debauched pursuits. Before long it had evolved into a pleasure ground for the amusement of the local population.

Whatever its official title, to the people of Nottingham it would always be Robin Hood's Well, the rumoured trysting place of our beloved rebel. Indeed, around the turn of the 19th century it was the site of a small museum of relics, said to belong to the outlaw, and was home to a mysterious group who called themselves the Brotherhood of the Chair. Their initiation ritual

was said to have involved being seated in Robin Hood's chair and capped with his iron cap. While there were rumours of more secretive rites, many contend that this consisted of little more than the consumption of large quantities of ale.

Alas, as significant as the well was to the forebears of Nottingham, it was not considered as important as the development of the city. When the Nottingham Suburban Railway was built in 1857 the area was demolished and with it the whereabouts of this ageold relic of Nottingham's past was lost to history, though it is now thought to have been located around the junction of the Wells and Kildare roads. An excavation of the area in 1987 established that an ancient spring still flows beneath the surface, yet sadly, attempts to establish a heritage site to preserve the legacy of this important landmark came to nought.

The regenerative effects of medicinal springs are often down to a number of factors - a high density of minerals in a particular area, a population without more regular access to fresh clean water, and of course more holistic ancient religious beliefs regarding our relationship with the Earthbut either way, it makes for a fascinating local legend. And while progress is undoubtedly important, we should strive to protect the historical treasures we all too often lose along the way.

words: Sophie Gargett

BEST OF THE MONTH

International Women’s Day with Sisters of Sound

When: Friday 8 March, 6pm - 3am

Where: The Bodega

How much: Free before 11pm

To celebrate IWD Nottingham’s all female vinyl DJ collective Sisters of Sound will be playing a bonanza set of records, from funk and soul, to house and disco to filthy garage rock and punk! Supermart will be hosting Pop Confessional upstairs, and Beeanka playing tunes in the courtyard. Bringing together the SoS crew for this special event, including Starstruck, Cherry Fuzz, Sonia Stiff, Kat

Among The Pigeons, Tess, at their residency home of The Bodega, these sisters have got it down!

Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World

When: Tues 12 – Sat 16 March

Where: Theatre Royal

How much: £13.50 to £30

Follow the inquisitive Jade as she breaks away from her class to take a peek behind the scenes at the local museum’s Gallery of Greatness. Based on the popular children’s book by Suffragette relative Kate Pankhurst, this empowering musical features heroines from Frida Kahlo, Rosa Parks and Amelia Earhart to Mary Seacole, Marie Curie and Emmeline Pankhurst, with an array of characters and songs to inspire.

James Arthur

When: Tues 19 March

Where: Motorpoint Arena

How much: From £36

Following the announcement of his huge UK arena tour with most shows now sold-out, James Arthur has added extra dates due to the phenomenal demand. His X-Factor winning vocals pull in fans from every city. The news follows his recent return with new singles; Blindside & A Year Ago and the announcement of his fifth, brand new studio album Bitter Sweet Love

Osheen Siva: Karappu

When: Sat 16 Mar - 4 May

Where: Bonington Gallery

How much: Free

Ensure you don't miss the first UK exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Osheen Siva, famous for their art which encompasses painting, drawing, performance and public art. Their work brings together comic books, sci-fi, and the vibrant colours of South India to create wild and dreamlike characters. Sure to provoke thought and enlighten those previously unaware of their masterful decolonial works, complete with strains of queer power prominent throughout.

'Hedda' by Andrew Whittle

When: Tue 26 - Thurs 28 March

Where: Nottingham Arts Theatre

How much: £20

Andrew Whittle’s new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic, naturalist play Hedda Gabler, dramatises the experiences of the titular Hedda, the daughter of a general trapped in a marriage and a house that she does not want, believing her years of youthful abandon are over. Called a ‘malicious woman of evil instincts’ by critics at the time, this new adaptation of Hedda is sure to entertain, over 100 years after the original.

Ray Bradshaw: Doppelginger

When: Thurs 28 March

Where: Metronome

How much: From £14.50

Multi-award winning comedian Ray Bradshaw is forever being told “you look just like my mate…” wherever he goes. In his brand-new show Doppelginger, Ray is going to use the latest in genetic research (the internet) to try and put an end to this once and for all. He’s on a quest to find the person who looks most like him. Why not rally your red-headed friends and see if there’s a match.

Black Iris Spring Bash

When: 29 - 31 March

Where: Black Iris Brewery

How much: Free

The Annual Spring Bash Easter Weekender is here and jam-packed full of fun! With food from Living Goods and live screen printing from Nottigham's finest: Dizzy Ink! Plus a whole host of sour, fruited and weird-ass beers curated by Black Iris Brewery! Expect some deliciousness from the likes of Holy Goat, Little Earth Crossover Blendery. The Easter Sunday mini-market is unmissable! Oh, and of course as it's Easter... There will be chocolate!

Elvana: Elvis Fronted Nirvana

When: Sat 30 March

Where: Rock City

How much: £27.50

From the bowels of Disgraceland, rock n’ roll icons of the afterlife are raised from the dead! Rock n’ Roll meets Grunge as Elvis fronts Nirvana and gives the band the front-man it’s been missing since ’94. Elvana will tear through Nirvana’s catalogue whilst splicing in grunged-up sections of the king-of-rockand-rolls finest moments, culminating in a whopper mash-up of overdrive and old school Rockabilly. It will smell like cheeseburgers and teen spirit, you have been warned! Daddy-o!