….Because I long to belong
PassionArt is currently working in partnership with the Centre for Theology and Justice to curate an arts initiative that explores the role the arts are playing in issues of social justice within our cities and communities and to explore how the arts can further theological reflection on issues of justice.
We are using the theme of BELONGING as a way to consider a number of issues related to social justice. (I.e. diversity, gender, poverty, mental health, homelessness, refugees and many more) Working alongside graphic word artist Micah Purnell we aim to generate some creative responses for the project that can be used to grow a city wide conversation around the theme of Belonging. To begin our research we would like to invite a number of people from a variety of backgrounds and contexts to tell us what belonging means to them.
Would you consider contributing your thoughts to our research?
We would like you to write between 300 – 600 words on a personal response or a story explaining what belonging means to you. You might want to use any of the following as a starting point for your writing.
-
-
-
-
- Where do you feel you belong? This might be a place, a village, a community, a family, a nation, a faith/religion, a small group of friends, a job, a social grouping, an identity grouping, a social media group, and many more. It may be a number of things or just one or two.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- What makes you feel you belong? It might be the shared rituals you perform together, the similar clothes you wear, the birth place you share, the ideals you share, the stories you share together, the life that you have experienced together etc.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- What does belonging feel like? Can you describe the emotions that are associated with this word for you?
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Do you have any objects that are special to you that signify your sense of belonging? These might be ornaments passed down to you through family, or a piece of jewellery, or an object you use in ritual, a book, a piece of cloth or clothing, anything that holds meaning and memory about your sense of belonging. Perhaps you can tell the story around the objects, or send us a photograph to help tell your story.
-
-
-
Please can you send us an image to accompany your words, it may be of a place, your community or an object, or perhaps an old family photo, but we will need to have copyright permission to use it. If you would like to contribute:
- Please can you send your text and image by email to lesley@passionart.uk as a word document and a jpeg high res image.
- Please also provide a one sentence short biography of yourself.
- By agreeing to submit a reflection you are giving permission for PassionArt to publish and use it as a part of the project.
- Can you visit our website www.ilongtobelong.co.uk and complete the sentence …..because I long to belong on our web wall? Please encourage your friends to join the conversation too.
- You may want to visit us on twitter – @ilongtobelong
- or at our Instagram page ‘becauseilongtobelong’