On Our Doorsteps
On Our Doorsteps is an international programme of community engagement, creative learning and public realm commissioning, building & enriching connections between diverse and marginalised urban and peri-urban communities and the green spaces in and around their cities, and places of natural beauty and biodiversity that are just a short bus-ride away. Delivered in partnership with communities in Norwich, Lancaster & Hull, On Our Doorstepswill explore the relationships that individuals and communities have with nature, landscape, local places and wider environmental issues, connecting local and global contexts.
Artists
Breakwater
Breakwater is a London-based Korean diaspora artists duo of Youngsook Choi and Taey Iohe. With a mutual interest in counter-narratives of ancestral/indigenous knowledge and queer methodologies, Breakwater's practice centres around the socio-politics of neo/colonialism, climate justice, and migrants' lived experiences. Breakwater is the recipient of ACE project grant (2020-2022) for the diaspora healing project Becoming Forest which proposes mental health as a collective responsibility and adopts a folk healing approach of engaging seasons and nature as critical healers. Currently, Breakwater is developing a new work around Canvey Island towards the Estuary Festival 2025.
https://youngsookchoi.com/category/works
Henna Asikainen
Henna Asikainen is concerned with humans’ complex relationship with nature and its intersections with social justice, climate justice, migration and notions of belonging. Her practice often revolves around participation with people who have a lived experience of displacement and of seeking sanctuary. These participatory projects explore ecological and social issues through communal experiences within rural landscapes and examine issues such the importance of access to nature and green spaces and how a sense of homelessness – of not belonging – is produced through exclusion. www.hennaasikainen.com
Tiitu Takalo
Tiitu Takalo is a Finnish artist originating from Tampere. She is a feminist, comic artist, illustrator and visual artist. She has eight published graphic novels to date, some of which have been translated from Finnish into other languages such as English, French, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish. Her work often deals with connections between individuals, community and place. She has also self-published numerous zines, and her comics have featured in various small-press publications and anthologies. https://tiitutakalo.net/en/
Zakiya Mackenzie
Zakiya Mackenzie is a journalist, academic and writer. She is a PhD candidate with the Leverhulme Trust-supported Caribbean Literary Heritage project at the University of Exeter researching Black British journalism in the post-war period and was the 2019 writer-in-residence for Forestry England. In Bristol, she was 2017 Black and Green Ambassador and is a volunteer at Ujima Community Radio station. She regularly leads nature, art and writing workshops, including one on Caribbean storytelling for primary schools. https://zakiyamckenzie.com
Partners
