MOVEMENT & WELLBEING

Since the start of our Elders Project in 2017 where we delivered four strands of activity, and cemented existing partnerships with new collaboration, we have been exploring all manner of project ideas with those partnerships.

Route 34: Embracing Cultures, our recent collaboration was a visionary and ambitious project celebrating the Commonwealth Games hosted in Birmingham. This was a first for the North Birmingham Alliance (NBA).  The NBA is a collaboration of four key Black arts organisations in the north of the city, Black Arts Forum, Black Voices, Ace Dance and Music and the Legacy Centre of Excellence. The programme developed from the concept of bringing Caribbean inspired costumes to the streets of Birmingham and reaching the diversity of communities that line the A34 route from the city centre to north-west Birmingham. Route 34 enabled us to present a major element of Caribbean carnival culture with multiple voices from community choirs led by Black Voices. They commissioned the anthem ‘We Rise’ composed by Ken Burton and was launched by over 800 mass choral singers in Symphony Hall and performed in parks, shopping centres and arts venues throughout the Birmingham Festival 2022.