I Am Festival 2023

15 May 2023

Hip hip hooray! I Am Festival starts today!

I Am Festival is our yearly celebration empowering D/deaf, disabled, and neurodiverse young people to explore their creativity.

As you may know, this year’s festival is taking place over a month (15th May – 16th June). The theme for this year is Activism

We have lots of exciting things happening including:

• Our 5th I Am Network meeting of the year on Monday 15th May. This is being hosted at Roundhouse who will be sharing their Roundhouse Jam installation with us. This is a sensory, interactive installation for young people which they describe as ‘a gentle and playful slice of rave culture for everyone to enjoy.’ We’ll also be heading to the bar with the teachers afterwards to toast the start of the festival. If you’re around, come and say hi!
• A virtual dance party hosted by icandance on Tuesday 23rd May 11am – 12pm. This is for children and young people and we already have over 100 students from SEND schools signed up! We will be putting this up on the big screen in the GGH training room. If you’re available, please come along and join in for what I’m sure will be a very joyful and wholesome morning.
• A teacher CPD led by icandance on Thursday 8th June 2pm – 4pm at Jacksons Lane. Icandance will be delivering a workshop exploring how movement and dance can be used to empower d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse young people to communicate their choices and opinions, particularly those who are nonverbal. This is open to any teacher who may be working with a disabled young person.

• An online panel discussion for the cultural sector on Tuesday 13th June exploring the question: ‘How can we make activism accessible for d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse young people?’. So far we have Jodi-Alissa Bickerton, Creative Learning Director at Graeae Theatre, and one of their young associates confirmed to speak at this event. We are also hoping to hear from one of our network teachers as well as a disabled activist. This should be a really interesting conversation that will help to shape next year’s festival!

Alongside this, we have funded five projects which will be taking place in schools. These are:

• See Me! Hear Me! Workshops. Cherry Garden School and Watergate School have teamed up and will be working with local textile artists to create sensory banners. These will then be paraded somewhere in central London (hopefully on the Southbank!)
• Graffiti Workshops. Garratt Park School will be working with an artist to explore activism through street art. The work produced will be showcased in an exhibition at the school (details TBC).
• Chewing Gum workshops. TreeHouse School will be working with artist Ben Wilson to paint their activism inspired designs onto found pieces of chewing gum on the streets of North London. Brilliant and gross in equal measure!

• Upcycling Workshop. Marjorie McClure School will be working with a local charity, Greener Cleaner Hub, to teach their students about upcycling clothes and reducing waste. The students’ creations will then be exhibited in a fashion show.
• I Am Me parade and exhibition. Shenstone School will be creatively exploring the theme of activism with their students over the month before showcasing their creations in a parade and exhibition.

Our I Am Festival committee (six teachers from our I Am network) have also supported us to create a resource pack. They came up with the idea of creating sensory banners (like the one below) for which we are giving schools a bundle of materials to use. Chris Mackin has also created a protest song and we will be running a competition for schools to come up with the chorus. Roundhouse and Digit Music will be judging the winner!

We will also have our up and active for the month. Do keep checking it to see photos and videos of the amazing work happening. Please also share this with any partners who may be interested in this work and in finding out more about the I Am programme.

I think that’s everything! Please do share the events and help us to shout about this amazing festival and the work of the wonderful students and teachers in our network. And also come for a boogie on Tuesday 23rd June!