Postgraduate Sustainability Award 2022 Winner

Throughout March and May, I have been facilitating creative writing and storytelling workshops with a group of male refugees aged 18-35 who live in South Shields. I was invited to design and run these eight sessions in partnership with an organisation called CREST (Compact for Race Equality in South Tyneside) and the Customs House, an arts centre and theatre situated on the south bank of the River Tyne. The workshops have culminated in the co-production of a podcast episode titled 'Journey from the Sun to the Sea: Finding Light through Storytelling', which features poetry and talking points generated through the sessions. We will be working together with BBC Newcastle and ITV to promote the podcast and hope that it will be played on independent radio stations such as Resonance FM and Slack’s Radio. 

This project will influence new thinking as the podcast episode will expose the general public to the stories of refugees and asylum seekers. Moreover, because we emphasised the importance of playing games and creating a fun space within which all participants could safely engage, much of the content created also paints a more intimate and complete picture of the individuals involved. As such, I hope that this will work toward sustainably reducing inequality by challenging assumptions about these groups that are made within society.

Image credit: Margarita Rebolledo.

Undergraduate Sustainability Award 2022 Winner

Activism Anxiety Comic

With this comic, I wanted to show a side of sustainability that people might forget, which impacts those who wish to be involved with activism.

Nowadays, being present on the internet and social media is very common. It is the primary channel through which news from worldwide gets transmitted for many. Unfortunately, online platforms are well known for being volatile and fast-paced. Because of that, many activism and news outlets decide to use an aggressive approach, with dramatic headlines and calls to action directly targeting the viewer so that it will grab their attention. This approach, paired with social media algorithms that analyse users' post interactions, leads to something that can be referred to as "doom scrolling". The more a user interacts with news and activism, the more the app will show them those topics, making them go down a rabbit hole of calls to action and upsetting news.

What is the real solution, then? Is there no way to play a part in making the world a better place? I find that a way to avoid burnout is to narrow down how we engage with social media. Instead of trying to answer every single call to action, we should look around us and try to engage with our community more. Concentrating on issues tied to our wellbeing and those close to us helps us make a tangible change, which leads to healthier boundaries and reachable goals. With a healthy mind, we can accomplish so much more.

Further Education Sustainability Award 2022 Winner

Ethics is commonly discussed in my work as I like to create art linked to my black culture. I do this as I like to uplift my culture and show it in a positive light as it's mainly surrounded by negative stereotypes which is the issue I am addressing. It is important to show people the truth and beauty about black culture and to tackle the agendas forced onto it.

I sewed a pattern of mine onto an oversized white t-shirt and was inspired to do so as it is a big part of black hip-hop culture. The white t-shirt was my grandad’s and he was going to throw it out and I offered to take it instead. I took a male top and have worn it as a woman to show that clothing should be for anyone regardless of gender. I then wanted to do some photoshoots for my top. I put it into three different aesthetics/styles which was a nineties hip-hop style, a skater style (skateboarding) and an African style.

I feel as if Africa is often surrounded with negative stereotypes about it being a poor continent. I decided to go against these stereotypes by creating a look rich in colour, accessories and pattern. I wanted to show that this could be worn by everyone and could be styled into different aesthetics meaning that it could be worn multiple times and look different each time.

I would say that a factor of the overconsumption of clothing is that people will buy something that can’t be worn in different ways, leading them to buy more clothing to fit different styles. Throughout this whole project, the only item I bought was sateen to print my pattern onto, and I paid for the images of my pattern to be printed off using disperse dye inks so that I could transfer my pattern onto the sateen. I have kept my leftover material and used some of it in my nineties photoshoot as a bandana. All the clothing and accessories used in the photoshoots are owned by me. Even the false hair used in the photoshoots was leftover from aprevious hairstyles of mine.

Further Education Sustainability Award 2022 Runner Up

My work refers to the social issue of homelessness, but more broadly I am looking at inequality between the rich and poor. The work itself reflects the feeling of being trapped when one is forced to live on the streets. Now more than ever this topic is essential to talk about.

With the recent 54% increase in energy bills, and further increases to council tax, car tax and water bills, the amount of people being left homeless is appalling. Another recent cause of an increase in these cases is Covid-19, which has led to more unemployment. As well as general issues with low wages and other personal reasons for this extreme poverty.

With predictions that homelessness in the UK will jump by a third by 2024, this topic is the first of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Most of the UN’s goals are aimed to be reached by 2030, but with Covid-19 still having a huge effect on the economy, as well as the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war, it doesn’t seem feasible. We have less than 8 years to reach these goals, however, general household costs will continue to rise as my generation becomes homeowners. 50% of all homeless people are under the age of 18, so how are these people meant to climb out of their situations when prices are only going to get worse.

Whilst 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted, almost 2 billion people still go hungry or malnourished. The gap between rich and poor is huge, and as the UN stated, it has been growing wider, and this is only getting worse. The statistics for this topic are shocking, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals website states, “The richest 10% have up to 40% of global income whereas the poorest 10% earn only between 2 to 7%” Inequality is the broad topic of my discussion. It’s the goal that if combatted could solve other issues, including homelessness.