Porth y Cwtsh

Project intro & ideas

• The Investigation: • Fundamental questions: • What do you need right now? • What was it like here before? • What is the worst that could happen? • What is the best that could

We sent 13 artists out into the community of Porth to make discoveries. No specific outcomes were set.

happen?

• What are the best bits of

Porth?

Below is a short summary of investigations and discoveries made possible by the Connect and Flourish grant.

SNAP SHOT (play video below)

1. Band labs

Drop- in band sessions for boys…

Tom Stupple and Josh Evans Using music and song-writing as a tool to start conversations around identity, culture and community.

Worked over 5 weeks with A group of young people, who came into Porth for education in Welsh-medium secondary school Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhondda. The group were in year 10 and aged 14/15

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10UDa7xv5b_G_dTO8oljjU6TFalHrs8OL7C6R_OYgESM/edit?usp=sharing

Reconnecting people to a place Using music and song-writing as a tool to start conversations around identity, culture and community.

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Young people feel disconnected to/from Porth

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Listen to a song we created with them about Porth here: ‘History’s buried, living in the shadows Know our life’s will be the same all the time’

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It’s a space/place they move ‘through’

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The bands lab can reconnect people to their place

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It’s about people and positive news, raising up the voices of the community for leverage

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Remove the fear and enable them to reclaim spaces, e.g Bronwydd Park band stand. We rebuild it. It become s a space to gig.

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William Evans (character example): We celebrate these people with interconnecting projects and narratives, creating Anthems for each one.

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The 1980’s and somewhat of the 90’s saw Porth as one of the havens for local up and coming bands in Rhondda Cynon Taf. There were numerous ‘meeting places’ and spaces to play, but all of this has evaporated over 20 years and there is nothing to replace it. Yet the desire to play and meet and be seen remains.

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Meeting place of old

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Working with the group of boys/young men, they explained that lots of the creative clubs and outside of school creative activities are much easier for girls to access than boys. If you go to a youth drama, art or dance class then often nearly all the participants or a high percentage will be girls.

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Why?

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Partly because it's not seen as necessarily 'manly' to do creative stuff. So, boys are less likely to feel confident or comfortable going to creative clubs. Less likely to be encouraged by parents and less likely to have peers already going to those types of clubs.

Forced into the dark •

Is this a problem?

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We think so yes. It's a big problem as those outside of classroom activities are so important for health and wellbeing of young people. And sport clubs don't suit everyone. Also, anything that pushes back against gender stereotypes is really important in the Rhondda specifically. Otherwise, people will hang out in alleys, smoking, leaving their mark, and we love to moan about that.

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So why music?

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We think music is a good place to start as it suffers less from false perceptions of being only for girls. It's easier for young boys to say they are involved in a music/band project without facing ridicule from their peers.

Just drop in

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So what's the project?

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Band lab for boys. (no idea about title yet)

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Imagine a weekly drop-in centre at a specific ‘meeting place’ in a specific area, which you can attend as and when you wish. Bring yourself if you sing. Bring your guitar if you play guitar. Your trumpet, your saxophone, whatever you like.

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The sessions last 3 hours and each session you learn, as a group, whoever is there that evening, to play and sing a well-known pop, rock, folk trac which has been chosen that evening. The boys just have to turn up.

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Tutors will be there to support the learning and each final play will be recorded and archived and gifted back to anyone who plays that evening.

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At the core the project is about trying new things and growing confidence and self-esteem. It is not about trying to find the next pop star.

Everyone is welcome •

We would love to ensure we have some instruments at hand in the space for those absolute beginners who turn up. Those who have maybe never played and maybe manage a few chords or notes by the end of the session. Everyone will be equal partners in the evening whatever their level, experience, or background.

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As a follow on to this, we have been thinking about the relationship many boys and young men have with their fathers/Carers, many of whom are absent from their lives. These sessions will give many boys from the area a moment of ‘looking up to someone’. Of finding their mentor or a male role model they may not have.

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Also, if this project becomes a sustainable model, what we will hopefully see is, quite organically, bands being formed once they feel they have ‘grown out of these sessions’, friendships being created through music and a chance for many of these boys to by pass the drug and alcohol route so many take.

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They may end up playing in all these old ‘meeting places’ again.

• The sessions will be about celebrating the local. Beginning with our project in Porth which has already had its mini pilot project.

• Build on what’s strong not what’s wrong was the tag line of that project and having already engaged with this willing and enthusiastic group of boys who are keen to keep going, this fund seems like the perfect starting point for longer term relationships with boys in the area.

Keep going

Bronwydd Band Stand • Tom is also keen to see the band stand at Bronwydd Park we rebuilt. • It could be a fabulous spot for open air gigs for some of the bands and individuals who may flourish during these sessions. • Could we create a community build event to make this happen?

There is already a big redevelopment about to happen in this area. We feel the Park should be a major factor in this.

Video of ‘getting ready to blow your mind’

2. Take a seat….(but where) Upcycling project highlighting the disconnect between Porth town centre and its people

Take A Seat: short trailer Watch trailer below:

• There is nowhere to sit, at all.

• The closure of the road is an ongoing conversation….but where do we sit? Where do we hang out? In corners? In alleyways? Forcing people into

darkness is basically what is happening here.

Hannah Street (just passing through)

• Nowhere where we can create little moments, so here we are on waste land. (even

the powers that be tried to get us to move away. )

‘one stop shop street’ • Hannah Street is a ‘one stop shop street’ because…there is nowhere to sit, and chat, and just…be.

• Linking with litter pickers, Bridie created a series of ‘moments’, inviting people to ‘take a seat’. Seats she had created by upcycling old furniture and rescuing little and creating beautiful art installations outside 5 shops. • Idea: An opportunity here to work with businesses, creating art installations for each shop as a promotional activity, inviting the public to get creative and design and build these with us, which reflects each shop, and brings each shops story to life.

Bridie explains where some of her ideas are taking her

Community, shops and artists • Create a big one day event, closing off the street, and a mass upcycling project benefiting businesses, local artists and the local community. • Great PR opportunity promoting the amazing independent businesses of Hannah Street and an opportunity to get the chamber of commerce working together for the common good.

Connect and Flourish round 2 • We have put an EOI in for CF2 in partnership with Menter Iaith, Age Cymru, RCT Regeneration Team and RCT Arts Service. • If successful, the second stage of our

work I would start mid 2022

• People in uniform link. A character with a direct link between all projects.

3. Porth Town Crier: reborn

Inspired by 1911 Porth resident and Town John William Moore – the idea was to create a Town Crier for Porth.

• A character which allows Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation to flourish https://organizingenga gement.org/models/la dder-of-citizenparticipation/

The new Pirate Messiah • Porth Town Crier will allow sincere co-creation to happen within the community. A character who tells news brings people together.

• The kids on the streets thought he was a pirate and followed us for an age, proclaiming him as their new pirate Messiah.

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He enables small interactions and longer sustainable interactions, both equally as valid with genuine and sincere outcomes.

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He will already be visible in the Porth Xmas activities 2021 people loved him so much.

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He is ever present. When is appears, the town will know an event is imminent. He will proclaim it through the streets. He is the original social media news feed.

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Glynfach Town Crier chats:

“Porth is one of the best places on earth“ -child “Not many good things about it”- adult

• People opened up to him along our journey • A group of kids in Cymer showed us their play area. ‘The dump’, which they described as magic. Upon looking, we discovered a small puddle and a mound of Earth. A possible opportunity here to work with such kids transforming their ‘dump’ into what they sincerely want it to be, engaging locals artists, designers and landscapers, possibly funded by the National Trust.

The dump: magic

• Every single adult in that area complained about the lack of ‘playing areas’ for their kids. Not parks, just safe spaces to play. This was a huge issue. An done articulated over and over again.

• Porth Town Crier is a ‘character’ we should fund. • Developing workshops to speak with the community, enabling conversations. Sometimes in safe spaces, sometimes by now and again, roaming street to street. • He will pop up at the Upcycling event on Hannah Street and the band lab will create an anthem for him. He links all projects, gives us our sense of place. • More findings from Jennifer Lunn:

He’s here, he’s there, he’s everywhere…

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qgFjbV rqO6x2VwLjOXRUhlccXkoyZcjF/edit?usp=sha ring&ouid=112735135617832466106&rtpof=tru e&sd=true

• Art in the derelict. There is always ‘something’ in nothing

4. The unseen

• Idea: Photography project with older people, using disposable cameras, encouraging health and wellbeing and a sense of safety as they wander around Porth

Art in the derelict •

A monthly photography tour of Porth for older adults.

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Each month, a different individual will take the group on a ‘tour of Porth’ which is important or means something to them.

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When we say tour, it can be a street, an alley, a park, even a bus stop which holds a memory.

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The group, using a disposable camera given to each of them, will take pics of what ‘they’ see on each tour, and we will create a monthly exhibition as a gift back to that individual and the community of Porth.

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As a part of each exhibition will be a video of that individuals story and memory of that specific area, therefore captured in the 1 st person and 3rd person in equal measure.

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Important to note that Hugh Griffiths, our expert photographer, will encourage individuals to see what isn’t usually looked at.

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This project will encourage creative bilingualism in spades.

Hugh’s findings: whose poetry is it anyway? •

Children and young people are very mobile around Porth and surrounding areas ranging from Barry Sidings to Tonypandy to further up the valley (e.g. .Gelli Skate Park and Treorchy Park the later has a large feld for gatherings/drinking etc.)

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Children would be seen in Bronwydd Park and Mt Pleasant and between Mt Pleasant and Porth Station on the same night.

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Mobile Street-based Youth Vans as Locatons for Actvity: YEPS have 2 mobile Youth vans with power supplies, gazebo and seating area that could be focal points for artistic activity.

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SUCBvNZLehJcCgYo4uNmvQkQmxexfYp/vie w?usp=sharing

Penis and Poems: a retrospective exhibition of street art in Porth and the Rhondda • Taking the ideas of ethnography, this exhibition is led by where the people take us, the idea of multiple ideas and meanings gathered on top of each other, reflecting Porth’s past, present and future. --Link up with Ynyhir’s Workers Gallery. • The Gully Galleries which could also link up with an Instagram gallery where we curate a virtual series.

• Is there a link up here with the National Museum of Wales? • These galleries present micro histories of very specific areas in and around Porth.

Spin off ideas to the Gully Gallery and Penis and Poems gallery • Short monologues and plays to be created from the graffiti poetry which is found and curated. • Short monologue series recorded and presented on socials, using local actors. • Social media investigative posts of how each penis has been constructed giving an

intimate insight into who created it and why, exploring which way up each penis is pointing. • A detailed account of each building which plays host to the graffiti and poems, lifting local History.

Mythical Welsh Beasts. Creation of Beastery- the beasts of Porth •

Create a beast hunt around Hannah Street and Porth.

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These mythical beasts will be created by the community and will be a virtual sculpture trail. Using AI and augmented reality, you will need to find the beasts which will then come to life using smart codes and QR codes.

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Will need to work with businesses and Regen team for permission to paint in specific areas.

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A great form of social engineering to try and get footfall into Hannah Street maybe?

•Working with schools and community members to create imaginary beasts of Porth – where do they live, what do they look like, what problems do they solve/create. This potentially will be developed into a battle game and can be integrated with the drama group as activity/prop for the medicine woman character. This can also function as a creative consultation tool as a means to uncover peoples ideas about Porth and its locations.

•Several young people stated they liked drawing fantasy creatures so this could be an additional way to engage with them. •

Maybe a Beasts of Porth Magazine can be created, bilingually.

Summary of findings from Hugh https://drive.google.com/file/d/10PZtdgx563uUtCJ7khAy4jn vk-UG09py/view?usp=sharing

5. Llwyncelyn and the Rocket to Mars • Becky Davies and Anne Lord have focused their attentions in Llwyncelyn, Porth. • The focus of this aspect of the project is aligned back with the initial idea for the project, that there is a crater on MARS named after Porth. • Info below: • https://leewayproductions.com/porth-ycwtsh/

• Becky and Anne created a fabulous ZINE and posted them through the letter boxes of the residence of Porth • Take a look at the Zine

here: • https://fliphtml5.com/mrti

The ZINE

e/ioxy

Working directly with local craftspeople and community • Working with Barry who specializes in metal work, and some local rag and bone men and women, we will collect scrap metal and work with the community to build the rocket which will take the best bit of us and Porth to Mars

Rocket Parade Play short sting below:

• Imagine this finished rocket travelling through Porth as a Parade. • Through Hannah Street with a whole carnival of people following it as it moves towards it’s destination, Porth Rugby Club.

The Parade • Maybe the rocket is carried on an old Corona pop truck with the Porth Town Crier guiding it?

Llwyncelyn Community Garden • The ‘front street’ in Llwyncelyn have created their very own community garden.

• There is a group of creative and active older citizens living there who have stated they want a weekly creative event to happen at the Rugby Club where they can lead and share their creative skills with the community.

• Already, we have discussed spin off projects with the ‘front street’ which directly link with their amazing knowledge of the local area, including Kemps Pond and all the incredible communities which used to be around Llwyncelyn and Barry Sidings but have now been knocked down an disappeared.

Spin off projects

• This map was shared with us and the fascination they have for their own square mile is something we should support.

History/Time/Place If we are to take the best bits of Porth with us, should we be looking at the best bits of the past 100 years?

Should we be taking the forgotten should who once lived at Kemps Pond. A place and time forgotten, where only small grave stones remain of this once vibrant community?

The Porth Rocket to Mars project is probably the large scale main event and climax of our work in Porth. It would tie in all the other projects happening around Porth and bring all those factions of our community together for one large scale outdoor event and celebration .

THE CLIMAX OF OUR PROJECT

Porth y Cwtsh Branding, Identity and Image

• Stella Patrick, Angharad Lee, Hugh Griffiths and

Becky Davies will now develop a brand identity for the project.

Welsh and the Industrial Revolution •

It is the Industrial Revolution which saved our language in South Wales.

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It kept the Welsh here and spread the language far and wide.

• It remained the language of the people and the language of our chapels, our Culture.

• We desperately need a new revolution to happen in Porth to enable our language to be the language of the street.

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100 years ago, it was the building and creation of the mines.

• 2022 could see the beginnings of building all the rockets which will take us to MARS….or at least, take our best bits to MARS…including out accent and language. •

Some people are already up there mind you. Have a listen below:

March 2022 • Porth Rugby Club want us to organise a Welsh night at the club.

• A great opportunity here to bring lots of our ideas together and present them in a fun way at this event. • What questionnaires etc do we need to create so we can hand them out? • We will provide a local Historian to give gems of information about Porth and its relevance in Wales • Suggested future event could be a topic of discussion at th event. How do we facilitate this?

TO DO: • Reflective podcast from the sound bites we have, capture a few interviews with the artists and Angharad • Brand identity for the project • Look at Welsh language aspect

• How do we present findings to ACW and also on social media soon? Need to get RCT arts development, RCT regeneration, Menter Iaith, Age Cymru, Interlink, ACW all on board to do this and share content.