LEICESTER SPEAKS 2011 STEERING GROUP

A meeting of the steering group for Leicester Speaks 2011 this morning at Leicester Adult Education College, Wellington Street. As well as Leicester Council of Faiths, there are participants here today from:

• Citizens' Eye Community News Agency
• Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service
• Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce
• Novas Scarman Group
• TouchRainbow Productions

LOOKING FORWARD TO AN INDIAN SUMMER

A lunchtime meeting (despite the distinct absence of lunch) at Phoenix Square Film & Digital Media Centre with Jiten Anand of TouchRainbow Productions, to discuss An Indian Summer, which is taking place at Phoenix Square, 18-19 June.

Rosemarie Fitton's with us, as she's coming to the end of her 30 hours placement with Leicester Council of Faiths as part of her MA in Interreligious Relations at St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multifaith Society. More than that, she has loads to contribute to such an event; Jiten starts reeling her in today for the 2012 version!

Our contribution is a talk entitled "How Diverse is Leicester?" scheduled for 1740 on the Saturday. That's what I'm here to discuss with Jiten, although our conversation spills over into more than just that. We'll be putting up our exhibition in Phoenix Square over that weekend too.

Visit the website for an Indian Summer. 

Check out the Facebook page for An Indian Summer.

RIVERSIDE FESTIVAL 2011

At the Riverside Festival, around Bede Island in the west end, for a couple of hours this afternoon. This is a great little weekend event. I used to live in this part of Leicester for four years and have seen this occasion grow in that short time to become a real highlight of summer in the city.

The guys from touchRainbow Productions have a display here, promoting An Indian Summer - their ambitious weekend extravaganza being held at Phoenix Square Film & Digital Media Centre in just a fortnight from now.

In the photo: Jiten Anand, Kenton Hall and Bipin Anand (from touchRainbow Productions) on one side of the table; Harry and Grace (from me) on the other.

IT'S THOSE TOUCHRAINBOW GUYS!

Popping into Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre just before 1700, in the cafe-bar I find the three guys from TouchRainbow Productions: Jiten Anand, Pritesh Varia and Bipin Anand (l-r in the photo above). I'd worked with them on Leicester Speaks (AKA Local Democracy Week) last year and in the planning of Get Inspired 2010 (though this didn't come off) before that.

Pritesh greets my arrival as "a sign", telling me that they're working on a plan for a new project that they want me to be involved in. They show me where they've written my name on a big, involved spidery diagram, but they can't tell me what it is yet.

I talk with them about the upcoming documentary festival being held here in a fortnight. They haven't heard of this, but quickly show their enthusiasm for getting involved. I've been asked if there's a short documentary on the topic of faith(s) in Leicester, but haven't been able to come up with anything. The guys express surprise that no one's made such a film before. I hope that thought might grow into something in their creative heads.

I show them the flyer for my panel in March at Amplified Leicester and the three of them promise to come and support it. I wonder if I should ask them to video it (with Sue Thomas's consent, of course).

Just a few minutes after I sit down with them, my son Alastair appears in the cafe-bar. They've never met each other, but shortly after I introduce them, they're discussing possible joint music and video projects. What a great place for creativity Phoenix Square has become! And for the second evening in a row, it's really busy; we're asked that, since we're not eating, could we move somewhere else and free up the table for diners. That's a first!

training event for LASALS staff

This morning, I'm taking part in a training event for staff in Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service (LASALS) at Leicester Adult Education College (LAEC), Wellington Street.

When I was a Basic Skills tutor at the Adult Education College (2003-05), "staff training" used to involve no more than a dozen of us, fitted snugly into the resource room on the third floor. Today's event is being held in the Hansom Hall and there are 80-odd people here.

Our route into this event is through the Council of Faiths having participated in "Leicester Speaks" (AKA Local Democracy Week) in October. Some of the groups that joined in that event are here today - most notably ourselves, Citizens' Eye Community News Agency and TouchRainbow Productions.

First speaker is Chris Minter (Head of Service), then Parmjit Basra (Project Officer) introduces Leicester Speaks and after a few minutes he hands the mic to me. I go up on the stage and speak for a quarter of an hour. I can't help but mention my own experience as a tutor in this building and the degree of a\ffection in which I hold the Adult Education College. When I started working here, it was the last few months in which the college enjoyed some degree of independence from the City Council. Coming within the system assured LAEC's continued survival and support, but it had to give up a lot in the process.

When the Leicester Speaks DVD is shown later, just before the break at 1100, I must confess to watching it beaming with pride. As soon as it's over, I nip back to Pilgrim House for a few more freebies - leaflets, flyers, keyfobs etc - for the attendees (I underestimated the number I thought might be here today).

I take advantage of the break to dash off to Phoenix Square for the last half hour of CreativeCoffee Club.

Find out more about Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service:
http://www.lasals.co.uk/

LEICESTER SPEAKS: 2

At Leicester Adult Education College, Wellington Street, this morning for the latest meeting of the group planning Leicester Speaks - our city's iteration of Local Democracy Week. This morning we're concentrating on the Big Launch and promotion of the event. Smaller number today, but everyone has something strong and positive to contribute. As well as Parmjit Basra, from Leicester City Council Adult Skills and Learning Service, who is leading the project, there's Jiten Anand and Shakti Sharma (TouchRainbow Productions), Ted Cassidy (Head of Partnerships, De Montfort University; Chair, Phoenix Square Film & Digital Media Centre), Bez Killeen (Active Involvement Youth Worker, Leicester City Council) and Kate Merrett (Office and Projects Manager, LeicestHer Day Trust)

The website is well advanced (though will be getting a major overhaul in the week ahead), a brochure has been designed (which will bear the Council of Faiths logo alongside those of other stakeholders and partners) and we discussed some other promotional materials to reach as wide a range of people as possible. We talked about a launch event too, though I won't spill the beans on that right now. Suffice to say that our launch would come on the third day in a row that the city centre will have been used as the site for some public event (proposed demonstration by the English Defence League on Saturday 9, Leicester Marathon on Sunday 10).

All I'll say just now is that the launch of Leicester Speaks will surely be the smallest of these and should cause much less disruption.