Category: Grassroots Channel

Meeting and talking to people doing fabulous things in communities.

Heritage and Community – The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery – a new podcast on the Grassroots Channel

On Remembrance Sunday we meet two people who’ve put 18 months of effort into building a community group around their local cemetery in Birmingham. The Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery have found an unlikely way to build a community in their neighbourhood and Anne Courbet and Barrie Simpson tell us about the link between history, heritage and our sense of togetherness. We also hear about a film which is taking one of Birmingham’s active citizens to Holland and you can see in December at a b:cen event called Activists & Authorities – Collision or Cohesion.

Birmingham Community Empowerment Network (dead link)

Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery

From paint balling to leadership – a new podcast on the Grassroots Channel

TYGA is a youth group in Balsall Heath in Birmingham which began with fun and conversation and yet in just over a year has raised thousands for charity through a 500 mile bike ride, travelled to Pakistan to help with earthquake relief and started a regular street clean-up in their own neighbourhood.

Sue Beardsmore talks to Kamran Fazil about the next steps for TYGA – a structured leadership programme for young people.

We also want to wish 120 students from Queensbridge School good luck this week with their day on the streets of Balsall Heath in Birmingham, meeting different neighbours and helping clean up the neighbourhood. It’s all part of an extension of their citizenship teaching in collaboration with the Balsall Heath Forum.

Links

TYGA The Young Generation’s Association (dead link)

Birmingham Community Empowerment Network (supports the podcast) (dead link)

Written pdf giving more information and contact details for TYGA (dead link)

Until My Dying Day – Nocks’ Brickworks in Erdington – a new podcast on the Grassroots Channel

Mike Overton has fought for years to prevent developers building homes on an old waste tip and clap pit in Erdington in Birmingham, UK. He talks to Emma Lewis of b:cen about the site and why protecting it matters so much to him. Also in the programme a thanks to listeners in Belgrade and Birmingham who mentioned our programmes on their blogs and more information of the Podminions, a podcast channel run by pupils at Kings Norton Boys School.

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Soweto Kinch on life in Birmingham 19 – Grassroots Channel Podcast 24

Soweto Kinch is a jazz and hip hop musician living in a tower block overlooking the Hockley Flyover in Birmingham.

He’s just finished working with the newsreader Moira Stuart to release the first of two albums which tell the story of living in his neighbourhood – the Newtown, Aston, Lozells area of the city. In programme 24 of the Grassroots Channel he explains how the music in A Life in the Day of B19 is motivated by a passion for using culture to lift a neighbourhood. Any comments please leave them here.

Links:
Soweto still performs and works at The Drum
Dune Jazz publishes and sells his work. Thanks for the help Janine! (dead link)
Soweto on Myspace
Soweto’s Album on Amazon A life in the day of B19
More about Soweto Kinch and his many awards.

Click below to listen to the podcast

(this was updated in Feb 2018 just to add some links to twitter etc – otherwise the content is the same)