In Conversation with Mica Sefia
For the final episode of the Safe Spaces podcast Ella is joined by the wonderful Mica Sefia. Mica Sefia is a is a Leeds-based artist and Liverpool-born artist whose influences range from contemporary soul, pop, rock and folk resulting in music that feels deep in its roots and straight from the heart. As well as being an incredible musician, Mica speaks passionately about her experiences as a Black woman navigating the north west music scene, and is using her lived experiences to create a safer world for others within music spaces.
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In Conversation with the Merseyside Peer Action Collective
For this week’s episode of the Safe Spaces podcast Ella is joined by the incredible Peer Researchers behind Merseyside’s Peer Action Collective. The group are working to raise awareness of and eradicate youth violence by uplifting the voices of young people in the city and collating context based research around the root causes of youth violence and how we can help heal community wounds. You can find more about PAC at YPAS Liverpool under PAC.
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In Conversation with Range High School Inclusion Club
This week on the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands Safe Spaces Podcast, Ella had the joy of speaking to students from the Range High School Inclusion Club. The Inclusion Club is a space where students across year groups can meet, chat and create in a safe community space. The students give their insights on why spaces such as the Inclusion Club are so important, and ways in which schools can support their LGBTQ* students.
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In Conversation with Felix Mufti-Wright
In this week’s episode of the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands Safe Spaces Podcast Ella talks to Liverpool-based creative Felix Mufti-Wright. Felix is a poet, actor, facilitator, activist, writer and scouse icon whose practices are all intertwined and equally important in how they create space for the LGBTQIA* community in Liverpool.
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In Conversation with Kooth
This week on the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands podcast Ella is joined by the lovely Megan from Kooth. Kooth is an online mental wellbeing community which offers support in a free, safe, and anonymous way through a range of services from discussion boards to live chats to daily journaling and articles written from lived experience perspectives. This episode introduces the platform and speaks about the importance of having safe, accessible wellbeing support for young people.
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In Conversation with Girls Against
Today Ella and Eve are joined on the podcast with Girls Against, a a non-profit organisation standing up against sexual assault & misogyny in the UK live music scene. The episode discusses the ways in which venues can create a safer space for artists and gig-goers alike, the origins of Girls Against the moments of joy that exist within their volunteer work.
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In Conversation with Emily McChrystal
This week on the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands podcast Ella is chatting to Emily McChrystal about all of the amazing things she does, from being the Youth Empowerment Director of Comics Youth, to a published poet, to Ella’s best friend! This episode covers creating safe spaces in the workplace, the importance of valuing lived experience within social action and how to use creative practices in a healing, safe way. The song of the week is ‘We’re All Just Walking Each Other Home’ by The Moss Farm, a beautiful wholesome tune that’s not one to miss!
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In Conversation with Both Sides Records
During this week’s episode of the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands Safe Spaces Podcast Ella talks to Grace of Both Sides Records about the label, Grace’s experiences as both a musician and someone involved in the business side of the music scene, bridging the knowledge gap for people in the music industry and creating opportunities for musicians of marginalised genders in the North.
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In Conversation with Teah Lewis
In this week’s episode of the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands Safe Spaces Podcast Ella and Eve chat to the wonderful @teah_lewis - a Sheffield-based musician and the founder of @boxiesheffield - an organisation which creates events that promote and develop artists of marginalised genders. We talk all about the business side of gigging and how Teah’s day job and training within business gives her an insight into how we can create a safer, more inclusive music scene for everyone.
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The Open Open Mic: We Hear You Loud and Queer
This week’s episode of the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands podcast is a jam-packed reflection on the Open Open Mic: We Hear You Loud and Queer event that took place as part of the Comics Youth Safe Spaces Reclaiming Community Spaces project funded by the I Will Fund. This event was an all-day safe space event celebrating local LGBTQ* creatives, giving space for community, platforming voices and Queer joy.
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In Conversation with Lyndsay Price
This week on the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands podcast we will be talking about how to facilitate safe spaces within workshops, how poetry can be a safe space to navigate experiences and how venues and organisations that host poetry events can make their spaces safer, and more with the fantastic Lyndsay Price.
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In Conversation with Down to Earth Promotions
This week we are chatting to Kayleigh Darlington, the person behind Down to Earth Promotions, a company which prioritises diversity, accessibility and safety within their events. From setting up her own events organisation to wanting to create more genre-fusing spaces in the city, this episode covers Kayleigh’s journey to creating safe and exciting gig spaces across the North West.
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In Conversation with Amber Jay
This week on the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands Safe Spaces podcast we are chatting with Amber Jay, a Liverpool based musician whose music speaks from the heart to the sounds of excitingly blended genres. From alt-pop to unearthly electronica, Amber Jay’s music is incredibly unique, filled with atmosphere and honest words. Alongside being one of Liverpool’s most distinctive musicians, Amber Jay is a creative who uses her work to make the music scene she started out in a safer, community space.
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In Conversation with YPAS
On this week’s episode of the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands Safe Spaces podcast Ella talks to Paul Rooney and Nicholas Ball of YPAS about mental health, specific safe spaces for LGBT young people and why we need to advocate and protect the rights of Trans young people. YPAS, the Young Person’s Advisory Service, offers a wide range of support, wellbeing and therapeutic services for children, young people, and families in Liverpool. Serving a population of over 150,000 children and young people, YPAS helps Liverpool to become a safer space for the young people of Merseyside, helping young people and their families to address their mental health and well-being difficulties within a non-stigmatised and accessible environment.
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In Conversation with No Such Thing
Today we are talking with No Such Thing, an artist led record label founded and managed by Dirty Freud and Ruby Tingle. These two fantastic creatives started off collaborating on their own work, and decided to move into supporting the work of others, using their experiences and understanding to create a safe and blossoming space for creatives to thrive.
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In Conversation with Comfortably Queer
Today we are going to be chatting about a safe spaces project of our very own, the Comics Youth Safe Spaces Reclaiming Community Spaces project. We will be interviewing Alice and Raf, the two young people behind the Comfortably Queer event which provided a safe, chilled space for LGBTQ* people to craft, eat cake and socialise in a low-pressure environment.
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