Safe Spaces trail- L1 Alder Hey/Waterstones

This is a transcript of the podcast that guides you to our Alder Hey mural at Waterstones in L1. You can listen to the podcast here. This was written by Sean.

-What does this mural mean/can you explain it to people?

The mural was designed by us as a group of young people who access CAMHS. The mural is all about community, that we’ve rediscovered through covid. When we started the project, we thought about how covid changed our lives. Covid enhanced community like shopping for neighbours, speaking to people they usually wouldn’t. We don’t want that to die out or end. We didn’t want to make it explicitly about covid, we know we are still in the midst of a pandemic, so we wanted to focus on community in general- not just in the view of the pandemic to avoid burn out or anxiety around the topic, we made the mural with comics youth, and everyone was so enthusiast to get involved and make the impact of the mural happen. 

- What did you enjoy most about being involved in this project? 

Probably the inside jokes we had throughout making this! You can see in the mural there is a pigeon included in it, someone in our group had a pet pigeon- so we wanted to include them as an inside joke and a nudge to the group itself. Having these inside jokes made us come closer together as a group and the making of the mural even more community driven.

- Why do you think having safe spaces in the city is important for young people?

We need to show everyone that as a city, there is a space for everyone- regardless of who you are, where you are from, or how you identify there is always room for all. We need to show that the sense of community transcends everyone’s backgrounds- we are all human and we all want similar things. As a result of that, we want people to feel accepted and their differences to be celebrated as much as possible and I feel that safe spaces do that for young people in our city.

- If you could design your very own safe space, what are the main things you would include and why? 

I love reading, so if I had a safe space, it would definitely include lots and lots of books. When you read books, you can escape from reality for a while, and you can lose yourself in this fictional world. You learn a lot more about the world too through non-fiction. I have a bit of sweet tooth too, so definitely some sweets and chocolates, the whole lot!

- Do you have anything you’d like to add to this/any extra thoughts to share? 

Firstly, I would like to thank comics youth for working with us and supporting us in the making of the mural. I would also like to say I really like how Liverpool is so accepting, I feel that one thing that’s great about Liverpool in particular is its sense of community how in neighbourhoods’ people often support each other and that’s one thing that I really appreciate about Liverpool- its strong sense of community that you’d don’t find anywhere else. Especially knowing the hardships and struggles that Liverpool has faced over the centuries- community is needed now more than ever.

Community is a running theme throughout this mural, but also throughout the very space it is in and around. Waterstones had been nominated multiple times, by many young people within the City. These are just a few examples of why they chose Waterstones to be their safe space home to this mural:

Firstly one person said that,

As someone who feels most at home when putting pen to paper, forming sentences and words no one else may have thought of or written, entering this bookshop and surrounding myself with a variety of different authors and potential worlds to explore, is always so exciting. There is something so wonderful about buying books that you may read straight away, or you may pick up years from now on a slow-moving day - and not to mention the familiar smell of the pages!

One of our Comics Youth session members shared that:

This is a safe space for me as I commonly sit here after CY sessions (usually D&D) and it holds many memories to me. The cafe is not extremely quiet, yet isn’t too loud either, which makes me feel safer as silence usually worries me. And as a plus, the staff are very friendly, and never fail to cheer me up.

And lastly a young person told us that Waterstones is:

a very nostalgic place for me to come back to, as it used to be one of my regular places to go to when I was around 15. I always felt calm being there as I had found my own little 'hiding' corner as I called it where I could read or write little stories. It also brought me joy to watch other people enjoying their books as I was too.