In the current climate of economic instability and political discourse, creative communities face bigger threats to remain connected. Poppy Thomason caught up with Caetano Capurro and Jasmine McCallion, the co-hosts of Free Minds – a free poetry open mic night at The King Billy pub – to ask them about the power of expression within accessible creative spaces.
What motivated you to start Free Minds?
Cae: I’d been in the poetry spaces for a couple of months, and really enjoying it. I’d joined the GOBS Collective, and performed at the Nottingham Poetry Festival and Speech Therapy. I’ve hosted events in the past so it felt like a natural progression to start one. It came from a want to start something new – a community for people.
Jas: I met some of the people in those spaces and was enamoured with not only what they were speaking about, but also the performance aspect. Seeing that they were community-based, with an inclusive age range, and diversity, was inspirational.
The name implies that this place is a ‘freeing’ for people to find. Why is it important to have spaces like this?
Cae: People need community and a big part of that is sharing joy and grievances, and connecting with people on that. It’s often difficult to find those spaces where you can share those thoughts and feelings, and though Free Minds isn’t a therapy thing, I guess we kind of provide a holistic approach to community-based communication.
Jas: I find it incredibly precious to see people open up and share something, through want of their own. It’s a creative environment and very open. It’s also nice to be able to do that in an informal way.
Do you find that informality helps new people to engage?
Cae: It lowers the bar for entry and makes it more accessible. Poetry can be gatekept often. Free Minds stands very firmly against that – a space for people to be involved for the merit of their ideas. It’s less about who they are but more about what they want to say.
You shouldn’t have to have experience or equipment or background in order to take part in it. Putting creativity into little aspects of your life takes the power back from these roots of conditioning that have been set into us, that we need to always be progressing or achieving something.
You talked before about community, so what does this mean to you and your creative circle?
Cae: Community is the backbone of everything we do, both within Free Minds and generally in life. I think what’s going to protect us from the world becoming more and more chaotic is strong community, strong bonds. It’s the idea of a village; of being together and making the effort to support each other.
Jaz: There should be more investment in grassroots community-funded events, whether it be art, poetry, music, moving your body, whatever. The cuts to the arts means there’s not as much importance resting on the shoulders of community-based action projects and it’s sad to see. I think community makes people feel rooted in each other, rather than othered, which is what our government is kind of telling you to feel all the time.
What do you think is the biggest threat to young creative people today?
Cae: The cost of living is a big one. People can’t really afford to be artists, which means your creative craft kind of falls behind. I think also the kind of fearmongering – the manufactured immigrant crisis, is destroying creativity because we are a melting pot of culture and history.
Jas: It’s interesting because there’ll be points when our somewhat right-leaning government will be like, ‘Oh we’re so grateful that we are multi-cultural’, when in reality they are the ones putting up these walls that divide people and British culture. And as Cae said, the cost of living really affects creatives, because we are being told that we are not going to make it anywhere if we’re involved in the arts.
Creativity is a radical idea when we look at the ways capitalism tells us to monetize progress, so why do you think spaces like this are important in combating that?
Cae: Well, we’re a free event and we don’t try to monetize ourselves in any way. Our aim isn’t to make money. The cost is our time but that is what building a village is.
Jas: I understand that in this climate that being creative means you sometimes ask yourself, well how can I profit from this? How can I scramble to make money from this? And that is fair, but it can take the joy out of making for making – writing for writing.
So you encourage art as expression rather than something to profit from?
Jas: Yes. Not that I don’t see the value in money. I know how important it is. But it’s also important to create the space for art to be a free practice. You shouldn’t have to have experience or equipment or background in order to take part in it. Putting creativity into little aspects of your life takes the power back from these roots of conditioning that have been set into us, that we need to always be progressing or achieving something.
Audre Lorde said that poetry can lay the foundation for a future of change. Where do you guys align with this and how do you believe that poetry can be used as a force for change?
Cae: The most powerful and oldest form of expression is verbal communication. Poetry predates written language, and what makes humanity so distinct is our communication. The fact that we can deliver meaning with so much complexity is kind of unheard of. When it comes to emotion and feelings, there’s something particular about voice and language that is universally understood.
Jas: We get wonderful poets who talk about how nervous they are, or how scared or angry they are, and everyone’s like, ‘wow you’re feeling the same way I’m feeling’. It’s the little marks of power in a small room that feel big. You go away knowing that you’re not alone in how you’re feeling.
Cae: The strongest conductors of change are people with strong communication skills – people like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X – Mujica in South America. They all use words and language to communicate emotion, feelings and ideas – that’s what moves people. Someone who can turn thoughts into words in a way that the masses can understand; that is such a powerful form of change.
How do you see the future of this community?
Cae: I want there to be lots of opportunities for people to work. We’ve started being booked for events. I’d like there to be some kind of organic growth. But if it stays like this for the next two years and we carry on delivering a service to the people of Nottingham, to the drinkers of the King Billy, and the poetry community, then that’s what we will do. We are fulfilling the primary goal of Free Minds already, so anything in the future is a bonus.
Free Minds runs every second Wednesday of the month at The King Billy in Sneinton. So if you’re ever around and looking to find your creative community, head down from 7:30pm.
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