Women’s needs are often ignored in the city and their struggles for the spaces and places they need are bypassed or forgotten. This walk emerged from women sharing their histories of community-led planning and place-making in Birmingham from the 1970s onwards. On this walk we invite you to hear and share stories about fighting for a women- and child-friendly city, safe and accessible to all.
The walk starts at the Bullring and finishes at Grand Union’s Gallery at Minerva Works, where there will be refreshments and the Spaces of Hope/People’s Plans Exhibition showcasing the innovative and influential work by Birmingham for People’s Women’s Group. If you have archives that you could share, please get in touch.
Event details:
Meet at 11.30am outside All Bar One, New St Station B2 4QE and end up at Grand Union (B5 5RS).
From 1pm onwards at GU, there will be refreshments, exhibition & space for conversation.
2.30pm we will screen Positive Planning, a video produced by Birmingham for People’s Women’s Group in 1993, a guide for planners and professionals on how to integrate women’s participation and needs into urban planning and design.
Paradise Circus, courtesy of Heather Powell (Birmingham Film and Video Workshop) and Vivid Projects, will be screened on Friday 4 August for Digbeth First Friday, as part of the AHRC-funded Spaces of Hope/People’s Plans research, led by Oxford Brookes University as part of a wider exploration of the histories of community-led planning – https://www.peoplesplans.org/.
All are welcome – you can book your space here.
This is a collaboration between Bertz Associates, Spaces of Hope/People’s Plans and Grand Union Gallery (19 Minerva Works, Fazeley Street, B5 5RS). Contact: d.humphry@brookes.ac.uk for more.
Images by Debbie Humphry, 2023