Wednesday: Autumn Site As A Classroom Week

The Floating Front Room is open 10am - 4pm, so pick up a brew and a warm welcome from the barge, with hot drinks, delicious food and space to chat and connect with friends, neighbours and practitioners available throughout the day. The polytunnel will also be open for drop in tours suitable for those who are visiting the site for the first time and want to know more about the Neighbourhood Public Square plans.
Today's Focus
Back in March, we published the 3 Degree Neighbourhood chapter of the Neighbourhood Public Square proposal, which paints a stark picture of possible climatic futures, but also offers a range of possibilities for how might we design for the best whilst preparing for the worst.
Throughout this year we have been unpacking this in many different ways at Supper Clubs, Trade Schools, Co-creation week and with peers and partners across the country. This day will be an opportunity to explore the ways we can rehearse for and adapt to our climatic futures, through workshops with guest practitioners and campfire conversations and a screening of ‘Can I Live?’

POLYTUNNEL
To help keep each other safe on site, the polytunnel/ courtyard space is open to children ages eight and over, and children be accompanied by an adult. Babes in arms are welcome.
10:00 - 12:00 | Site as a Classroom Tours
Take a tour around the site with the CIVIC SQUARE team. We will share plans and dreams for Neighbourhood Public Square, invite your questions and reflections, and share ways you can join us in our collective explorations as we co-create this shared space. Neighbourhood Public Square will be a site of regenerative civic infrastructure in the heart of Ladywood, Birmingham, co-created and held in common with the neighbourhood, where all of us can access tools and spaces for the transition to a future where we can thrive. Tours last around half an hour and will start at 10am, 11am and in between according to interest.
12:00 - 14:00 | Harvest-inspired crafts with FORIJ/ Gather and Ground
Join Jas for a hands-on making workshop using foraged materials offered by the season. As FORIJ/ Gather and Ground, Jas and her family invite us to (re)connect and be present with ourselves as part of nature, hosting foraging events in and with the neighbourhood and beyond, and holding stalls in local markets where they sell nature-inspired goods. We’ll share more details about this activity soon.
13:00-15:00 |. Winter Herbs & Polytunnel Care with Andy & Kate from Urban Herbs & Spring Arts CIC
Join Andy and Kate to plant a winter herb garden and learn about how polytunnels can help us think about ways of working with nature. This session will also be an opportunity to share knowledge, questions and practice around growing and sharing food in our neighbourhoods. Andy and Kate founded Urban Herbs in Birmingham in 2010 to share the wellbeing benefits of growing, and help give people across the city access to delicious flavours with low food miles. Responding to the increase in supermarket food prices in 2023, they founded Spring Arts CIC, which works to help empower people to grow their own food, particularly in urban environments.
PARK
All ages welcome, children must be accompanied by an adult.
14:00-15:30 | In Time with Nature Walkshop with Keiran Mckenzie
We will gather in the tipi at 2pm, before taking a walk together on the banks of Edgbaston Reservoir.
In this session, Keiran will be sharing the ways he has been observing patterns of time in nature, in efforts to be more in tune with natural seasons and cycles, and guided by ancient and ancestral knowledges and wisdoms. The walkshop will be an invitation to slow down and notice the seasonal changes in the neighbourhood alongside Keiran, as he shares his learnings and the ways he has applied these in his personal and working life. This session is an interactive introduction to an enquiry Keiran has been pursuing since being part of the Ecological Health in Neighbourhoods peer learning journey, July 2023 - March 2024.
We will gather whatever the weather - we have the option of staying in the tipi with the firepit, in the case of lots of rain!
15:30-18:00 | Can I Live? Film Screening & Workshop
As the day draws to a close, we will gather to watch Can I Live, Complicité’s rap theatre film written and performed by actor and activist Fehinti Balogun. Through spoken word, rap, theatre, animation and the scientific facts, Fehinti shares his personal journey into connecting with the climate catastrophe, identifying the intimate relationship between the environmental crisis and the global struggle for social justice, and sharing how, as a young Black British man, he has found his place in the climate movement.
After the screening there will be the opportunity to dive deeper into the film’s themes together, through a ‘world cafe’ style conversation space. Conversation tables will be hosted by:
Adjei Sun, Poet, performer and community organiser interested in intersectionality, climate and service
Aisha Mahmood, community organiser leading on youth action for nature at Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust
Emma Pfeiffer, strategic designer at Dark Matter Labs
Keiran Mckenzie, city organiser with a background of working on health and green spaces currently working as a senior Public Health Lead in Birmingham City Council

• As we are not (yet!) able to host in the building which will be home to Neighbourhood Public Square, activities will take place in our polytunnel, as well as in a tipi, which is warmed by a fire pit
  
• There is level access across the site, but the ground is uneven in places and can get muddy when wet
  
• Come dressed for the weather, and, for activities in the polytunnel, wear closed-toe shoes
  
• Portaloos will be available to use on site
  

If you have would like to let us know of any access needs, please do so when booking your ticket. For access queries, contact Emily on:

As we move into the middle of the Autumn season, we warmly invite you to join us for our another Site as a Classroom week, where we will open up the site to host for the final time this year for a range of intergenerational workshops, screenings and fireplace conversations. Together with friends and neighbours, we’ll be reflecting and celebrating all we have learned, and the progress we’ve made towards our shared goal of retrofitting the Icknield Port Loop site in Ladywood, Birmingham, to be held in common for generations to come.
From the nurturing of our weekly neighbourhood Trade School classes and monthly Supper Clubs, to the transformation of our polytunnel into a vibrant space for us to learn together, we have built plenty of collective knowledge and capabilities in bio-based materials, along with many other skills we need to retrofit our homes, streets and neighbourhoods.
Join us to explore the research, design principles, material possibilities and more for Neighbourhood Public Square, and explore the roles we can play in its design, co-build and stewardship of this regenerative civic infrastructure, ensuring it acts as a classroom and a systems demonstrator for wider transformation, and democratises access to the tools and spaces we need for the transition to a future where we can all thrive.
Whether you are already involved in our shared learning, organising and building week to week, or feel inspired to come down for the first or second time, we welcome you to join us for as much or as little of these four days as you like.
Bring your questions, ideas, dreams, fears and concerns with you for a week filled with food, play, learning, making, talks, performances, and more, celebrating the work of so many in B16 and beyond, as one part of co-building Neighbourhood Public Square together for the long term.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

CIVIC SQUARE Birmingham CIC, Rotton Park Street, Birmingham, United Kingdom