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Showing posts from June, 2022

Generator’s First Ever Live Festival: A Hit?

 by Geena Ling On Saturday, North East-based music agency Generator took over Newcastle's Boiler Shop to host their brand new festival, Generator Live. After a week of fringe events scattered across the city, the all-day festival was a true showstopper. The Boiler Shop was a great choice of venue given its status as one of the most iconic buildings in Newcastle; it really did justice to the vast array of talented musicians who took to the stage. Crowds began to gather from the moment the doors opened in the early afternoon, and continued to pour in throughout the day. With live DJs and pints flowing, it made for a warm, summery atmosphere - exactly what festival season is about! The event perfectly encapsulated the wonderful diversity of our local music scene, with performances from nine of the region's best rising stars (sadly Venus Grrrls were unable to perform on the day). Opening up were four-piece Lovely Assistant with bluesy, American-inspired beats. Then came John Dole,

“Hummingbird Heart”: From Zine to Live Tour

 by Emily Duff Kinsale Drake (Diné) is a multi-skilled creative with professions ranging from Poet to Playwright. Her endeavours have landed her spots in a range of publications from TIME to the Yale Literary Magazine and recognition such as the J.Edgar Meeker Prize, the Academy of American Poets Prize, and the Young Native Playwrights Award. Currently, Kinsale edits Changing Wxmen Collective, after having gained experience serving as a National Student Poet.  Kinsale founded Changing Wxman Collective to create a digital publishing platform and creative space that highlights BIPOC voices and narratives.  Said to be “here to empower our own narratives and create space”, Changing Wxmen Collective is a digital arts magazine by and for BIPOC people of marginalized genders. Their publication includes art, poetry, prose, op-eds, interviews, zine making workshops and more using a community force in order to make waves with their mission to empower each other’s work, spotlight those who inspir

Love Island: Are We Too Easily Fooled by Reality TV Narratives?

 by Katie Wheatley As we approach the end of the third week of Love Island series eight, it’s become apparent just how quickly things can change in reality television – and how drastically our perceptions of those we watch on our screens can switch up. But let’s not forget we only see an hour of each day in the villa, and how easily narratives can be scripted by Love Island’s talented production team. We’ve now seen a total of five contestants leave the show – Liam left on his own accord, and Afia, Remi, Ikenna and Amber were all voted out by the public. This year, I’ve been closely watching how they’ve acted since returning to their ‘normal’ lives and how they’ve used their newly-gained following, particularly on social media. Most interesting is the interviews Remi has done, where – to stir the pot – interviewers have been quick to ask if there’s anyone he disliked or didn’t get along with during his time on the island. It has come to public attention that Remi and Jacques didn’t get

love letter to the Peak District

love letter to the Peak District Summer Green   Finally, my olde lover, we reunite suburbia doesn’t have the same bite that it used to  and how I’ve missed you your wild winds that I try to grasp onto almost twisting my aching ankles  on the rocks below in doing so your glitteringly cold, yet sunny embrace licks the side of my emblazoned face and I’ll edge my cheek up to the trees stretching for more, howling at the hanging leaves eventually I’ll leave, the last bus leaves soon but I’ll never leave you, or you’ll never leave me though I’ll soon lay under another city’s tree.

‘Make Tattooing Safe Again’: Sheffield Based Tattoo Artist Exposed for Indecent Behaviour

 by Emily Fletcher TW: SA, Animal Abuse, Transphobia Photo Credit: @ meiko_akiz uki Recently, an  Instagram account  has been created to provide a  ‘space to safely give a voice to those who want to speak out about the behaviour of one, Sheffield based tattoo artist’. A  total of 40+ posts have been made by the above social media account regarding  one of Sheffield's most popular tattoo artists .  Thankfully, all posts are prefaced with a Content Warning prior to sharing screenshots of the messages that have been sent anonymously to the page. The majority of Content Warnings refer to sexual behaviour, abuse, and sexual assault. It is clear that there is a reoccurring theme within each submission, as many clients appear to have had the same experiences with the tattoo artist. Women, mostly, are being made to feel uncomfortable while being tattooed. One of the most vulnerable positions anyone can be in, tattoo artists should make their clients feel comfortable and safe during the pro

Generator Live Festival: Celebrating North East Talent

 by Geena Ling An exciting new music festival from Byker-based non-profit, Generator, is set to make its debut at Newcastle's Boiler Shop on June  25th . Generator Live aims to showcase the abundance of fantastic new talent bursting onto the North East music scene. The entirely local line-up features huge up-and-coming artists such as Bigfatbig, Straight Girl and Venus Grrrls, who will all take to the stage for the one-day event. As if that's not enough, Generator will also be hosting a series of fringe events in the week leading up to the festival. These will take place all across the city at iconic venues including Little Buildings, Zerox and The Cluny. Headlining throughout the week will be Komparrison, Ten Eighty Trees and Pave the Jungle, to name just a few. Best of all, the six gigs are all free to attend for those with a ticket to the main event! To top it off, the festival will be taking over legendary underground nightclub World Headquarters to throw an official after

day of the red

day of the red Summer Green The day of reckoning is upon us – en garde! two women in love both pouring with blood because ‘we’ve sank up’ like you said a swimmer does though I must sorely disagree sorely being the key word ‘a swimmer sinks down ! ’ and just like that, reader I bit the first bite of the night completely unnecessary and downright stupid but it was the hormones talking, we avoided shouting, ended up laughing and eventually showering vulnerable and  hugging my ear on the cusp of your rib cage warm  rain embracing our shoulders,  but we’re not male directors – thank god and so we stand, intertwined your head on mine,  while  uteruses empathise tampon strings hanging out and the water never runs cold. .

Power to Strong Women: The Rise of Love Island’s Ekin-Su

 by Katie Wheatley Leading on from last week’s column, I’m pleased to see the collaboration between Love Island and eBay was given some appreciation when the islanders were thrown a party in Wednesday night’s episode. As far as I’m aware, the contestants were either wearing clothing from eBay, or items they already owned and had bought into the villa with them. © thred.co The issue is, however, I wouldn’t have known this if it wasn’t for social media and, even then, the official Love Island Instagram page wasn’t shouting about it. Thankfully. eBay UK’s page is doing a good job of showing off the pre-loved looks, but with a difference of over three million followers between their and Love Island’s Instagram, it isn’t being shown to a wide enough audience – they’re missing out on great opportunities to make this collaboration a success, but unfortunately it’s still falling short for me. If, like me, you’re intrigued about the second hand clothing that’s been sent into the villa, Brett St

Kornit Fashion Week London 2022: Inclusivity on the runway and in practice?

  by Emily Duff During the start of May 2022, I attended Kornit Fashion Week in London. Having toured around the world and with plans to move to Paris next, Kornit digital is working to spread the news about sustainability and what happens when Tech meets Fashion.  Founded in 2002, Kornit Digital are a “worldwide market leader in sustainable, on-demand digital fashion and textile production” who challenge the need for overproduction of garments. With almost 900 employees and over 1,300 customers, Kornit have used their experience to develop a ‘Direct-to-Garment’ (DTG) technology. This allows jobs to be secure and reduces waste of both time and materials by using automated technologies that create the clothing as-and-when they are needed at the same speed as eCommerce production.  By Emily Duff Through this, Kornit technology will enable production of approximately 2.5 billion apparel items which will save 4.3 trillion liters of water and 17.2 billion kilograms of greenhouse gas emissio

Live at Leeds in the Park: A Good First Year?

 By Callum Martin Live at Leeds has been a successful venture for a decade and a half now. The sprawling city festival, which started in 2007, gives a stage for emerging acts to perform whilst promoting the independent music venues that Leeds has to offer. It’s a wonderful symbiosis that helps sustain the local music scene in Leeds, an industry struggling to keep itself afloat in other similarly affluent cities.  Such has been the event’s success, it has now got its own spin-off daytime version of the original festival: Live at Leeds in the Park. Based within the scenic grounds of Temple Newsam and under the warm early June sun, its inaugural edition played out. Spread across four stages, there was a wide variety of acts that made the most of the concentrations of people on the site. With the ‘DIY big top’ and the aptly named ‘Hill Top stage’ in very close vicinity to each other, it was easy to float between the two and just follow your ear to decide on what to watch. The hilltop also

Cursing in disguise

Cursing in disguise Summer Green   Today my flatmate told me about a study that studied the stuff people do and say beneath the condensed comfort of face masks. The most frequent liberty was the fact that they could swear without anyone realising, which seems like a somewhat British silver-lining .  A lthough , being able to call that one bloke with poor trolley etiquette a nob without him  punching you in the no se  seems like a perfectly sufficient pro for being inwardly un-family-friendly in the middle of Asda on a Tuesday afternoon. Despite this blessing, I ’d  say that my favourite part is being able to guess the faces that people are making under there – it does make you wonder  –  because there ’ s every chance that the old fart dressed like your  Y ear  9  geography teacher is grinning from ear to ear whilst looking at the selection of  Brussel sprouts , or maybe even sticking his tongue out just for the thrill of it. I ’ ve learned to recognise this happiness through crow’s fe