“We met on an arts project that was to change both our lives. And in the September I went to University here in Bristol to study drama and Jamie threw in his job as a youth worker and became an actor.
Where are we now 27 summers later?
Jamie has performed on the National Theatre stage and is about to play the Messiah at Bristol Old Vic.
We have a company together - Diverse City
I am co artistic director of a circus company
Jamie has two children. I have one.
Jamie is 50 and I am 45 now.
In David Bowie's words: “I think aging is an extraordinary process whereby you become the person that you always should have been"
Our country has voted to leave the EU.
A reality TV star is the leader of the free world.
We are seeing a clear rise in hate crime.
People are suffering economically and the wealth divide is wide.
Some people have bought the lie that the diversity of our society robs us of abundance and have bought the myth of scarcity - that there is not enough to go round.
We have a Tory government led by a female prime minister.
Ah yes, some things don’t change.
But the things Jamie and I cared about when we met have not changed.
We care that there is a public place and space in our society where everyone can be welcome and valued.
We care that there are experiences to be had in our cities where everyone can be seen and heard and understood.
We care that we have the means in our neighbourhoods to generate radical empathy – the heavyweight antidote to selfishness and isolationism.
That place, that experience, that means is called the arts.
It is funded publicly and must be enjoyed publicly.
It is the path to a kinder, fairer and braver society.
It is vital to our survival as humane and human beings”
"Diverse City are quite simply taking inequality and under representation and wrestling them to the ground with bravery, creativity and sheer hard work."
Nomination for the National Diversity Awards 2014
“Diverse City are a small company with a very big voice who clearly and confidently strive to change the way society works, making sure everyone has an equal share.” Partner organisation.
In September 2014 Diverse City was shortlisted for the National Diversity Awards Community Organisation Award. In November 2014 Diverse City received the Clore Duffield Clore Leadership programme 10th Anniversary Prize. In 2015 Diverse City won the European Diversity Award for community Project of the year.
In 2012 Diverse City received one of the 19 Unlimited Commissions and produced Breathe – the central element of ‘Battle for the Winds’ - a show that opened the Olympic sailing events on Weymouth beach to an audience of 11,000.
Diverse City, in partnership with Cirque Bijou set up Extraordinary Bodies in 2013 to make circus for every body. In 2015, Remix Gold, our company for emerging artists, was renamed Extraordinary Bodies Young Artists.
Photo © Mark Campbell