Old News

http://petitions.woking.gov.uk/PhoenixCultural/

Our petition is online at Woking Borough Council. At today’s date there are 162 online signatures plus that many at least on our paper ones from a couple of events let alone the ones in various locations around town. We have found out that if there are 400 signatures then the petition has to be called in and debated by Full council. We have the support of our MP, many local councillors, are dealing with various charities and voluntary groups and are confident this eventual large venue will be available for the whole town. Bearing in mind that we have a year to keep this petition open and we got 100 signatures in the first day, we are confident that this will show the need for this facility in Woking. In the meantime, the shop, is nearly ready. More on that later. Please sign this petition. We understand some people feel uncomfortable signing petitions but we know that Councils and other statutory organisations use them as an indicator of need. We also say that as businesses in the Woking community are often consulted that those who work or visit Woking should also sign to show how they want the town they spend time in to welcome them. If their business  is sought by the Council then as human beings they should be included and have the right to say how they would like the community they spend time in to feel as well. The town is being redeveloped. There is an Economic redevelopment plan and many have seen it start to take place. As consultants reported and committees discussed, make this the time we make our mark on our town and make something happen that will always be, from the ground up, representative of the best that Woking Communities have to give to each other……ah..go on!

Old News

Stepping Forward

When you start to walk, it’s in barefeet, then little shoes, then bigger until you can run and not fall over and when you know it’s ok and you will get back up again. We’ve been walking barefoot and now we are stepping into our little shoes.

We have a first, very small, but nevertheless ours, space for getting our large community live music venue and cultural centre off the ground. With a small pot of funding from Surrey County Council and a very kind landlord, partnerships with Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership and Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum we are delighted to say we have a shop, empty now but it will soon be buzzing. It’ll be our action hub and in the day charities and others are ready now to step in and use the space to help with confidence building and job skills and digital inclusion. Meanwhile we continue to put on our own music events like The Lovely Music Night, support and promote other’s events like the great JAKEFEST which is taking place on Friday April 5 at The Westfield Social Club,  are running the music on the Bandstand on Sat 18 May for Adult Learners Week and the Woking Community Learning Partnership. We talk and talk and talk and research and write and meet people, forge partnerships where we know we can help each other, share information to help other groups where we had to find it out first and all along know the final large venue will happen. We have the people that want to use it, we have the people ready to deliver what they want, to support them, whether it be new music or a group that wants confidence and job skills or people that just want to relax and take their breath. Groups that have nowhere to meet and others that do but want something more. It will happen because it already is but stepping into our little shoes is getting us ready for the big ones we will wear so this project has a firm footprint in the town that to be honest needs a little bit of soul put into it especially in these hard times.

Old News

Hello All

“So, we are moving forward with this, no large building yet, but lots of support and it’s all starting to come together. We’ve been asked to write a blog about how it’s come about to this but like most things time is an issue. The time spent on a blog looking back is time spent away from grant applications and emails and estimates, feasiblity studies, business plans and volunteer engagement to move it forward. There are many things that started this, working with people who have no voice for whatever reason and seeing their confidence grow when they are made welcome and given the chance to play at art, language and music and see each others commonalities; the weariness of sitting in another up it’s arse london ‘venue’ you’ve rushed to from work for the soundcheck, explaining to the promoter that the ‘coach’ with all your supporters broke down so the required number for a rebooking (no matter how good or crap you are) won’t be arriving, waiting your turn, supporting the other acts through theirs and getting your slot moved back, cut short and dismissed; the great gigs that you and like minded people play at, visit or organise and know this can work and all this whilst walking around a town that is so easy to get out of and so hard to play in, surrounded by empty buildings, take aways, glossy coffee shops and a business agenda. Looking around and feeling like you are morphing from fly blown depressed Sunday afternoons in 1975 to a generic airport lounge where there is so much choice in coffee but no choice at all in anything that lifts our everyday hearts in everyday ways and asks ourselves, ‘where is the ‘us’ in our town?’ It’s time we got it back and made it ours, we presented the idea of a festival, people liked it, it was about being of and in Woking where ever you hail from or travel to and making life a little bit better for everyone, not through what you can buy or wear but just for the stuff we all have that can give to the whole….so, that is basically how it all started and we think people will work together to get, for once, something that is ours, everyones no matter where you live in the town or what or who you know…
There’s no one less and no one more, no age, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, that has the monopoly on music or joy…
It started as the Us in our Town….and it’s getting there”