Coventry2021 have announced the 6 Coventry people chosen to star in City of Culture’s opening event ‘Coventry Moves’ on June 5th starting from 8am. This is a city wide event which promises to be playful and engaging. Introducing the city to the world, Coventry Moves will be a day of moments and shared experiences that has all been designed to be enjoyed from the comfort of your home whether it’ll be online, on your social media timeline or on the radio.
Director: Justine Themen
“In creating our event, we wanted to tangibly represent and celebrate the unique spirit of our city. Working with six young artists, we drew on work with communities to shape six Energies that are woven into the fabric of Coventry’s identity – Social Justice, Innovation, Youthfulness, People Power, Resilience and Sustainability. We commissioned local writers to encapsulate these energies in words, and are delighted to also be working with an extraordinary range of Coventry talent through the people playing these Energies – people making waves in our world through activism, sport, words, creativity, and music – who capture the city’s spirit in their day-to-day.”
Introducing the Coventry Six
Meet; Innovation, People Power, Resilience, Social Justice, Sustainability and Youthfulness.
Daniel Lismore
A London & Coventry based artist. He represents the Coventry’s spirit of INNOVATION, which stems from the evolution of its industries – from ribbons to watches to sewing machines to bicycles to cars to the jet engine. This inventive spirit inspired a brave new vision for a post-war utopia – twinning cities to bring together ordinary people for dialogue rather than conflict; creating Theatre in Education, which provided access to the arts for every child in the city; and pioneers such as the composer Delia Derbyshire. Today Coventry is leading the way in digital technologies, with its two universities, Coventry University and the University of Warwick leading the way.
Navin Kundra
A singer, songwriter, actor and live performer. Representing the PEOPLE POWER of Coventry, who built and rebuilt the city, and made its famous watches and bikes. A thriving manufacturing hub and the UK’s motor city, people travelled from around the world to live and work in Coventry, enriching the life of the city through the food, language and cultures they brought with them. Coventry is known around the world as a city of welcome and a city of sanctuary, a theme that is explored across its year as City of Culture.
Kare Adenegan
A T34 Wheelchair Athlete and Paralympian. RESILIENCE is the city’s ability to rise up from the challenges that confront it. Going beyond simply rebuilding homes and roads after the destruction of warfare, instead building back better, creating a template for a better world – a new Cathedral built next to the ruins of the old as a permanent symbol of rebirth; a Utopian vision for a contemporary city. And now a city using culture to come together again and build back after a global pandemic.
Sue Bent
CEO of Central England Law Centre, a Coventry-based charity that employs solicitors and advisors to provide free, independent advice and representation. She represents the spirit of SOCIAL JUSTICE which is found in Coventry today and throughout its history, from Lady Godivas protest against the unjust taxation of the city’s poor, the workers movements associated with the factories and workshops, or the democratisation movement throughout the globe that came with the mass-production bicycles in the city.
Pauline Black
The lead singer of acclaimed Two Tone band The Selecter. She represents SUSTAINABILITY, which reminds us to connect with our origins, with the land that we come from, to live well with it, to put back as much as we take, to be guardians of the earth’s resource for future generations. Coventry is the birthplace of the Green Party, and today is home to green technologies that are transforming the transport sector. For Coventry Moves, Black will perform a new song with the World Song Choir with orchestration by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. It has been written specially for the event composed by Unamay Olomaiye and Sibongile Mkoba, and lyrics and melody created through workshops with a group of residents from Spon End.
John Bernard
who uses his artistry to inspire, influence and invigorate his listeners. The YOUTHFULNESS of the city can be found in its curiosity and the refusal of generations of young people to accept the way that things were done before. It lies in its tradition of youth music – Two Tone, Rave, The Enemy and Jay 1, and street culture of skateboarding and parkour. Youthfulness is not just an age, it can also be found in the adults who continue to question and be responsive to new ideas and ways of doing.
Everyone is excited for the opening event which was originally schedule for May 15th, and hope to hear more details soon. What are your plans, are you going to watch it from home, or head out around Coventry to see all the elements from Coventry moves?
