Come To Our First Community Meet Up!
Common People 015
15 newsletters deep and growing stronger by the week. Hello again!
BIG NEWS. We’re having our very first Common People community IRL meet-up on Thursday 27th June in SE1, London. Tickets are free, but we’re asking people to reserve a place via the link, with a small voluntary donation to our Common Break fund, just so we can keep an eye on numbers and we don’t run out of croissants.
Yep, common people eat croissants!
We'll be chatting about the creative industries’ Class problem and working on ways to fix it together. Come and be a part of the solution! Bring a friend!
If you can’t make the morning session we have a space reserved at The Lord Clyde around the corner from 5pm. No ticket necessary. Expect more of the same chat, but louder.
To say we’re buzzing is an understatement.
In The News…
Kappa and Heinz celebrated the much loved but often overlooked sandwich vans outside Italian football stadiums, and the ordinary working people who run them. More of this kind of thing!
We spoke to It’s Nice That about how Britain can get its creative spark back (SPOILER: hire more Commoners). Hello to all the new subscribers who found us through that article, btw.
Have you been watching Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour? What we thought was going to be another Italy-by-numbers travel show was actually full of razor-sharp observations on Class and taste in art, packaged in a heartwarming tale of modern male friendship. Outstanding telly.
With that in mind, Working Arts Club is a new community for people from lower socio economic backgrounds who work in a gallery or visual arts setting.
This post about overcoming rejection in a creative career from Creative Lives in Progress is great. Honestly, CLIP is such a fantastic resource. It’s worth spending an hour just browsing and sharing.
New research from the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre shows that just 8% of TV and radio workers are from Working Class backgrounds – the lowest figure in a decade, and 90% of those working in the arts are white. In response, The Guardian highlighted the harsh realities of being one of the few Working Class people in TV.
Is the demise of the great British soap contributing to inequality on screen? GET OUT OF MY PUB!!! YOU AIN’T MY MOTHER!! etc.
A new fund was announced this month dedicated to amplifying the voices of Black and PoC creatives in Scotland. The Creators Fund+ will offer financial grants and mentorship to eight creatives in the region.
The new Mayor of the West Midlands has launched an initiative to boost the region’s creative and cultural sectors, with a focus on promoting worker owned companies. Could this be a blueprint rolled out in other areas?
This is an interesting deep dive into how Liverpool became the cultural heart of Britain’s gaming industry, looking at the collaboration with the city’s music scene, and how such a fast moving sector is responding to challenges in creative education.
Clean Air for the Ends will see young people from Lambeth and Southwark using poetry to raise awareness of inner city air pollution later this month.
Common People is, and always will be free to read. No paywalls. Nada. But if you like what we’re about and want to help the cause, you could shout about us on socials or share this with a friend. Or your co-workers. Or get us in to do a talk at your office. Or just drop us a message with a friendly word to commonpeoplelikeus@gmail.com.
We also have a WhatsApp group for commoners in the creative industries. If you’re not already at peak WhatsApp group and want to get involved, drop us a message!
Until next month,
Much love.