Raising our rural voices through creativity
Written by Lola Cook
The preconceptions and stereotypes that surround what it means to be a young person today puts a huge amount of pressure on young people. It is not uncommon that young people, especially those who live rurally, feel as though the stereotype of who they are believed to be is what people take them for as opposed to being understood for who they really are.
Since the P.O.V. programme launched in 2020 it has worked with dozens of talented young people in Herefordshire and Shropshire, supporting them to express their diverse experiences of what it means to be a rural young person. In this article I revisit two familiar faces to find out of how their creative participation in P.O.V. has impacted them and how it genuinely feels to grow up rurally, liberated from the guise of others’ assumption.
Tab is 17, living in rural north Herefordshire, and entering their tenth year as an incredibly talented dancer. Creativity is nothing short of a sixth sense for Tab as their life revolves around their ideas and passion, often propelling themself around stages at a number of prestigious dance schools, and despite being a minimum of a 40-minute drive away from where these opportunities reside. Tab’s mum, Niki, makes ends meet to ensure that Tab can stretch their talents to their promising potential. Two miles down the road lives Martha, a creative writing and photography student at the University of Aberystwyth, whose talent ranges from being an excellent seamstress and a connoisseur of textiles to being an adventurous photographer.
Image: Tab (left) with sister Elena and mum Nikki. Picture by Lola Cook.
Away from the overstimulation and demanding nature of university life, Martha has learned to adore the solitude that rural life offers. A childhood environment that bred her burning streak of innovation and imagination that also reminds her of her immense appreciation to be able to escape people but also live within a community of support and positivity. Evidently, creativity is fervent amongst rural young people too, but are there enough if any opportunities for this creativity to be pushed to its full potential?
Tab contributed to POV by choreographing a short dance film that explored an injury that turned their life upside down. After hitting their head under the stairs in June 2019, Tab suffered from post-concussion syndrome. Unable to walk or talk, Tab’s creative outlet was put on hold, and this is where the family felt the impact of their rural location the most.
Tab said that “living rurally has meant that it has been harder to access high quality medical help as specialists are based so far away” which left Tab and their family feeling completely helpless. Nikki made contact with dance groups who could potentially help Tab in this isolating time, a pivotal moment for Tab was connecting with CAT Birmingham (centre of advanced dance training) who completely expanded and reinvented what dance meant to them, teaching Tab to explore tiny movements with their feet to create routines - alas Tab was dancing again, and Nikki said, “it brought them back to life”.
Tab said that P.O.V gave them an opportunity to speak out and share their truth which was utterly transformative for them; feeling seen, heard and affirmed by the experience, Tab became the representation of what they needed to see when they were at their worst by taking the reins and breaking barriers of other’s preconceptions about what it means to be a rural young person and what it means to be who they are. Tab’s film has gone on to inspire many. After it was screened at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham the family was contacted by a disabled student who, as a result of seeing Tab’s film, was inspired to walk to receive her graduation ceremony.
Tab is now involved in a project called LIMITLESS which will shed light on the power of creative arts for communities who face isolation on a daily basis. Through their perseverance, the P.O.V opportunity and incredible support from Nikki, Tab has blown stereotypes and labels out of the water of what being a rural young creative means. Support and guidance aren’t a gift that all rural young people have the privilege of experiencing and this furthers need for support for young rural people who don’t have the means to fulfil their own potential.
Image: Behind the scenes with Martha taking portraits for the P.O.V. creative consultation.
Image: Martha with her dad at the P.O.V. exhibition of her portraits.
Martha’s involvement in P.O.V. was at first submitting a series of photographs of bailing twine from her dad’s farm. Stemming from a project based on knots, Martha put this set of photos forward to P.O.V. – following a call out for creative work that responded to the prompt ‘what is your point of view?’ – explaining that the fragile ties of twine reflected how the farm was being held together while her dad’s mental health that was deteriorating. Passionate and frustrated about the non-existent awareness surrounding farmers mental health, Martha sought to shed light on her dad’s reality through her creative work, revealing that the idyllic and peaceful postcard picture of the countryside is really only an outsider’s preconception. She told me that exclamation by friends at seeing “the beautiful lambs!” when she’s at uni in Aberystwyth twists her gut, as behind the wagging tails are weeks of no sleep as farmers “trade their life for theirs” in the gruelling period of lambing.
Martha’s work is gut-wrenching and thought provoking. It challenges those unfamiliar with the realities of rural life and demands a change in perception from the viewer. And this is why the opportunity she had with P.O.V. to exhibit her work was affirming. Her thoughts and creative power were displayed for all to see.
As a result of being involved with P.O.V., Martha joined the team as a paid photographer for the project. She said: “I was incredibly keen to give it a go due to the lack of creative opportunities offered to young people rurally. It gave me a huge appreciation for where I grew up.”
“It gave me a huge appreciation for where I grew up”
Proud and grateful for her upbringing, P.O.V. has helped Martha reclaim her authentic experience of being a rural young person in Herefordshire.