We Shall Overcome in October

We Shall Overcome is a collective howl of rage and love celebrating arts and culture, supporting those affecting by austerity and showing solidarity. http://weshallovercomeweekend.com/ it’s a weekend of beautiful things and I am delighted The LRM are contributing two special walks.

We will be wandering the boundary between public and private space, exploring radical histories, DIY culture, and public/private space. We will uncover the power structures and architecture of fear that works to keep us off the streets and share stories of resistance, solidarity and creative mischief. Expect a wee bit of occult bobbins and rants against inequality and austerity,

On Saturday 3^rd October we venture out of town and take We Shall Overcome to the streets of George Osbourne’s constituency. It’s our first ever trip to Wilmslow and I expect it to be very special. Meet 2pm Wilmslow Railway Station.

Sunday 4^th October is First Sunday of course and so we will be back in Manchester. Meet 10am outside The Peoples History Museum (the early start means no clash with activities around the Tory conference).

Both events are open to everyone. Please bring a donation (long lasting food, socks, gloves, hats – I will post a full list soon). In Manchester we are collecting for The Booth Centre, Wilmslow tbc and I will update ASAP.

Since the earliest iteration of The LRM I have made clear I think there are many psychogeographies and we should relish those diverse blossoms. However that has never implied I think psychogeography is a meaningless term, more that I don’t want to get stuck in semantics.

I passionately believe there has to be an inherent political element – a subversive intention, a desire to walk truth to power, to uncover hidden histories and step towards a better future – to psychogeography. A dérive is more than a leisurely stroll (although that does not make it unpleasureable) it should be unsettling, peculiar and not turn away from contradictions or difficult questions. It should be a creative (re)mapping of imagination and desire, and we should strive to open up and share those cartographic duties so anyone and everyone can feel like our streets belong to us all. This feels more important than ever in an environment that demonises drifting, erodes public space and seeks to enclose and restrict our minds as well as our bodies, It is also never enough, and can only be one tactic, one tool, amongst many that build the cities of our dreams. (As an aside I am so proud to loiter with so many good folk who fight and question and build and work and dream in so many different ways).

Perhaps most importantly of all psychogeography is NOT just a theory, it has to be a practice as well, a living, breathing, panting, messy, contradictory, beautiful, troublesome walking DOING but just talking. This is one of the reasons I am contributing my wanders in October to We Shall Overcome and I would urge other psychogeographers to do the samehy. A dérive is more than a leisurely stroll (although that does not make it unpleasurable) it should be unsettling, peculiar and not turning away from contradictions or difficult questions. It should be a creative (re)mapping of imagination and desire, and we should strive to open up and share those cartographic duties so anyone and everyone can feel like our streets belong to us all. This feels more important than ever in an environment that demonises drifting, erodes public space and seeks to enclose and restrict our minds as well as our bodies. It is also never enough, and can only be one tactic, one tool amongst many that build the cities of our dreams. (As an aside I am so proud to loiter with so many good folk who fight and question and build and work and dream in so many different ways).