Lots of news from Tees Zine Fest. We have another event for 2025, this time in Redcar to tie in nicely with the work we’ve been doing with local LGBTQ+ group Skittles and Halloween (of course). Our FrankenZine Mini Zine Fest happens on the Sat 25th October at Redcar Literary Institute from 1-6pm
There’ll be some of regular Zine makers and some new faces, including members of the Skittles Youth Group we worked with before the Summer as well as the Zine Library, Community Table and Workshops. We’ll also be doing some seasonal drinks and treats!
The Zine project with Skittles was funded by Tees Valley Museums and we worked in collaboration with Kirkleatham Museum. I worked weekly with friend and regular collaborator Wade Radford the fantastic zine and filmmaker and poet. It culminated in a show of the young people’s Zines and the film Wade made with them at the ground floor gallery space at the museum, and also included some histories of people from the LGBTQIA+ community from Teesside.
I’ve also been working with Wade supporting his film work, there’ll be more on that as it’s released
Funding News
We’re happy to say our Tees Zine Fest CIC has now been granted further funding, this time from Woodsmith Foundation. This enables us to further work with the young people in Redcar on the run up to the Zine Fest.
On top of this, Rumana of Bok Bok Books and I applied for and were finally successful in an bid from the Arts Council (after a couple of goes) for our ‘What’s in my Suitcase’ Project. We’ll be back with the Desi Blitz truck Painted Bus at events and schools across Teesside starting late September including Festival of Thrift and Middlesbrough Arts Week.
Flavoursome Workshops
I’ve been back to doing tea workshops recently, working with Hartlepool Museums. Alongside Rumana and Indi we had the unusual experience of doing workshops in and around a historic ship at the Hartlepool Royal Navy museum and I got to do tea blending in the captain’s cabin of the HMS Trincomalee. This was a bit of a full circle moment for me, as a 16 yr old my then Hartlepool resident boyfriend worked on the ship on a YTS scheme!
The work has also taken me to the Salaam Centre in Hartlepool, a great community centre in the heart of one of the more diverse parts of the town, and I got to work with people who had come to our area from across the world as we talked tea traditions and memories and blended teas to take home.
The next few months I’ll continue to work with the Hartlepool Museum Service, this time in the NHS hospital in the town. my other upcoming workshops include Colourful Blackout Poetry and Life Drawing ( not me as the model luckily) for Pimms and Needles lots of bits and bobs of workshops and consultancy work and planning for the Christmas Markets. Busy… very busy!
Or more correctly akin to a hurricane. The weather this year for Christmas markets was absolutely crap, to be fair, and it is an issue those of us whose businesses rely on these markets to see us through the following months.
Luckily in January and February I was kept really busy with my fantastic multi-talented friend and collaborator Wade, working on his many projects, starting with Discreetest 2000 which has given me my first IMDB credit as cinematographer and production manager, filmed on video8 and now released as a zine with the full story and DVD.
What a treat it was but WOW was it tiring- it involved fireworks, a mercy mission to Middlesbrough and back, learning how to use 1980s and 1990s film and photography tech and A LOT of coffee.
Discreetest 2000 Teaser Trailer
We went straight from our weekend jaunt across North Yorkshire Dales and Coast, into the Premiere of The Busby and Me. This is Wade’s 17 year telling of the Legend of the Busby Stoop took Wade’s original teenage ghost hunting footage and blended it with new footage he’d taken at the back end of last year.
The premiere was a full house at the stunning vintage Ritz Cinema in Thirsk, where the Museum holding the fated chair resides, and the film was fantastically received, with a queue of people clamouring to get in, a queue for our merch stall which included my Illustration for the film, signed by Wade and me. Sadie introduced the film and it was an unreal night!
Straight from the Busby, Wade released a third project, Poetry on 8 tape – a really special one for me.
Taking his favoured video8 film again and blending it with his eclectic poetry and music from Sadie Joan this beautiful meditation of films starts with a poem about my own Nana, who died when I was a child and Wade recreated through his creativity, and gave me another mention as a cast member.
This one’s on Youtube now and absolutely needs a view.
A quick Zine Fest Update ..
Tees Zine Fest in now a CIC and we’re working hard to put in place everything to get the funding for our upcoming workshops for 13-17 and 18-25 year olds in East Cleveland. Zine Fest dates are out and tables are booking quickly !
This time we’re running a Zine Fest on 24th May and a Makers Market on 31st May at Unit 7, Navigator North, which they run as a gallery and arts space opposite Primark in Middlesbrough, and are kind enough to support us with. If you want a stall, see our FB and INSTA pages for links!
Coming Up!
Never moan about being quiet! I’ve got loads coming up. After my graphic recording this year so far for a couple of great organisations, it’s definitely here to stay and I have bookings into April!
Rumana and I will be back to Saltburn in a couple of weeks with the Saltburn Valley of Light, fabulously run by Stellar Creates. This time we’re taking Muslim symbolism to our light piece, to celebrate Ramadan.
We’ll be working together again in April with more willow and cultural storytelling at Ormesby Hall for a beautiful commission the based on Japanese Cherry Blossom festivals.
It’s been such a busy autumn but nothing is a busy as the two months before Christmas if you’re someone who does stalls – in the meantime I’ll take you back to what I’ve done over the last couple of months and we have to start with Beamish ..
After my residency at Beamish last year with the One Suitcase’ Project, I’d been asked alongside my friends and collaborators Rumana of Bok Bok Books and Indi from Desi Blitz to take part in a South Asian ‘Migration Day’ Takeover with our ‘What’s in your suitcase project.
We met Indi and his fabulous Truck Painted Bus at the venue and got ready, dressing Rose Cottage where I was based, ready to chat to visitors and record them and Indi was serving homemade Samosas, the Welfare Hall where Rumana was telling South Asian based children’s stories and the Cinema, which was playing Indi’s Partition film. We were joined by an amazing South Asian dance group and a dementia group which works with people from the community in South Shields.
We all dressed the part – all three of us wearing traditional SA dress Rumana and I ware spoilt by having our hair done in the 1950s Hairdressers. – It was a fantastically busy day and we absolutely loved the colour, sounds and smells that had been added too the traditional 50s town, plus as always the staff were fabulous! I managed to record and edit quite a few pieces ready to be added to the Beamish archive – what an epic day with THE BEST people !
Zines in Hartlepool and Sunderland
We popped up at The Central Hub in Hartlepool for a mini Zine Fest! I was asked by Hartlepool Council with funds from Arts Council England to run this fab little zine fest as a way of getting younger people into the venue which is also the Central Library.
As always zine tests attract the best stallholders, kind, caring and sharing and we spent the day becoming even more of a collective than we had at the last event . The range of work was amazing and it was great to tell visitors about zines and zinemaking , especially as a way of sharing community specific information and passions.
Then last week it was over to Sunderland to run a Zine Making class at Hills Arts Centre right in the Centre of town – organised by the amazing Michaela (and the only fellow Michaela I know) of Pink Collar Gallery– through Norfolk Street Arts Heritage Fund. I love a zine workshop because everyone can make a zine and it can literally be about anything you like… as a starting point we had thoughts about Sunderland then and now , but the work produced really did pick up on personal emotions and memories around experiences of living and working in the city. Zines can do all that ..
Tattoo Photography with Emma Vynokurova
Emma is a photographer displaced from Ukraine and now living in Newcastle. a friend sent me info about a tattoo photography project Emma was doing, recording people who had tattoos with a meaning, and Emma agreed to photograph me in her studio after hearing about my ink.
My tattoos, like much in my life reflect my memories of my Nana and her influence on me, especially on being a tea purveyor. Emmas project looks as these stories and links them through her ‘Pritani’ project (Pritani being the original name of Britain, and meaning ‘Painted Ones’ in old Celtic.
I spent a good few hours with the wonderful Emma, learned of her flight with her daughter from Ukraine as a result of the war, and her story in Newcastle so far, first with a sponsor in their home and now with her own home, and having to start again after giving up a successful career in Events in her home country .
Emma really understood where my tattoos where influenced by my Nana and the images , later part of an exhibition were beautiful. Can’t wait to see Emma again as we got on famously!
It’s been a busy time since the end of the One Suitcase project, and one of the best parts of the project was meeting colleague Rumana Yasmin and ultimately piloting and planning a new amazing project.
Rumana is a Bangladeshi writer and the founder of Bok Bok Books, publishing children’s books which tell South Asian Stories and provide representation for children in the UK who are from South Asian Descent.
She introduced me to the Desiblitz Truck Painted bus. Based in Birmingham, Desiblitz are a Community Organisation who work within Asian communities and use the bus, which was painted by world renown Pakistani Truck Painter Haider Ali to engage people of all ages and backgrounds.
Together we’ve been piloting taking the bus to venues as the Mobile Museum of Migration, talking to people about artefacts, sounds and memories brought to Teesside from across the world, their travelling stories and memories around the familial objects. Our two pilot events , which were both hugely positive were supported by Kirkleatham Museum and Middlesbrough MELA. Both organisations have pledged to support our ongoing larger planned project.
Our project involves taking the bus, Mobile Museum and activities to schools, events and communities around Teesside where we’ll use stories, artefacts and activities to explore and find items which arrived to the area through migration.
We’ll work with classes, communities and those who have already been involved in the One Suitcase project to co-create a children’s book, which will be narrative in part, with characters based on Bangladeshi birds, tying in with traditional Bangladeshi tales and the illustrations on the bus and partly stories of the objects and information about them, written by Rumana which I will illustrate.
Some of the organisations interested in sharing artefacts and co-creation include schools, both Primary and Secondary, organisations who work with Newly Arrived Communities, and an ESOL (English as a Second language) group.
The book will represent the diversity of communities in Teesside, and will share not only the migration stories of the artefacts, but of those who came and continue to travel, like Rumana from Bangladesh and my family from Ireland, from across the world to make Teesside their home.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m really interested in genealogy, partly because I wanted to know how and why my Maternal Grandmother was born in Middlesbrough, and how I came to also be born there. It’ll be no surprise to people who live around Middlesbrough when I say my relatives came to the town from Ireland, in my case via Liverpool.
My great grandad Henry Healy worked all over the UK wherever there was unskilled work, from Middlesbrough and Sunderland to Kent, but the last place he lived with his children was Lower East Street in what is known as St Hilda’s, but I always knew as ’Over The Border’ in the area between Middlesbrough Station and the river Tees. This was where the original Middlesbrough grew in the early 1800s from a simple fam to the ’Ironopolis’ – the centre of UK iron production needed to build the world’s bridges and railways as the Industrial Revolution changed industry forever.
I was more surprised to find my Great great grandad on my Dad’s side had lived in Lower Gosford Street, across the road from my previous employer, and recently that my Husband’s 4 times Great Grandad lived in Middlesbrough after running a Jet Ornament business in Whitby, with 8 employees and a shop on Church Street ( this shop still exists although as a different business).Bearing in mind he was rural Kent born and bred, this was quite a surprise.
So I think if you know anything about Teesside, you know it’s an area built on Immigration. After the Industrial Revolution the next big influx of immigration came after WW2 when we were desperate for workers so sent out the call far and wide to all the ex ’Empire” (by this time, rebranded as Commonwealth) countries to extend the hand of welcome. It wasn’t really like that when people arrived unfortunately, and for some, whatever welcome there was didn’t last very long.
More recently, Middlesbrough and Teesside have become a dispersal area for Asylum seekers, this time because there is an abundance of cheap housing which the companies given the contracts from the government make much use of. Needless to say this is a story on repeat.
I’ve always found it strange, then that anyone in Middlesbrough would be anti immigration. The town simply wouldn’t exist without Immigrants, and to tie in with what was happening in London between 1950 and 1970 which we know more about, including the Windrush arrival, and subsequent more recent scandal of people being sent back to places they’ve hardly, or never lived, I really wanted to get my teeth into what happened here., and be the artist again. Taking inspiration from what I discover to create works for Middlesbrough Art weekender in 2023 and an installation in Kirkleatham Museum in June next year, as well as activity at this year’s Middlesbrough Mela and Festival of Thrift.
SO here’s some info about the project… if you know anyone who might like to be involved, do message me.
I’m looking to speak to and record the discussion with people about either their experiences of leaving their mother country and landing in England / Teesside. This project concentrates on people who came / whose parents came here 1950 and 1970 Also I’d like to chat to people whose heritage is more local about how they would feel if they had to leave for another place. Our discussion will be mostly about what people brought to remind them of home, what they would bring if they had to leave for a place with a different culture that they could fit in one suitcase – but also including less tangible items such as sounds and smells. We’ll be looking at expectations and realities of migration, and what people feel the welcome would be in in new place . The discussions will be saved and documented, and I will use excerpts as a piece of art I am making for Middlesbrough Art weekender, and an exhibition in Kirkleatham museum, both next year. All discussions can be as private / anonymous as required and interviewees will have the option of having their photograph taken. I am also looking for people interested in being further involved in influencing the project.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Miki Rogers is an artist and community worker who was born in Middlesbrough working in community led arts for the last 15 years She brought up her family on Teesside, though her heritage is from Irish immigration into Middlesbrough in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The towns of Stockton and Middlesbrough have a long story of immigration due to access from the River Tees which originally welcomed ships to both towns, and the industries around Teesside expanding at a rate which local workers could not fill. Teesside more recently has become a dispersal area for people seeking asylum. The project investigates what happened here on Teesside at the same time the Windrush and further transport was bringing in Jamaican workers to London, between the 1950s and 1970s and we’re interested in people who came to Teesside from abroad during this time or whose parents did, especially where the culture here differed noticeably from their homeland. We know people came to fill our need for workers for the Shipbuilding, Steel and Chemical industries, with the promise that their inclusion as part of the Commonwealth would allow a welcome here. More recently we have seen the mass exodus of people from Ukraine, and this has brought Immigration, asylum and migration into sharp focus for many people. Interviews will form part of a work which will be exhibited as part of Middlesbrough Art weekender, and at Kirkleatham Museum through the Festival of Thrift, and there will be an element of creative response to the interviews by local young creatives, as well as a piece of sound art using the Oral History recordings which will play during the Kirkleatham and old suitcases, exploring what people did, and would put in that suitcase…
What did you do over the Jubilee weekend? I have to admit to not being particularly royalist, especially as I’ve been married to an old punk musician for the last 27 yrs…but I knew that the Platinum Jubilee weekend or ’Platty Jubes’ as I heard some people jokingly call it was, in fact going to create a great opportunity for communities to get together and work on their ’community-ness’, and there was some money being made available for this very thing!
With this in mind, I was so happy to be asked to be part of the team working on the East Cleveland Big Jubilee festival, particularly as it’s based in my corner of the world.
I worked with the wonderful Jo and a group of committed community champions who had set out a vision of village togetherness across East Cleveland, plus a dance spectacular on the Jetty at Skinningrove. We got the funding 7 weeks before the event so we had A LOT to do, but we made it! 8 village halls decorated and providing exhibitions and activity, an oral history element, a bus tour and the promised dance on the jetty!
What a joy!
Here’s a little snapshot of some of the activity …
Thanks to all the villages, Arts Council England, Big Local, County Durham community
Pimms and Needles
In between all this flurry of activity, I’ve been doing workshops for the fabulous women’s befriending and creative group Pimms and Needles.
Founders Donna and Charlotte set up the first group in and around Darlington, when they realised there was a space for women to find friendship and fun and new experiences which had traditionally been taken by the WI and other organisations, but where they could share tea, cake and the odd glass of wine!
Pimms and needles now run 20+ groups across the Tees Valley, Co Durham and N Yorkshire, as well as free ’Silvers’ groups for women experiencing isolation and those over retirement age.
I got involved at the beginning of 2022, doing tea workshops with just about every group, and now i’m hist of the Redcar group !
See their website below to join and see some of the amazing activity which includes Life Drawing, mosaic and watercolours, and even Burlesque!
It’s that time of the year again! My favourite yearly event rolls into town, and this time it’s almost on our doorstep, in the neighbouring town of Redcar.
The Festival of thrift was devised and began three years ago as a collaboration between a local business man (who just happened to own Lingfield Point, the funkiest industrial estate you’ve ever seen) and retro genius, designer and Red or Dead owner Wayne Hemingway. I visited in year 1, met one of my now closest friends who had a stall (hello Jane) and was totally won over by it all. Finally something totally up my street had arrived in the Tees Valley!
Year 1 brought 17,000 visitors and I knew at the end of the two days I just had to be part of the next one. A year passed, and in year two I was there with my stall, and my book classes, with 40,000 visitors, my friends Geraldine and Abi selling too, and the lovely ladies from the Bobbin Shed (at the time artists in residence at Lingfield Point) as well as hundreds of stalls, classes activities and loads of shows. In year 3 the visitors had topped 45,000.
Image: festival of thrift
This year there’s been a change. The fab F0T people have decided to move the event and bring it to Kirkleatham, on the edge of seaside town Redcar. Kirkleatham is what remains of the village that surrounded Kirkleatham hall and is a hidden gem of gorgeous homes, a stunning little church and buildings which now serve as a Museum, almshouses and a bird sanctuary.
I’ll be doing a new thrifty ‘Mini-screenprinting’ class, suitable for those aged 14+, which can be booked here, and will be selling on my stall with the help of my children George and Sadie. To find out more about this fab event which comes our way on 17-18 September, click here.
Discovering Berlin
This Summer we visited Berlin. In September my son will be off on a new adventure, starting Uni in Leeds, so this one was a special ‘last time we’ll all live together’ holiday.
Thoughts: amazing laid back city, creative as could be with plenty to see and do. SAFE, even at night, everyone is laid back and pace is slow. Rush hour still isn’t packed and S & U Bahn trains are clean and efficient – go by tram if you want to see the place..
Loads of graffiti on everything! Everyone lives in a flat, has a bike and a bottle of beer. Police are calm even if there’s been a spectacular accident (which we observed). If you try to speak German you’ll probably find the person you’re talking to is Australian.
There are urban beaches all over ( you need to find them) and a swimming pool in the river. You can tour the city on a hired bike, on a Trabant tour, in a mini-dragracer, in a horse and carriage, or on a London Bus. Sit outside and eat, take in the atmosphere in Kreuzberg or Friedrichshain (where we stayed) in E Berlin. Do a river trip in Moby Dick and wonder at the modernist government buildings around the Reichstag. Visit the old Jewish quarter of Scheunenviertel with its galleries, gorgeous old buildings and the labyrinth of independent shops in the Hackescher Markt
If you go, go on a Sunday when all the amazing flea markets in the east of the city are on. If you miss that, then every Tuesday there’s a fabulous Turkish market in Neukoelln, full of gorgeous eastern food, fabrics, jewellery and sounds. … Wonderful.
Whole lot of Rosie Update
The life of a creative is never smooth, but always interesting!
In-between my job at TeesValley Arts, our shop, the markets and events, somewhere there is a creative / foodie business. So – how far have I got with the update of my tea brand? I have the new name, domain name, and email address sorted, and next has been the logo and labels.
Summer is always busy, I try and fit spending time with my children between all this and there are holidays to be had (see above) as well as events to prep for, but I’ve got back to the drawing board (literally) and made myself everything I need.
New name, labels in hand, some images to take next and we will be off! Whole lot of Rosie teas will be here soon, with a new site where you can look and buy.
I wanted to start off this blog with the view from the window of our caravan . Completely untouched by Instagram or Photoshop, this was how we woke every morning during our week away, to the view of Fishguard harbour, perfectly framed by the curtains.
We went to Wales for the first week in August, and as our first ‘holiday’ day was my birthday, I chose to visit one of my all-time favourite places, Slova. Solva is one of the most beautiful little enclaves along the Pembrokeshire coast, and for a tiny place still boasts the most idyllic unspolt homes and some wonderful little galleries . I couldn’t help but do a watercolour of the harbour, which I gave to Liz and Pete, my gorgeous in-laws as a thank you for spending lots of time with us and feeding us on most evenings. While we were there, I learned a new word … cwtch. It means to cuddle in Welsh but also to protect and (oddly it may seem) it describes the cupboard under the stairs! – Not sure Harry Potter would like the word, but I suddenly spotted it everywhere, and adopted it as my new word of choice, and managed to get Liz a gift of a cwtch heart hand embroidered and made from up-cycled Welsh blankets.
Galtres
This moves me on nicely to our weekend at Galtres festival. Having told my friend and fellow maker Geraldine about the word ‘Cwtch’ she kindly made me some fused glass pieces, featuring the word as she was making fused glass for our stall. All ready with our handmade wares, our new huge Gala tent and bags of wool roving for our felting classes, Geraldine and I set off with my teenagers, George and Sadie in our camper, Ruby.
We spent a hugely rewarding but really tiring weekend in a field in North Yorkshire. We met ‘Haley’ from Coronation Street (the lovely, and extremely cool Julie Hesmondhalgh) whose daughter bought one of Sadie’s tie died t-shirts, we danced along to The Human Leaugue, The Levellers, Morcheeba, Bellowhead and Tricky, and tried not to be driven mad by the music from the fair directly opposite us! There was fun on the dodgems, the odd fish finger and cheese sandwich from the ‘Fish FInger Heaven‘ stall and lots of fun all round with the most wonderful set of people. We’re all signed up for next year.
Wet-felting
More workshops, festivals and markets to look forward to until Christmas so it’ s a mega-busy time . Look forward to seeing you there!
What brilliant news we had this week that Geraldine and I have been accepted to have a stall at the Festival of Thrift at Lingfield Point in Darlington, this September.
For any of you who are in driving distance and didn’t go last year this is an unmissable weekend with loads of handmade and upcycled loveliness for sale, delicious and diverse food, and fabulous events and workshops (we loved the hula-hoop lessons). It’s a real honour and we hope to rub shoulders with the likes of Wayne Hemingway and Max McMurdo, a fab upcycler who’s appeared on both Kirsty Allsop programmes and ‘Small Spaces’, both of whom were there last year!
So, bringing myself down to earth and thinking of new recycled projects I have been looking at ceramics for inspiration, having come across some iconic Staffordshire pottery dogs whilst perusing Ebay. Looking a bit further it seems I’m by no means the first to be inspired by these lovely objects, and I found examples of updated versions by Rob Ryan (whose work I have long had a love for) and Donna Wilson…
Rob Ryan
Staffordshire Pugs
Staffordshire Spaniels
Staffordshire Spaniels
Donna Wilson for Heals
For my own version I have used a quilting method and 2 layers of thrifted sweatshirt fabric to create some dog and cat brooches, but there’ll be lots more to come.
Don’t forget to book your workshop if you want to come, we’re planning water-colour, free stitching, crochet and pattern-making after this round too! See the Facebook page to keep updated! Book a current workshop HERE and see below for details!…
..no matter how successful your previous ones have been , there’s always that trepidation that no-one will turn up.. always, but especially when those workshops are in a new format and at a new venue . This is what keeps you on your toes. So, to the new art workshops I have planned with the lovely G; we had bookings before we had even advertised , which is always a great and it’s been lovely to see the support we’ve been given so far. If you want to know more about workshops, click here.
The new venue just happens to be on the Seafront on the North East coast at Redcar, and after a recent ‘creative retreat’ by the sea, where I got to rekindle my love of water-colour, I already have ideas to include a water-colour class for the next round of workshops, and happily have people interested in taking the workshops up… That view is too good to waste!
CREATIVE BRAIN…
What is a surprise is when you find out on where on the internet your work or your workshops have appeared. .. This week there was a little link to our workshops on the blog ‘Creative Brain’ .Lots of articles about creativity, with a decidedly intelligent twist..
I only discovered our link because of a Twitter post , but it’s great to see other people appreciating what you’re up to and as I have a real fascination with how the brain works , having done my thesis of ‘creative thinking in underachieving boys’ this blog was of great interest..
If you’re interested in the ways of the brain, a great book to read is ‘Frames of Mind’ by Howard Gardner, all about multiple intelligences and how we’re all intelligent, but in different ways…(one of the many reasons I love creativity, is it’s accessible by everyone) I’ll leave you with that and with my favourite quote:
In-between my job at TeesValley Arts, our shop, the markets and events, somewhere there is a creative / foodie business. So – how far have I got with the update of my tea brand? I have the new name, domain name, and email address sorted, and next has been the logo and labels.
![IMG_1213[1]](https://i0.wp.com/mikirogers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/img_12131.jpg?w=223&h=297&ssl=1 "IMG_1213[1]")
Miki Rogers 