Bristol Unpacked

Content warning: Mention of sexual assault in prisons, self-harm and suicide. Steffi made national news with her story of transitioning gender later in life to officially becoming a woman while deciding with her wife to stay together.Steffi Barnett has a fascinating story, is a prominent activist for LGBTQ+ rights and awareness-raising, a radio host on local BCFM radio and exec-producer of Shout Out Radio. In this episode, Neil and Steffi discuss her moving story, the often vexed conversation around transgender rights including the current court case about puberty blockers, and whether societies and families can grow to love and accept gender diversity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's a theory that in recent years some parts of the working class are being badly let down, and have sought answers elsewhere - contributing to the rise of right-wing populists and policies. This week we talk to Nick, one of the founders of ACORN, the community union who's main focus is on housing justice, but with much bigger ambitions to genuinely create working class solidarity and power as an alternative to the appeal of people like Trump. Started in Bristol based off a USA model of organising, they are confrontational, successful and controversial with branches all over the country. Nick and Neil talk about the journey so far, unpack some of the criticisms laid against ACORN and a vision for a different world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Content Warning: Discussion of suicide Listen up, particularly men and boys. It's dark, it's wet, there’s a pandemic on. It's taking its toll, particularly on mental health. But there is light, and no it's not Boris Johnson’s cavalry. It's your friends, family and other support and networks you can access and build. This week we’re chatting to Desmond Richards, formerly one of Bristol’s best breakdancers, but now working with young people in tough circumstances to stop their heads spinning, as a young person’s mental health worker. We have an intimate chat about personal experience, men's mental health and how its much about you, as the circumstances you’re living in. Just a little note that we do touch on suicide and other tough themes. If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts reach out to the Samaritans on 116123, or go along to see your doctor/GP's mental health nurse, or if you feel that you are not safe call 999 or go to A&E. It is a tough old time, but it will get better. https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week we had the Tory challenger for Bristol Mayor, and this week wehave a Labour party stalwart, councillor and cabinet member for childrenservices Helen Godwin. Helen recently lost the Labour election to be thecandidate for West of England Metro Mayor but is still a big player inlocal party politics as council cabinet member for women and childrenservices. Neil and Helen chat about how youth services can be moreeffective, the crisis in Special Education Need and Disability serviceslocally and whether women are just better leaders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the debate around the legacy and current effects of racial injustice rages, some Conservatives of colour are speaking up in rejection of what they see as the dominant ‘woke’ views. Samuel Willams, the mixed-heritage Tory hopeful for Bristol’s mayoralty in May 2021 is one such voice. He chats with Neil about feeling patronised by the Left, being ostracised by others in the Black community and the Conservative Party’s successes and shortcomings in appealing to diverse communities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it mean to be Bristolian? Makala Cheung, born and raised in Knowle West of South-East Asian heritage, is a musician and creative director of the Filwood Centre in the South Bristol heartland. Listen in with Neil as they explore the ongoing debate of who is or isn’t Bristolian, the rise in racism against Chinese people since COVID, and how the wider city sees Knowle Westers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Dyer has been around the political block in the city as mayoral, MP and councillor candidate for the Green Party. The Hartcliffe raised activist cannot attract the usual stereotypes associated to the party. With first hand experience of some of the most deprived places in Bristol and the UK, why did he never join Labour and where does he see politics in the city with an election around the corner? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Arts and culture is taking a massive hit as the fallout of the pandemic continues. Emma Harvey is the outspoken CEO of the renowned Trinity Arts Centre and is at the forefront of the struggle to defend and champion the sector as a whole, and stick up for grassroots community culture while big city centre venues dominate the headlines. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a leader of Bristol’s Black and Green project, Zakiya is bringing a background in broadcasting and research to connect the inner city with the natural environment. Featuring on BBC 4 and across many platforms with writing, Zakiya is a Jamaican born in London and lived most of her life in Jamaica and brings a fresh perspective on many issues, and wants to see more radicalism in our thinking about race, class and climate change...and for people to stop being so polite! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From childhood experiences of being in care and bounced around different schools, to appearing on the front page of the Bristol Post last week talking about knife crime, Lawrence Hoo has a lot to say - often in poetry form. As part of the Cable's Black History Month coverage, Neil and Lawrence talk about the renaming of Colston Hall to Bristol Beacon, how education and the arts are key to building positive paths for young people and the role a poet plays in the political process of the city. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Public concern about climate change is at an all time high. Yet we are still hurtling towards, and seeing the beginnings of an unimaginable crisis. Among those standing in the way is Chloe Naldrett and Extinction Rebellion, sometimes naked sometimes not. Though criticised as extremists and criminals by some, and dismissed as naïve and counterproductive by others, XR has attracted huge support and continues to make waves. Neil talks with Chloe, an active Bristol member, on where the movement goes next, how to diversify from its white middle class base, controversial tactics and why doing nothing is not an option. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The famously humorous Hartcliffe local was a city councillor in the 1990s, and then getting re-elected in 2016, bringing professional experience to the role of city council cabinet lead for housing.Credited with doing a good job but now standing down to lead a large housing association, Neil Maggs asks have the council cosied up to big business and developers too much, or is that the only way to begin to address the housing crisis, how democratic is Bristol City Council, and where Labour will go next in the city. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Desmond Brown, on reforming the criminal justice system and being called a ‘police informant’Now at the forefront of conversations to reform the criminal justice system locally and nationally, Desmond Brown is an advocate for racial justice, especially since the Tasering of Ras Judah by police in 2017.Desmond has been accused by some of being a police informant, due to his work with local institutions and the police, a claim he strongly refutes as ridiculous. The former chair of Bristol’s Commission for Race Equality, Desmond is now the Independent Chair of Avon and Somerset Police’s Lammy Review Group. The group, the first to be established outside of London, has been set up to help the police force and local justice system implement the 2017 findings of David Lammy MP’s review into the treatment of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) individuals in the Criminal Justice System. He talks with Neil on knife crime, police discrimination of which he has suffered, and his work with Growing Futures, an organisation working with disadvantaged communities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Children's futures almost stolen, inequality made worse by algorithm and education in the time of COVID-19 in some of the UK's most deprived neighbourhoods.This week Neil talks to Samantha Williamson, the Principal of Merchants Academy. The school responsible for educating children from Reception to 18 in Withywood and Hartcliffe, areas recognised as among the most deprived in the country.As the school is operated by the controversial Society of Merchant Venturers, Samantha and Neil discuss discuss how she has felt leading a school connected to Edward Colston's former club, and their work on creating a new history curriculum to reflect Bristol's reckoning with its past. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Krazy is a rapper, producer and broadcaster, and a force to be reckoned with. As a white man he has been accused of cultural appropriation, despite growing up with in the scene. Was the way that Wiley was treated after his anti-semitic comments also racist? Draper discusses a video that went viral this week, where he punched a bigot. Last Man Standing is a new digital rap battle platform championing new artists, which is Krazy's true passion. Why do Bristol artists get left behind? We hear what Draper is doing to solve this. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Goldblatt is an award winning sports writer and broadcaster living in Bristol. He is the author of The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football which had been described as the "seminal football history book,”His latest work has seen him look at climate change and its impact on sport in a report commissioned by the Rapid Transition Alliance. The remarkable results were recently covered in the guardian, BBC World Service, and BBC Radio 4.He discusses this with Neil Maggs, and how climate change, will affect how people consume sport. And how a topic often depicted as middle class, will have a real effect on the lives of working class football supporters. Including those of his beloved Bristol Rovers.They examine how we can get this message out to people more effectively, and how sport could be the porta and catalyst to which people start to wake up and demand action is taken.They also talk about the war against slugs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Growing up in poverty on the north Bristol council estate of Lawrence Weston, Jimmy didn’t read a book until he was 20. His life changed when his girlfriend took him to the Tate gallery in London. Now Jimmy is a renowned artist, composer and curator and has exhibited alongside the UK’s leading figures, including Mark Quinn, sculptor of the Jen Reid Black Lives Matter statue that was temporarily on Edward Colston’s former plinth. He even brought Yoko Ono's work to Bristol, curating an exhibition of her work at the Georgian House.He is eccentric, opinionated, and in many ways an outspoken outsider in the arts community, railing against what he sees as the dominance of the cosy art world of Banksy. Openly critical of ‘brand Bristol’, he challenges the appetite for urban edginess and cool chic, over the need for real and radical change.His mission is to make art accessible and reclaim it for working class communities– in which all his heroes from Lennon to Bowie to Coltrane came. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marti Burgess owns Lakota, a club in Stokes Croft that turned 28 this year. Neil and her discuss the old days and the future of this stalwart of Bristol nightlife. From the heady days of the House scene in the early 90s to the rumours of an imminent sale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marti Burgess hit the headlines as the first Black person to join the notorious Society of Merchant Venturers, the 500 year old business and philanthropy club of slave trader Edward Colston and other members of Bristol’s elite, then and now. Marti is a corporate solicitor, chair of the Black South West Network and St Pauls Carnival and is involved with a multitude of other activities in the community including as the owner, along with her family, of Lakota night club in Stokes Croft.So how could a Black person join such an organisation that some have declared as irredeemably racist and elitist? Marti explains to us her motivation for joining, and what she aims do from within. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Born and raised Bristolian, community activist and diehard Bristol Rovers fan, Delroy Hibbert is a Black Lives Matter backer. But he also attended the ‘All Lives Matter’ nationalist demonstration in Bristol the week after Colston fell. A Bristol Cable video seen by hundreds of thousands captured a very tense moment with agitated protesters, ending in an iconic photograph of Delroy and a veteran shaking hands in front of the Colston plinth. Why, as a Black man, did he go? How does he respond to any criticism he may have received, what are the solutions to racial disparity in the city, and how can the black and white working class build bridges? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Founding member of Countering Colston, Green party city councillor and former Lord Mayor, Cleo Lake has a lot to say on the big questions of politics, race, history and the future of Bristol and beyond. Unafraid to speak truth to power, Cleo has challenged Mayor Marvin Rees on not having confronted Edward Colston’s legacy, having herself swiftly removed his portrait from the Lord Mayor’s office. A leading voice for reparations for the legacy and current damage of slavery and colonialism, Cleo is currently running for election as Deputy Leader of the English Green Party.https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-maangamizi-we-charge-genocide-ecocideBrought to you by the Bristol Cable, a new kind of newspaper for Bristol. 100% community owned by 2,200 members. Join them for just £1 a month and own your media. www.thebristolcable.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bristol Unpacked with Neil Maggs brings you fascinating and challenging conversations from characters of all stripes on big topics facing the city and beyond. Brought to you by the Bristol Cable, a new kind of newspaper for Bristol. 100% community owned by 2,200 members. Join them for just £1 a month and own your media. thebristolcable.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.