by Tilly Wiggins, Young Creatives Collective
The biggest, most influential, most groundbreaking launch of the year happened this month. No, I’m not talking about the Artemis moon mission. I am of course referring to the launch event for the Young Creative Collective’s very first zine Inkling.
It’s the 11th April, I’ve just stepped through the grand double doors of the National Justice Museum in Nottingham, and I am absolutely buzzing. Immediately, the energy is electric. When you put a collection of creative minds in a place like this, it’s like shaking a tree full of beehives. Excitement thrums through the building. After months of hard work, hours of zoom calls, uncountable games of hide and seek and a lot of biscuits it is finally time to launch the zine.
Thanks to the incredible organisational mind of First Story Young Creatives Manager Rose Condo, we have a jam-packed schedule: readings from young people, collage-making activities, a creative careers panel, and a meet and greet with the Sheriff of Nottingham, all set to take place in a room designed to look like a real courtroom. If that can’t get the creative juices flowing, I don’t know what can.
We started by introducing the zine. Standing on the stage as the Young Creatives Collective (YCC), holding the project we had spent hours meticulously creating was one of the most incredible feelings. I am so proud of everyone in the group and feel so privileged to call them my friends. They are what made the YCC such a life-changing experience, and I am going to miss seeing their pixelated faces through my laptop screen as we wrack our brains over logistics. It was then time for the main event, the reason we were all there and my favourite moment of the day. Young people from across the UK submitted work to Inkling and now some of them were going to read their work aloud. We had young people from London, Nottingham, Manchester and beyond attend the event and every single one of them read beautifully. There was so much talent, power and passion in the room and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for every young voice that took to the stage. For many of them it was their first time reading in front of other people, and I hope it won’t be the last.
I am so proud that our project could create a space where young people felt empowered to speak their truths. Our theme of “new beginnings” was reflected in the triumphs and tribulations shared creatively on stage, and resonated with the room. I found myself reflecting on how far I’ve come since the start of the collective. This project brought together a group of young people from across the UK, gave them the creative and artistic freedom to create something they cared about, and then use that creation to empower others. The Young Creatives Collective is a force to be reckoned with and a beautiful demonstration of what creativity, camaraderie and a constant supply of snacks can nurture.
