Offers and Needs Cafe + Keepsake Pocket Books + Capoeira

Join us for a choice of three classes at Birmingham Settlement Nature + Wellbeing Centre. Food and refreshments served from 5pm.

Offers and Needs Cafe with Chloë

Over the past 18 months, we have witnessed how Neighbourhood Trade School has unlocked an abundance of skills, knowledge and possibilities for exchange in us all, demonstrating the many ways we can learn and be together in kind, joyful, noble and intergenerational ways.
As we prepare to wind down for Winter season and say farewell to this current iteration of Neighbourhood Trade School, we invite you to explore with us how we can capture and build on the beautiful energy we have created together, before we turn our attention to the Neighbourhood Public Square site in 2025.
How might the essence of Neighbourhood Trade be carried forward by us all, beyond the regular weekly gathering the spaces we are used to, so that we continue the exchange of skills and knowledge in our neighbourhood(s), in different spaces and ways?
To support with this exploration, we’re welcoming back artist Chloë Lund to host an Offers and Needs cafe: a space for us to explore the skills, interests and resources each of us have to share, and how we might go about exchanging them. Whether you already know what you’d like to offer, would like some support thinking through ideas or would simply like to join the conversation, everyone is welcome.

Keepsake Pocket Books with Joey (recommend age 10+)

In this session, Joey will introduce us to , also known as the Chinese thread book, a form of Chinese folk art. Originating as a practical tool used to store sewing supplies, zhenxianbao has folded pockets, hidden compartments, and expandable sections, meaning it can be used for storing flat keepsakes and materials, such as sewing supplies. We will learn the background of the thread book, and follow Joey’s hands-on instructions to create one of our own.

Capoeira with Denise (all ages)

Join dancer and Capoeirista Denise for the third of three classes offering an introduction to the history and benefits of capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art and game developed centuries ago as a form of resistance and cultural expression.

At this final session, we will learn about capoeira spoken word and have the opportunity to write our own meditation and movement self -talk script. We will recap movements we have learnt, and learn and explore the meaning of another capoeira song. Sessions are open to all abilities and ages, and you’re welcome to join a single session, or all three.

We invited Denise to host these classes as part of our ongoing wish to convene nourishing spaces for connection, rest and solidarity, at a time where the impacts of violent systems here and across the world may leave us feeling isolated or afraid. In the words of our friend Arron Gill, ‘what we have is each other’.

Neighbourhood Trade School is based on the principle that everyone has something to share and everyone has something to learn. We invite each class host to choose items that they would find useful and delightful to receive in return for their time and experience in sharing a skill, so we invite you to explore which of our host's barter items you would like to bring along with you, if you are able to do so.

Joey's barter request:

• Your time! Be a participant and brainstorm with her for her on laundry as an urban practice

Chloë is a community-based creative practitioner. They have worked as an organiser and facilitator with walking-wild camping project Land In Curiosity and in various mental health settings. Their creative practice involves public art-making and engagement, often taking the view that the process is at least as important as the outcome.

Joey is an artist and writer. Her work is at the intersections of text, narrative and visual art, staged through language, poetry, acts and modes of reading, and various disruptions. She moved to the neighbourhood nine months ago, and first came across zhenxiaonbao in Birmingham, through a project she co-facilitated at Chinese Community Centre. You can see Joey’s zhenxiaonbao on her website.

Denise is a dancer and Capoeirista with over 20 years experience in the graceful Afro-Brazilian art of Capoeira, alongside a gentle way of teaching that works as well for the seasoned as it does the newcomer.

Neighbourhood Trade School is based on the principle that everyone has something to share and everyone has something to learn.

What if we could activate the potential in our homes, streets, libraries, playgrounds, schools and more as places to exchange learning together in a kind, joyful, noble and intergenerational way that is available to all of us?

We invite you to explore how exchanging skills and knowledge of many forms can make our neighbourhoods resilient to the challenges and opportunities we will face together, now and in the future. Discover what you’d love to share or learn more about, as we shape Neighbourhood Trade School together.

Safety during the darker evenings

The Birmingham Settlement site is off the road in a green space, and the driveway and outdoor spaces are very dark. Please be aware of trip hazards as you move around the site, and bring a torch and arrive/ leave in pairs if you can. Children must be accompanied at all times on the site.

Please arrive via the Selwyn Road entrance to the site - we are closing the reservoir entrance to the site during this season because of the dark and also because it can get boggy.

Travel

You can enter the Birmingham Settlement Nature & Wellbeing Centre from either the Selwyn Road entrance which is down the access road between 77 and 81 Selwyn Road, or on foot directly from the Reservoir.

Buses run on Hagley Road, the 11 & 80 stop is on City Road (8 min walk). Five Ways train station is around a 30 minute walk away.

There is a small car park that is reserved for disabled parking only. If you haven’t yet told us that you need a disabled parking space, please let us know as spaces are extremely limited.

If you have any access needs you'd like us to be aware of, please let us know when you book.

Host or Publisher CIVIC SQUARE