The Bird That Brings Hope Workshop

The Bird That Brings Hope

The Bird That Brings Hope is a creative workshop led by artist Radha Patel. It follows the story of the ‘Chitibuck’ - a blue feathered bird that lives on the Planet Luz. In the lore of our galaxy, its duty is to travel to other planets and collect the hopes of different species, and keep them in its stomach. When it dies, these hopes nourish the sacred ground beneath our feet.

In 2025, the Chitibuck arrives in Wales.

Different folklore from around the world, including Wales, sees birds as guides, mentors and carriers of messages between the human realm and the underworld. So much of this has been lost to colonisation which only sees birds as commodities – to eat, to wear and so on. The purpose of this workshop is to unravel human supremacy and to think about our connections other species and our duty to each other.

Through a series of conversations, storytelling, creative writing excercises and clay building we'll welcome the bird to Wales and explore the question 'what is our duty to each other?'.

This workshop is open to everyone, no prior experience of writing is needed.

Event Information

Where: Made in Roath, 1a Inverness Place - CF24 4RU

When: Sunday 12th January, 11am - 4pm including a lunch break.

Please bring a packed lunch or something to share if you're able to. Tea, coffee and fruit will be provided along with a vegan + gluten free salad to share. There are lots of places to grab a lunch on Albany and City Road less than 10 minutes away.

Accesibility

Made in Roath is a small two storey building. Our workshop will take place on the first floor - slight step at the entrance. The bathroom is on the second floor following a narrow staircase. There is a small kitchen on the first floor with a kettle and sink.

• The workshop will be delivered in English.
• This workshop is limited to 12 people + facilitator to account for the small space, and we'll go as gently as possible.
• There will be two breaks - a small 10 minute break at around 12pm and a larger 1 hour lunch break at 1pm.
• Please note any access needs when you book your place and I'll try my best to accomodate.
• All materials will be provided.

Image description

This etching was created by artist Jo Baines.

The heading, in green, reads 'The Bird that Brings Hope'. Underneath it, there is an etching of a feathery bird in black and white. It has a two long feathers sticking it out of his head, that look like eyes on a stick. Its tail is made up of featheres layered in 3 semi circles. It has a long neck which is twisted around its body, looking towards the right. One leg is lifted off the ground. Underneath the bird, a caption, in green, reads 'a creative workshop and ritual exploring human duty and inter-species solidarity'.

Each corner contains a small emblem. Top left: a cluster of bright red stars, big and small. Bottom left: a line drawing of an ear: Bottom right: A line drawing of a plant growing out of the soil. Top right: A circle split horizontally, the bottom half is bright red and the top half is orange.

About the artist

Radha is a storyteller whose work intersects across colonialism, nature, religion, rituals, language, folklore and speculative futures. Writing is at the heart of her practise so any work that she makes always involves a text, alongside a physical or tangible element that people can interact with such as sculptures, prints, drawings, audio, installations, films and an invented language called .

Throughout history, humans have travelled fluidly between our world and the ‘underworlds’ or ‘otherworlds’. Folklore tells us so much about what we can learn from these travels including how people resisted colonisation, re-built what was destroyed and practised solidarity with other species.

Radha’s practise explores folklore throughout history, and uses storytelling to build new ways of re-connecting us to our human ancestors, our ancestors that are other species and all the delicate magic that is being lost through colonisation. She works with older and existing folklore from Wales and India and also creates new folklore about rituals, magical objects, imagined lands and new planets.

https://www.radhapatel.co.uk

Host or Publisher Radha Patel