Open Bridges includes a series of workshops hosted by Lou Duffy-Howard with creative writers Christina Lewis and Russ Litten who are working with schools, prison, hospice and community venues to explore freedom and the impact of freedom denied in the world today.
September 1st 2017: Novelist Russ Litten and I spent a fabulous afternoon at Dove House Hospice with a lovely group of Friday Friends, patients, staff and plenty of tea & cake. The afternoon was filled with lively discussion about growing up in East and West Hull, working at sea, in industry and commerce, family life and stories of the River Hull and it’s bridges. We listened to chat about times in our lives when we felt free and discussed what it is to be free.
The group all worked together to create a wonderful poem about freedom:
And thanks to Dave for his poem for Open Bridges
A city divided by a water-divide,
a problem to cross it, as it can be quite wide
“Lets build a bridge to join East and West
then maybe the Humber? and put on a crest”
We take it for granted these bridges of steel,
driving or walking its seems no big deal.
but if all of these bridges were stuck in the air,
How would we manage, how would we fare?
Its going to happen but for a short while,
September the 22nd it should make us smile.
We need to be joined for family and friends
So bear this in mind over that river bend.
Dave Carrick September 2017
Lou Duffy-Howard
Open Bridges
Hull City of Culture 2017 to be split in two
For the first time in Hull’s history the city will be split in two when all Hull’s 13 bridges will be simultaneously raised or barriered, momentarily denying the freedom of movement east or west across the River Hull. On September 22nd Open Bridges will signify the vital role bridges play in our everyday lives with a river journey, the mustering of historic vessels representing three centuries and a new musique concrète commission by BAFTA winning Hull based composer John Stead.
Open Bridges is an independent Hull based project by Duffy-Howard Music taking place during the Hull City of Culture Freedom Season. It is supported by Arts Council England and Hull City Arts Fund with partnership support from Hull City Council Streetscene and project partners Malcolm Scott, John Stead, Streetscene’s Andy Burton, Pete Curry, Graham Lownsborough and Bridge Operations staff, Helen Thackeray: Hull Events, John Medland, Phil Withers, Mal Nicholson and Historic Motor and Sail, Paul Escreet: SMS Towage, Simon Lee: Svitzer (Maersk), The Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society, The Beverley Barge Preservation Society, Freedom Festival’s Jenny Coombes, Hugh Jones of HPSS , C4Di, creative writers Christina Lewis and Russ Litten, photographers Piotr Korczynski and Graeme Oxby, Humber Film Creative Community and Octovision Media.