One detail I omitted in my reference to Sir John Leng (see yesterday’s article) and amplifying the voice of the working class was that he was, in fact, born in Hull.
https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/ewan-gurr-the-three-js-dundee-is-now-all-about-the-three-ps-poverty-politics-and-people/
It is perhaps fitting, therefore, that I attended a public screening of a documentary about Hull by a film-maker from Hull at Dundee Contemporary Arts.
Like Dundee, Hull was one of four finalists for UK City of Culture in 2017 but, unlike Dundee, it secured the top spot.
In A Northern Soul, Hull-born documentary film-maker Sean McAllister returns to his hometown in 2017 to stay with his parents in his childhood home.
Sean follows Steve Arnott, an inspiring and innovative individual full of initiative, who works as a full-time factory worker and in his spare time juggles a passion to bring culture to children in grass-roots communities in deprived parts of Hull through the Beats Bus.
The documentary charts a moving journey as a working-class bloke bends over backwards to breathe life into the lungs of these forlorn children living in forgotten communities.
The documentary – which is co-funded by social change pioneers the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) – closed with a robust Q&A session including both Sean and Steve and chaired by Abigail Scott-Paul of the JRF.
Rarely are there events that inspire such a diverse audience, from political leaders to poverty activists and even Presbyterian ministers.
Perhaps this is part of the beauty that, like the people of Hull, we are all playing our part to rewrite a prologue of prosperity into a narrative of austerity.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.