Manchester Street Poem

Underworld’s Manchester Street Poem ran from 6th – 14th July 2017 at  UNFEAR, 68-70 Oldham street, as part of Manchester International Festival.

Over the year, Karl had been working with pioneering local organisations including Mustard Tree and the Manchester Homelessness Partnership to develop a project that shone a spotlight on the stories of those who find themselves homeless in the city.

MIF audiences were able to watch him at work on a piece that is both fleeting performance and compelling installation, transforming a disused city centre space. Over the course of a 9 days, covering the walls of the venue with words and phrases drawn from the streets, whilst the space was filled with a powerful soundtrack by Rick, built on fragments recorded all over the city.

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“We came to Manchester with a concept for a performed installation connected to its own digital library to serve both as a shop window and a receptacle for stories from people with lived experience who are too often reduced to a generic the homeless. It is imperative to us that this project is directed by and serves the fellow citizens of our island whose voices, stories and identities are repeatedly ignored. Having created the concept we invited all our contributors to hijack it, direct it and have control of the editorial, which they did with great relish.”   Karl Hyde

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Listen to and read the stories at ManchesterStreetPoem.com