Hope. Despair. Miracles. emerged from a firm intention to not despair.
Hope. Despair. Miracles. photographer Roxana Allison’s project that asks us to focus on a positive view of Longsight by offering acknowledgement to some of its grassroots organisations and individuals working in the community. Through a series of considered portraits, landscapes and written word, it invites us to recognise the agents of change genuinely transforming people’s lives in multicultural working-class neighbourhoods across the UK, reminding us to never judge a book, or a place, by its cover.
Launching on 3rd October 2023 at Longsight Library, 5 to 7pm. Everyone is welcome!
Published with financial support from the Neighbourhood Investment Fund, a Manchester City Council initiative supporting local communities to make their neighbourhoods better places to live, Hope. Despair. Miracles. is a 64-page full colour newsprint including photography portraits and landscapes – showing Longsight’s rich ethnic diversity, as well as some of its issues and singularities. The images are accompanied by a short introductory essay by Roxana Allison, excerpts by some of the participants portrayed and a poem by local resident Pauline Omoboye.
The publication, in both English and Urdu languages, presents a small number of examples but a rainbow of efforts, from growing food and improving the area’s streets, to providing quality and affordable housing, mutual support, art, music, sport, and safe spaces to learn and grow.
