As part of LGBT+ History Month 2022 we are delighted to present this fascinating conversation with Chris Dilworth, which was recorded as part of our Oral History Project.
Laura Graham speaks with local legend Chris Dilworth about his experiences as a gay man, artist, educator and local champion within Northampton.
*Please note, for a better immersive experience we recommend listening with headphones*
Working in association with the Oral History Society, we trained 5 new interviewers (Grete Dalum, Bekki Frost, Laura Graham Beverley Jones and Mo Shapiro) to interview 25 local residents about Northampton and Corby’s respective New Town stories.
We have collaborated with composer Alice Boyd to present short sections from a handful of these as original audio pieces.
The full recordings of all 25 interviews will shortly be available to listen for free at East Midlands Oral History archive.
As part of LGBTQ+ Month 2022, we’re delighted to also share a longer interview with Chris Dilworth in which he discusses his experiences living in Northampton.
Hometown (Corby) is an audio story that developed from our collaborative HOMETOWN project.
Hometown Corby is an audio story curated and written by Ryan Leder in collaboration with James Jip, Elspeth Robb and James Robb as part of the HOMETOWN CORBY project, supported by the National Heritage Lottery Fund. It tells the story of one family and their connection to Corby throughout the history of the town – beginning with the Scottish Migration, through the building of the Steelworks, and even covering Corby’s New Town designation.
The story was edited together from hours of interviews facilitated in August of 2021.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on our Hometown audio pieces. You can send these to Ryan at ryan@60milesbyroadorrail.co.uk
This is Home is an audio poem that developed from our collaborative HOMETOWN project.
Over the Spring and Summer of 2021, local artist and writer Subika Anwar-Khan interviewed and worked creatively with a variety of Northampton residents to draw out their stories of what home means to them. Participants ranged from global migrants who have sought refuge in Northampton to those whose roots in the area date back generations.
Subika drew on these stories and worked with artists to write and curate the final piece: a poetic response integrating verbatim quotes from the collected stories with creative contributions. The audio poem explores themes of migration, why people decide to settle and why we call Northampton home.
The audio poem has been recorded using professional actors and some of the original participants. In recognition of the fact that Northampton has a long history of migration to the town (something that increased during the New Town expansion) the piece has also been translated and recorded in Romanian.
A special thank you to David Bowden for his writing contribution.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on our This is Home audio pieces. You can send these to Subika at subika@60milesbyroadorrail.co.uk
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