Reimagining The City

Episodes

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Coventry20130126Pauline Black takes us to Coventry - the city she's adopted as her home town.

The first time Pauline stepped off a train at Coventry station in 1971, she felt at home. A mixed race child adopted by a white family in Essex, she grew up the only black child in her school and neighbourhood. The multicultural environs of Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry offered her a place full of new people, new music and new possibilities. "It felt like the centre of England..most people were passing through, but I wanted to stay."

Coventry became the portal that opened up a world of possibilities to the aspiring musician, as she became a proponent of the Two Tone music scene and the lead singer in The Selecter.

Produced by Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2013.

Singer and musician Pauline Black invites us to re-imagine Coventry.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

Dublin20130112

When the writer Joseph O'Connor was a child, his mother would take him for walks around their Dublin neighbourhood, and point out where James Joyce and John Synge had lived and worked.

"I grew up in Dun Laoghaire, a coastal town 8 miles south of Dublin city where there was a pier and a waterfront, and the nightly entertainment in the summer when you were a teenager was to walk down the pier and look at the boats and the ferries leaving for London and wonder to yourself would you go to Manchester or Coventry. There was no notion that you'd stay in Dublin..

But my parents would say to us you know, this little rainy sad place on the western outshores of Europe where we don't do many things brilliantly, this is the country of Yeats, and Patrick Kavanagh and Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.

The ghosts of these great writers are part of the fabric of the city."

In Re-Imagining the City: Dublin, Joseph O'Connor offers us a new story of Dublin. He grew up knowing that this city was the setting for so many literary masterpieces - it was like living on a film set. But gradually the suburbs of Dublin became a place of change, where new voices were heard, new sounds and ideas of Dublin created an alternative view of the city.

Produced by Rachel Hooper.

A Falling Tree production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2013.

Writer Joseph O'Connor invites us to re-imagine Dublin.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

New Orleans20130105

When the writer Nik Cohn was 10 years old, he visited a bookshop and found a copy of Alan Lomax's book on musician Jelly Roll Morton. It had photographs of Jelly Roll's hometown, New Orleans, "the city of dreams." Nik fell for Jelly Roll Morton's vision of the city "hook line and sinker".

Back home in Northern Ireland, New Orleans became a place of magical possibilities. It would be another decade before Nik finally visited New Orleans but it has become a place he returns to and re-discovers constantly.

Nik muses on what makes New Orleans so different and so special. The beauty, the music and the food are all part of it, but living under sea level also has an impact on anyone who spends proper time in the city.

Producer: Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in January 2013.

Writer Nik Cohn invites us to re-imagine New Orleans, a city he's loved all his life.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

New Orleans2013010520140929 (R4)

When the writer Nik Cohn was 10 years old, he visited a bookshop and found a copy of Alan Lomax's book on musician Jelly Roll Morton. It had photographs of Jelly Roll's hometown, New Orleans, "the city of dreams." Nik fell for Jelly Roll Morton's vision of the city "hook line and sinker".

Back home in Northern Ireland, New Orleans became a place of magical possibilities. It would be another decade before Nik finally visited New Orleans but it has become a place he returns to and re-discovers constantly.

Nik muses on what makes New Orleans so different and so special. The beauty, the music and the food are all part of it, but living under sea level also has an impact on anyone who spends proper time in the city.

Producer: Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in January 2013.

Writer Nik Cohn invites us to re-imagine New Orleans, a city he's loved all his life.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

0103Istanbul20130119

In her twenties, the writer Elif Shafak moved to Istanbul. "The city called me," she says. She moved there, knowing no-one, hoping to become a full time writer. She found her subject matter.

"In Istanbul, you understand, perhaps not intellectually but intuitively, that East and West are ultimately imaginary ideas, ones that can be de-imagined and re-imagined."

Elif offers us her vision of Istanbul; a city that's never quiet, always moving and wrestling with itself.

Produced by Rachel Hooper
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

Writer Elif Shafak invites us to reimagine Istanbul, a city she has loved all her life.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

0103Istanbul2013011920141002 (R4)

In her twenties, the writer Elif Shafak moved to Istanbul. "The city called me," she says. She moved there, knowing no-one, hoping to become a full time writer. She found her subject matter.

"In Istanbul, you understand, perhaps not intellectually but intuitively, that East and West are ultimately imaginary ideas, ones that can be de-imagined and re-imagined."

Elif offers us her vision of Istanbul; a city that's never quiet, always moving and wrestling with itself.

Produced by Rachel Hooper
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

Writer Elif Shafak invites us to reimagine Istanbul, a city she has loved all her life.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

0201Birmingham2014012520141003 (R4)Musician Soweto Kinch offers a different vision of a city he's loved all his life - Birmingham.

Soweto often gets a surprised response when he tells people he's from Birmingham. For one, he doesn't have an accent. But also, as a successful jazz musician and hip hop star, the expectation is often that he should be living in London or New York - or almost anywhere except Birmingham.

But, for Soweto, Birmingham is a place of artistic endeavour and cultural significance on a par with any other major city. The city is where he served his cultural apprenticeship in jazz and hip hop. "The saxophone called me. I've never seen so many shiny keys. And the love affair continued from there."

He left to study history at Oxford but chose to make Birmingham his home. "The fact that I've stayed in Birmingham sets me apart from the other musicians in London - I can do everything from here. There's a camaraderie and respect that other musicians have for each other in Birmingham."

Soweto lives in a tower block in Hockley - it's been a place that's given him creative input for his albums and music. From his window he can see the Hockley Flyover, a space which was the scene of gang fights and crime. In 2009 Soweto decided to turn it into a festival venue.

"I've been proud of the fact we've redefined peoples' relationships to this space. It's a neglected area. I felt that more than any other area this expressed a lot of the innate contradictions we face in the black community in Britain. I wanted to reclaim the space and reclaim the stories."

Producer: Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

Musician Soweto Kinch offers a different vision of a city he's loved all his life - Birmingham.

Soweto often gets a surprised response when he tells people he's from Birmingham. For one, he doesn't have an accent. But also, as a successful jazz musician and hip hop star, the expectation is often that he should be living in London or New York - or almost anywhere except Birmingham.

But, for Soweto, Birmingham is a place of artistic endeavour and cultural significance on a par with any other major city. The city is where he served his cultural apprenticeship in jazz and hip hop. "The saxophone called me. I've never seen so many shiny keys. And the love affair continued from there."

He left to study history at Oxford but chose to make Birmingham his home. "The fact that I've stayed in Birmingham sets me apart from the other musicians in London - I can do everything from here. There's a camaraderie and respect that other musicians have for each other in Birmingham."

Soweto lives in a tower block in Hockley - it's been a place that's given him creative input for his albums and music. From his window he can see the Hockley Flyover, a space which was the scene of gang fights and crime. In 2009 Soweto decided to turn it into a festival venue.

"I've been proud of the fact we've redefined peoples' relationships to this space. It's a neglected area. I felt that more than any other area this expressed a lot of the innate contradictions we face in the black community in Britain. I wanted to reclaim the space and reclaim the stories."

Producer: Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

0202London2014020120140930 (R4)The city is about light and water for me because it interrupts them, it interrupts light and it interrupts water and when something is interrupted it reveals itself to you'.

Lavinia Greenlaw is perhaps unusual in that she has lived in the same part of London for most of her life. Walking up Hampstead Heath in the first light of a winter's morning she explains how the Heath is her childhood landscape where she played with her siblings.

But it's also the point where the city and the suburbs meet: 'Although there's no clear edge to London I feel that the lip of the bowl where it sits is defined by the Heath which starts out being in the city and quickly ends up in the suburbs - a very different place. I was born on the border and used to feel that I was operating in two countries'.

Here she crosses the river, climbs towers and walks through the Heath to reveal her unexpected and surprising vision of London.

Producer: Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Lavinia Greenlaw offers a personal vision of London, a city she's loved all her life.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

The city is about light and water for me because it interrupts them, it interrupts light and it interrupts water and when something is interrupted it reveals itself to you'.

Lavinia Greenlaw is perhaps unusual in that she has lived in the same part of London for most of her life. Walking up Hampstead Heath in the first light of a winter's morning she explains how the Heath is her childhood landscape where she played with her siblings.

But it's also the point where the city and the suburbs meet: 'Although there's no clear edge to London I feel that the lip of the bowl where it sits is defined by the Heath which starts out being in the city and quickly ends up in the suburbs - a very different place. I was born on the border and used to feel that I was operating in two countries'.

Here she crosses the river, climbs towers and walks through the Heath to reveal her unexpected and surprising vision of London.

Producer: Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Lavinia Greenlaw offers a personal vision of London, a city she's loved all her life.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

0203Calcutta20140208

In 1999, the novelist Amit Chaudhuri moved from England back to Calcutta. It was a place he had loved in his youth and the place he made his name writing about.

Growing up in Bombay, Amit Chaudhuri used to feel a charge of anticipation on visiting Calcutta. For him, it was his first taste of modernism, of a completely contemporary city.

"This is what I must have had an intuition of, even as a child. And this is why I feel, even now, that the most revealing places in Calcutta are not the museums or the monuments - there aren't many of those - but the houses and lanes."

That Calcutta was one of the great cities of modernity for Amit. He found himself changed by his encounters.

"By modern, I don't mean new or developed, but a self renewing way of seeing, of inhabiting space, of apprehending life."

A colleague of Amit's told him that he loved the city because "you can feel that something happened here".

Amit takes us on a guided tour of the city, and explores whether that city of his childhood still exists or is just a realm of his imagination.

Producer: Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2014.

Amit Chaudhuri offers a different vision of Calcutta, a city he's loved all his life.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

0203Calcutta2014020820141001 (R4)

In 1999, the novelist Amit Chaudhuri moved from England back to Calcutta. It was a place he had loved in his youth and the place he made his name writing about.

Growing up in Bombay, Amit Chaudhuri used to feel a charge of anticipation on visiting Calcutta. For him, it was his first taste of modernism, of a completely contemporary city.

"This is what I must have had an intuition of, even as a child. And this is why I feel, even now, that the most revealing places in Calcutta are not the museums or the monuments - there aren't many of those - but the houses and lanes."

That Calcutta was one of the great cities of modernity for Amit. He found himself changed by his encounters.

"By modern, I don't mean new or developed, but a self renewing way of seeing, of inhabiting space, of apprehending life."

A colleague of Amit's told him that he loved the city because "you can feel that something happened here".

Amit takes us on a guided tour of the city, and explores whether that city of his childhood still exists or is just a realm of his imagination.

Producer: Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2014.

Amit Chaudhuri offers a different vision of Calcutta, a city he's loved all his life.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

03Barcelona20161119

Writer Colm Toibin offers us a different vision of Barcelona, a city he first fell in love with as a student. For him, it's a city which has dreamed itself into existence.

In 1975, Colm had just graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. He heard that there were jobs going in a language school in Barcelona, so travelled there, despite his lack of Spanish and knowing little other than it was a port city.

"I was really shocked when I saw the Gothic quarter first. I just thought the streets were extraordinarily beautiful. In those days there was no photography of them, there was no one around at night. I was just amazed by the city".

That sense of amazement has never left him.

He moved away after three years in the city, returning ten years later to write Homage to Barcelona. He now visits every year.

Colm walks us around from the old city through to the new. We hear the impact of the new Pakistani community which has taken over decrepit parts of the old town and turned them into new thriving areas of commerce. Ever the consummate storyteller, Colm weaves in stories of his own time in the city with a description of how the city views itself - built on the remains of a roman city, a city of two languages, a capital without a parliament.

"If you don't have a parliament, then other forms of utterance beside political speeches become dominant. One of those is music and music was immensely important here. For nations attempting to become a state their 'dream life' is often more important than their waking life".

Colm has draws the listener into understanding a city which has taken brave decisions with its architecture, history and narrative.

Produced by Rachel Hooper
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

Colm Toibin reimagines Barcelona - a city he first fell in love with in the 1970s.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

03Barcelona2016111920170213 (R4)

Writer Colm Toibin offers us a different vision of Barcelona, a city he first fell in love with as a student. For him, it's a city which has dreamed itself into existence.

In 1975, Colm had just graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. He heard that there were jobs going in a language school in Barcelona, so travelled there, despite his lack of Spanish and knowing little other than it was a port city.

"I was really shocked when I saw the Gothic quarter first. I just thought the streets were extraordinarily beautiful. In those days there was no photography of them, there was no one around at night. I was just amazed by the city".

That sense of amazement has never left him.

He moved away after three years in the city, returning ten years later to write Homage to Barcelona. He now visits every year.

Colm walks us around from the old city through to the new. We hear the impact of the new Pakistani community which has taken over decrepit parts of the old town and turned them into new thriving areas of commerce. Ever the consummate storyteller, Colm weaves in stories of his own time in the city with a description of how the city views itself - built on the remains of a roman city, a city of two languages, a capital without a parliament.

"If you don't have a parliament, then other forms of utterance beside political speeches become dominant. One of those is music and music was immensely important here. For nations attempting to become a state their 'dream life' is often more important than their waking life".

Colm has draws the listener into understanding a city which has taken brave decisions with its architecture, history and narrative.

Produced by Rachel Hooper
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

Colm Toibin reimagines Barcelona - a city he first fell in love with in the 1970s.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

03Preston2016112620170214 (R4)'We're five minutes from Preston High Street and it's almost silent,' says artist and lecturer Lubaina Himid. 'It's like a very big village - it was only made a city very recently.'

Lubaina guides us round her adoptive city - from the 'splendid' Harris Art Gallery which houses some of her own work, to the sweeping landscapes of the parks which run along the River Ribble, and on to her own studio space where so much of her creativity happens.

'The best thing about the city is that it gives you creative space - there's more time than there would be in a city like London. There are a lot of artists in Preston, all of us work hard making and thinking about art...I can't idle away three or four hours gossiping in an art centre because there isn't one!'

Lubaina's father was from Zanzibar and her mother was English. She left Zanzibar as a small child and grew up in London.

Alongside the sense of the city which she creates for us, we also learn about her own creative journey. Lubaina was part of the radical black art movement of the 1980s. Now she curates an archive of black and ethnic minority artists within the University of Central Lancashire.

'My mother was a textile designer, so the possibility of being an artist was always there. But I realised my blackness was an issue - in art college it was a real challenge. For me, teaching in art school is about making it better for the next generation.'

There is gladness and regret for Lubaina about having lived in Preston for so long. Regret that she couldn't make living in London work, but gladness that there has been so much time and opportunity for her art to flourish in Preston.

Produced by Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

Artist Lubaina Himid on Preston, an unexpectedly creative city.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

03Reykjavik20161203

The musician John Grant on Reykjavik, a city he fell in love with on tour. "In 2011 I was asked to come and play in Reykjavik...three months later I was living here...I go where I feel welcome and safe, and this is one of those places for me."

John Grant is an accomplished linguist - he speaks German, Spanish, French and Russian, amongst others. Icelandic, however, has been a real challenge.

"The combination of sounds, the phonetics of Icelandic, are beyond evil...I get giddy about synthesisers and language grammar."

But it soon becomes clear that John is now fluent. Talking with the owner of one of his favourite coffee shops, she reminds him that within two days of living there he could make himself understood.

John guides us around his adopted city, paying particular interest to book shops, architecture and interesting stair wells. It's a very different landscape from Michigan, where he grew up:

"The world was hostile and there was a lot of nastiness directed at me because people thought they could see I was gay...'Look at that faggot', that kind of thing". So I developed a fear of leaving my nest."

Reykjavik is the first city he has called home for a long long time.

Produced by Rachel Hooper
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

Musician John Grant on Reykjavik, a city he fell in love with on tour.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.

03Reykjavik2016120320170215 (R4)

The musician John Grant on Reykjavik, a city he fell in love with on tour. "In 2011 I was asked to come and play in Reykjavik...three months later I was living here...I go where I feel welcome and safe, and this is one of those places for me."

John Grant is an accomplished linguist - he speaks German, Spanish, French and Russian, amongst others. Icelandic, however, has been a real challenge.

"The combination of sounds, the phonetics of Icelandic, are beyond evil...I get giddy about synthesisers and language grammar."

But it soon becomes clear that John is now fluent. Talking with the owner of one of his favourite coffee shops, she reminds him that within two days of living there he could make himself understood.

John guides us around his adopted city, paying particular interest to book shops, architecture and interesting stair wells. It's a very different landscape from Michigan, where he grew up:

"The world was hostile and there was a lot of nastiness directed at me because people thought they could see I was gay...'Look at that faggot', that kind of thing". So I developed a fear of leaving my nest."

Reykjavik is the first city he has called home for a long long time.

Produced by Rachel Hooper
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

Musician John Grant on Reykjavik, a city he fell in love with on tour.

Writers and musicians offer guides to cities with which we think we are already familiar.