Monica Mukerjee (Young Professionals in Human Rights) and Douglas Rintoul (Transport) in conversation on human rights issues, activism and arts. Many thanks to both our speakers and to everybody who came to the event and participated in the discussion.

This event took place on 28th July 2011 at LOW&HIGH in Folkestone. It looked at the role of the arts and importance of the artist’s voice in the human rights debate. We tried to answer questions such as: can storytelling, the written word and other art gestures be regarded as activism?, and what can they change and contribute to the human rights movement? The framework of the talk was definied by Transport’s current theatre work and Monica’s human rights activist experience.

http://www.transport-theatre.eu/

http://www.yphr.org.uk/

http://lowandhighplatform.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/the-visitors-talk-2-arts-and-human-rights-movement-connections/

1. Douglas Rintoul, artistic director of Transport

2. Monica Mukerjee, human rights activist, founder of Young Professionals in Human Rights

The project title was originally conceived in terms of thinking about the experience of approaching or departing from the coast and the conception of this edge as a barrier, border or frontier. Our initial identification of Lorry Drivers and Fishermen, as groups who experienced opposing approaches to the edge, turned to an interest in people who we met on the edge/ the coast. Attempting to rapidly grasp a sense of the town, we came up with three main questions to start conversations with people. 

Our questions:
Where, for you, is the boundary or edge of Folkestone?
Where do you consider the UK border to be?
What do you think about when you look out to sea?

Questions about the physical edges of the town were  met with varied and often very personal answers. For some, the experience of arriving, returning or departing is charged with emotion, connected to particular associations, for others it is routine. The same holds for looking out to sea, often characterised as a romantic pastime, full of longing for what lies beyond, what is out of sight or out of reach, is for others a livelihood or responsibility, or something completely neutral. 

Amongst those interviewed are coastguards, lifeguards, scuba divers, café owners, lorry drivers, hotel receptionists and tourists.

In some cases our conversations stretched well beyond our three questions. Many were keen to talk about their anxieties and/ or optimism about the regeneration of Folkestone and the role the creative industry plays, immigration, the loss of the ferry, decline of the local fishing industry and a perceived lack of interest in the local community.The views expressed by the people we interviewed were often contrary to those we hold ourselves. Sometimes we challenged them, sometimes we didn’t. It seemed important not to censor those political or personal views we disagreed with, rather to represent them as they had represented themselves. Recording was always done openly, with permission. 




Lifeguard at work

Lorry driver at the lorry parking

Man fishing on the pier

Man met at the lorry driver's lounge

Retired fisherman outside of a fishing shop

Some of the collected answers to the question 'where is the edge of Folkestone?'

Unedited conversation with a group of men in a pub in the harbour

Woman met at the lorry driver's lounge

low&high platform vol.4