This week there are a few Valentines events taking place in Stirchley.

“Love Stirchley More – a festival of love, commerce and art”

Thursday 14 – Saturday 16 February 2013.

Stirchley Prospects invited several local community groups, businesses and individuals to come together and present a whole host of activities on the high street. There are going to be performances, pop-ups, film screenings and more, with the full programme available on their blog. Highlights of the mini festival include the Love boat show with comedian Barbara Nice (performance on a canal boat nonetheless), a pop-up event ‘get your noodle out’ from community baker and Stirchley ambassador Loaf, and a series of fun short films from Stirchley Happenings & KINO 10 upstairs at the Bike Foundry.

The overall aim of the event, is to raise the profile of Stirchley. There are certainly a lot of good things going on. I’m slightly biased of course because I do live here, and I’m on the committee for the Stirchley Community Market, a community organised food and arts market, with local stallholders selling local produce – with the first market of the year returning on the 2nd April (plug over!)

“It is hoped that Love Stirchley More will grow and become a regular event, a stepping stone towards becoming a bigger festival, harking back to the Stirchley Carnival which took place regularly up until 1939 and briefly resurrected in the 1980s.” When Stirchley Prospects/Place Prospecters were researching the area they came across some wonderful programme covers which have taken my fancy too:

At the Town Hall there’s traditionally a silent film from the horror genre with live organ accompaniment by Nigel Ogden. This year it is Der Golem (1915), described as “a crucial work in the development of the horror movie”.

Classic 1973 horror The Wicker Man is screening at Stirchley pub The British Oak, part of the Stirchley Happenings.

For an alternative to horror films there’s a spoken-word event at Six Eight Kafé. ‘All Hallow’s Read’ from Pigeon Park Press is an evening of open-mic fiction and poetry.

For something completely unrelated to Halloween ‘The Best of BE Festival’ is a touring triple-bill of short theatre pieces, selected from the BE Festival which took place in Birmingham earlier this year. This evening it will be performed at The Public in West Bromwich.

To Be Home: Stirchley is:

A short film produced as part of the on-going series To Be Home exploring the varied districts and communities of Birmingham, UK. This film looks at Stirchley, and invites participants to reflect upon how they make sense of the place they live in in terms of its past, present and future, and how important their community is to them

For more info on this, head to Geoff Broadway’s website, intentional.co.uk.

(Via Pete Ashton)

I popped in to the launch of the Preclusion exhibition at the derelict/occupied Whitmarley building in Stirchley last night. For something that had come together so quickly (and a big well done to Harry for managing that) it was great to see a decent crowd down there (not quite shown in the photo below).

It was lovely to meet Tom from Loaf Online, the Stirchley Happenings folks and most of the admin team from the 28 Days Later forum.

Fiona Cullinan has been quick on the draw, getting her photos up asap (including some from the nearby Arvin Merritor site:

Preclusion

No Venue : No Permission : No Money

A genuinely guerilla experience, Preclusion is a totally unsupported spontaneous art exhibition.

A space has become available for a limited time and the secretive El Perro Radicale has chosen to take advantage of this opportunity to unveil a collection of locally and nationally produced art.

El Perro Radicale hopes that nothing precludes your attendance.

More confirmed artists including street art, street dance, guerilla poets and the following:

• Jane Baker Photography
• Lucy Grange Photography
• Ryan Hughes Mixed Media Installation
• Matthew Hunt Mixed Media Art
• Lewys Jones  Painting
• Lucy Sparrow Felt Art and Street Art
• Luke Thompson Painting
• Martin Pickard Photography
• Lizz Lunney Illustration
•  Wesley Wezism Painting
•  Pete Grange Photography
•  Ben Waddington Drawing

Preclusion will be at the derelict Whitmarley factory on Ivy Road, Stirchley (B30 2NX for the sat nav fiends out there) which is currently playing host to The Birmingham Social Centre.

There’ll be a grand opening on Friday 29th July at 6:30pm and the exhibition will be up until Sunday 7 August.

Ta to Birmingham Loves Photographers for flagging this one up. I like. I’m going to try to get along on Friday.

Leading the way is Stirchley Community Market, a monthly gathering of independent food producers and artist/makers from within a 3-mile radius of B30, alongside representatives from high street businesses. Founded by three local organisations – arts group Stirchley Happenings, community bakery Loaf and South Birmingham Food Co-op, with help from Birmingham Town Centre Partnerships – the event has become established as a place to meet and browse, and comes guaranteed with a friendly vibe. The market takes place on the first Tuesday of every month and you can learn more about the story here: www.stirchleycommunitymarket.wordpress.com

As Stirchley Happenings, we have also been doing our bit for the local arts scene with a series of projects including the Travelling Bug House, which (as the name suggests) is a travelling (as the name doesn’t quite suggest) cinema. With the aims of revitalising underused spaces and bringing the moving image back to the area, films are being shown in different locations every couple of months. Check out our blog here: www.stirchleyhappenings.wordpress.com

The most recent Bug House took place at Hybrid’s pop-up art tea shop, which rather incongruously landed on the corner of Ivy Road during January this year. Part of Inhabit, a wider project designed to breathe life back into Birmingham’s high streets, the shop has seen a flurry of activity over the past couple of months, which will culminate in promenade performances along the Pershore Road from Fri 11^th to Sun 13^th March (www.hybridconsulting.org.uk). And, as if one tea shop isn’t enough, Cakes4Life have taken their first steps towards establishing a community café, with the next event scheduled for Saturday 12 March.

If this post has piqued your interest about Stirchleyness, then you can find a list of links here – www.stirchleyhappenings.wordpress.com/links – and you can keep abreast of curious occurrences here – www.fuckyeahstirchley.tumblr.com. And don’t forget, Jack Wooley was a Stirchley boy: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/the-archers/timeline/jack-woolley-at-90

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By Tom Cahill-Jones

Blog: www.stirchleyhappenings.wordpress.com

Twitter: @stirchleyhaps