Rebel Arts is a local collective of like-minded, but individual artists and activists working together to raise awareness of the political issues surrounding us through the medium of the arts.
Rebel Arts Radio is an eclectic mix of music, politics, art, discussion and debate formed by its presenters & contributors.
Every first Monday of the month RAR becomes RAWR – Rebel Arts Women’s Radio – with the same eclectic mix but each with a different theme dealing with the issues presented by and from a women’s perspective.
On the 24th March I met the wonderful Rebel Arts Radio team, Mark, Jill and Pete in the Cambridge Blue pub in Gwydir Street. Mark had sent me a message on Twitter asking if I’d be interested in talking about my website http://www.artofprotest.com on RAR. Anyone who knows me will realise what a terrifying proposition this was! but, as the new year beckoned just a few months back I made a promise to myself not to shy away from things that I find challenging, so I tweeted back and accepted the challenge! Mark very kindly answered a panicky email with a reassuring reply and told me more about the show and the subjects they might be interested in covering.
The studios are situated at the bottom of Gwydir Street, a hop and a skip from the Cambridge Blue. I was so nervous I ordered lemonade! my first night with a proper babysitter, in the pub, and I ordered lemonade, that’s how nervous I was! Jill and Mark came first, followed by Pete a little later. They instantly put me at my ease and as we sat down they told me about the format of show and we talked through a rough set of questions we would cover. I’m not sure I referred much at all to the scribbled sheet of A4 paper I had so carefully kept with me all day. There were loads of things I could have mentioned (and probably should have) but I think I managed to give a little flavour of the site, how it works, the inspiration behind it and how people can contribute to it themselves.
I chose three tracks to be played:
Songbird by The Moulettes
The Nailmakers’ Strike by Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin
Valentine’s Day by David Bowie
Let me know what you think, I’d be really interested to know how it came across to people.
You can listen to the show here http://www.mixcloud.com/RebelArtsRadio/rebel-arts-radio-24314-the-art-of-protest/
