BLETHER

Blether started in London as a response to a rising closures of ‘third spaces’, that being places separate from work and home where people from all backgrounds can come together and exist together without the pressure to impress one another. In our chronically online era, entering into the arts world can feel like a chaotic fight to excel through competitions and metric-engineered success. Our current systems often place extreme importance on worth and value through spectacle, and away from the connection and play that art is designed to provide. Blether is a Scottish word meaning ‘to talk in a long winded way without making much sense’ and places particular emphasis on a silly, DIY mode of art-making and space curation. We wish to create spaces where people can unmask and escape from the intense pressures of our Neo-liberal times and relax into a more primal urge to listen, to share, to connect.

Blether is now based in Levenshulme Old Library in Manchester, and is co-run by a collective of individuals who all work in arts education/community engagement. We run regular events and workshops with the intention of creating spaces where people feel like they can exist together as part of a network of care and joy, united over the silly and soft parts of themselves.

Our events invite artists, poets, musicians and activists to share their words, as well as creating happenings where audience and performer can come together and create an equal space where people can share their stories together.

As well as these events we also host clubs for writers, performers and craft-makers, hosting spaces to allow people to try out new skills and be part of a shared community.

See more about Blether on our instagram here.