Discover 'Bubble Up': a brand new commission with Curious Minds

Afrocats are delighted to work with Curious Minds as part of their Curious Commission programme, who champion improve the lives of children and young people by increasing opportunities for their active participation in arts and culture.

The new initiative has been designed by Saphena Aziz, Director of Inclusion at Curious Minds with the aim of improving the diversity of the cultural education workforce in the North West by championing the work of Black, Asian, Ethnically Diverse and Disabled creatives.

Following a call-out, 19 north-west based freelance independent creatives were selected to work children and young people who are often excluded from the mainstream to inspire and empower them through the arts.

And we were delighted to have been selected to work with multi-talented creative writing and circus arts practitioner Niparun Nessa - find out more about Niparun below.

Hi Niparun! We'd love to get to know you a bit more, so tell us a little about yourself.

Hi there Afrocats! I am a secondary teacher and also part-time freelancer. I finished teaching after 13 years in September to spend more time on my freelance and arts work.

I deliver creative, aerial and circus arts workshops and classes to young people and adults as well as antiracism and equalities training to educators and community groups.

What do you hope to achieve with the Curious Commission?

My aim with the commission is to share creative, circus and aerial arts with young people of colour. I have created workshops themed around identity and want to share ideas on how young people can express themselves and celebrate their identities, individuality and personality various art forms.

I want young people to learn a new skill and create a space where they can feel safe and share what's important to them. My aim is to bring these workshops to different centres that cater to diverse communities.

Tell us about the exciting work you've delivered for young people with Afrocats.

So far I've facilitated one poetry session and one circus session with the Afrocats group, and it was great to see how much progress has been made in such a short time.

And by the end of the creative writing session every young person had written a beautiful poem celebrating themselves, and shared about the positive role models and factors that make them who they are.

With the circus skills workshop, we focussed on ribbon-twirling and hooping, and all the groups regardless of age and gender threw themselves in and had a go which included all the volunteers and staff too!

It was great to see the smiles and laughter and the individual creativity everyone brought to this, and I'm look forward to seeing how this progresses. It was also nice to hear that one of the boys who really enjoyed the session often opted out of other activities but joined in with mine.

The commission is still at the beginning stages, and I feel very fortunate to be able to share my art and passion with communities - it's so important to create a space where we can have deep and meaningful conversations with young people about their identities and using the arts to support and scaffold these discussions and provide an outlet for young people to express themselves.

Want to discover more about how we mentor emerging and diverse artists? Go to our Mentoring page to find out.

You can also help us fund our vital inclusive work for vulnerable young asylum seekers and refugees in Manchester by visiting our Support Us page.