If we’re really going to change the habits that have brought us to the brink of mass extinction and societal collapse, then we need to talk about men, masculinity, and the patriarchal culture on which our cities and communities are built, from the founding stones up. This episode weaves together a narrative of the ways that masculine culture has come to shape contemporary life with interviews from over a dozen academics, writers, feminists, activists and community leaders. The full interviews will be posted below. The walk engages with how place shapes our lived experience and embeds our everyday choices in the broader currents of climate change, social inequality, and the changing nature of human identity. The podcast asks you: is masculinity a stuck place of damaging patterns? Or is masculinity already changing into a fair and sustainable identity we can use to bring forth resilience and restoration?
Register here for the Walk and Evening Performance
At 515pm on Wednesday 1st November there will be a FREE guided walk along the route followed in the podcast. There are only 18 spaces available for the walk. Please sign up in advance. There is a £5 deposit to secure your place, which will be refunded to you within 24 hours. SIGN UP HERE: Do We Need to Relinquish Masculinity to Save The Planet? (Walk) TWO TICKETS HAVE BECOME AVAILABLE!
At 7pm the same evening there is a FREE poetry performance that follows the walk. This takes places at The Newbridge Project: Gateshead, 232-240 High Street, Gateshead, NE8 1AQ. Join poet Lisa Matthews and visual artist Melanie Ashby in an elegy inspired by the Northumberland coastline, for the waters of the world. Their performance contains spoken, written, audio and visual works provoked by the writings of environmental campaigner Rachel Carson. You can sign up for this FREE event here, but again places are limited. SIGN UP HERE: Shift and Signal presents: “Elegy | Poetics for a beleaguered sea” (performance)
The Podcast
The podcast is now live. (Those who are registered for the walk will be emailed so you can download in advance of the event.) It is be available via these links:
The Map (download the Masculinity Walk Instructions (PDF) or follow on Google Maps here)