Amongst our packed programme of global talent, including live music, visual arts, dance, photography, film and more, we’re also lucky enough to have the awesome team at the Real Junk Food Project Brum with us at this year’s Brum Spirit! They’ll be serving up a whole lot of pay-as-you-feel treats, so to whet our appetite, we sat down and asked them a few big Q’s to get to know more about what they do…
When was the Real Junk Food Project born?
TRJFP was founded in Leeds, in December 2013. TRJFP Brum was founded in October 2014.
What does the Real Junk Food Project aim to do?
We aim to abolish all avoidable food waste. Along the way we’d like to REALLY Feed the World!
How do you go about achieving those aims?
Everyday in Birmingham over 650 tonnes of food is thrown away, most of this is perfectly edible. We take a small faction of this food and feed it to people, on a Pay-As-You-Feel basis. Since our inception TRJFP Brum has intercepted over over 30 tonnes of food and fed over 8,000 people!
What is the idea behind the “Pay As You Feel” scheme?
PAYF is a revolutionary concept – we don’t pay for the food waste we intercept (although we do have overheads) so we don’t charge people to eat it. It is criminal that, in the 21st century, in the UK there are people who cannot afford to eat a healthy, balanced diet. We feed everyone, regardless of whether they have money in their pocket. However, we do not give the food away for free – we ask everyone who eats with us to contribute in whatever way they can: tell a story, sing a song, help with the washing up or (more recently) help us grow the food we will serve in one of our grow sites.
How does the Real Junk Food Project tie in with Brum Spirit’s message?
TRJFP Brum is aiming to rebuild our communities around food – we welcome all to our cafes and hope that we can engage the audience to participate with our project for their own and their communities health and wellbeing.
Has the Real Junk Food Project Birmingham ever collaborated with other similar projects in the city?
We have supported numerous community events and festivals including: Birmingham Community Food Festival, Springfield Park’s “Big Gig”, CoCoMAD. We run a regular event for Digbeth First Friday in partnership with Naked Lungs and Digbeth Community Garden
Where does the inspiration for the meals you create from intercepted waste come from?
From our volunteers – we run an open kitchen where everyone is encouraged to voice their ideas and opinions. Oh, and sometimes Google!
Where can we find the Real Junk Food Project regularly in Birmingham?
We’re at Ladywood Health and Community Centre, St Vincent Street West (B16 8RP) every Wednesday (12-2 & 6-8pm) and Friday (12-2 & 3:30-5pm). We’re also at The Haven Centre, 54 Rilstone Road (B32 2NR) every Monday 12-4pm. We have regular (monthly) pop-up’s at ORT Cafe, Balsall Heath, on the 3rd Saturday of the month and Digbeth Community Garden (as part of Digbeth First Friday) We also pop-up all over the place so check out our website or Facebook for more details.
How can people get more involved and volunteer with the Real Junk Food Project?
Come dine with us! Fill in our volunteer registration form here.
On Saturday, we unveiled Gaia’s Garden at the Old Print Works at the official Launch Day, and it was a huge success!
It was awesome to see so many smiley faces come down to check out the new space, meet new people, enjoy the food and music, and of course, do a bit of gardening!! The site is already really starting to take shape, and we can’t wait to see it develop and transform into a thriving garden for the whole community to enjoy over the coming weeks and months.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to all of the Gaia’s Garden volunteers for their hard work and much-needed donations which will help the garden grow, and give an especially big shout out to Ciaran from the Old Crowne and Jamie Begg at Seed Furniture for the pallets, Luca Pau for building the beds, Jenna from Ort Cafe for the delicious food, Hoakser for the sign and for digging a tonne of soil, Balsall Heath Forum and Martineau Gardens for the plant supply, Dan Burwood and Darryl Georgiu, DJ Silence and Onira for the soundtrack, and finally, a massive thank you to Grow Wild and the Old Print Works!
Gaia’s Garden will now be open every Saturday for local residents to use and enjoy, so come along and get involved. It’s a great way to get some fresh air, meet new people, and make a positive difference in our community, and you don’t even need to be an expert gardener! The space will be open from 10am-3pm, so please invite your friends, family and neighbours, or come alone and make new friends, whilst getting your fingers green!
You can check out some photos from the Launch Day below, and remember to give us a like on Facebook here for all the latest Gaia’s Garden info.
Cordão de Ouro Birmingham have opened a new studio! Big congrats to those guys!
It is with great pleasure that we write about Brazilian martial arts movement Cordão de Ouro Birmingham‘s new studio – Arch 32 Water street, under Snow Hill’s archway, check out the precise co-ordinates here.
With the new studio CDOB can now provide Capoeira classes, workshops and events that suit your every need, AND now is the perfect time for your first class or perhaps make a overdue return to your training, as they just so happen to be running a special introductory new studio offer – find out more here
So to mark this great news we are joining forces with the talented folks at CDOB to bring you Tamojunto – ‘We’re in this together!‘
Not only is the new studio a perfect place to learn, create and socialise, we also think it would make an ideal venue to throw a big ‘moving in’ party.
We’ll be mixing it up in classic Brum Spirit style, so expect an eclectic soundtrack from hip hop and funk to traditional Brazilian rhythms, and throw in Brazilian food and drink, forró, capoeira and breakdance taster sessions, all for just £5 on the door. Bargain!
Come and have an awesome evening with us, and catch performances from the likes of:
Capoeira Cordão de Ouro Birmingham
Professor Mascote
Irineu Nogueira
DJ Silence (Open Circles Hip Hop Entertainment)
DJ Feva
Sticky Joe
Forró in Brum
Find out more and grab your tickets here!
Our favourite drumming group are putting on a “family friendly, free street party with proper vibes” July 13th!
We are so excited for Drum Together Brum who are hosting a free afternoon street party where the local community can get involved. These talented folk have bags of fun lined up including instrument making workshops for the little ones, which they can use through out the day in the musical jamming sessions and then can take home to practice later!
There will also be workshops for members of the local community to have a go with traditional African drums and instruments, led by Damon Wilding, fresh breakdance workshops from Open Circles Hip-Hop Entertainment, Caribbean food and all this will be tied up with a lively performance from Drum Together Brum.
Drum Together Brum are a group of people who came together to learn a new skill whilst meeting new people, having only been together for six months they have turned a hobby into a true skill, and have performed at several venue’s in Birmingham including The Emerald Village, Brum Together, Rebel Spirit and more! This Street Party will show what can be achieved with a little bit of time and a lot of enthusiasm. Got #BrumSpirit down this lot!
In partnership with Our Big Gig, Drum Together Brum are bringing a free musical street party on Sunday 13th July that will have something for everyone, head on down to PST on Lombard Street, Digbeth, Birmingham to learn different rhythms and try something new. Find out more here,
We marked the rebrand to ‘Brum Spirit’ on Saturday at Muzikstan Midsummer Festival, which took place at The Old Print Works, Balsall Heath.
As you know Professional Incredibles, the team behind many of our city’s well loved cultural events announced that Espirito Brum has rebranded to Brum Spirit, if you have read The Story of Brum Spirit you will know the announcement follows a period of growth and development for our collective.
To mark the arrival of Brum Spirit, in true Brummie style we had a big party, having teamed up with Birmingham Promoters, Some Cities, St. Paul’s Trust and Celebrating Sanctuary for the Midsummer Festival edition of Muzikstan, which took place last Saturday, at the Old Print Works.
The event brought our usual mantra of ‘trying something new with someone new’ to the Muzikstan Midsummer Festival, and offered attendees an event made up of two halves. Throughout the day Old Print Works resident artists provided attendees free makers workshops for children of all ages, alongside Some Cities who exhibited interactive photography of portraits taken through out the day.
Providing the soundtrack to the day was Blue Murda, who offered a safe haven way from the rain for musicians and audience members to jam and showcase new material together. Our highlight included a special cover of ABBA Dancing Queen, which when you think about it is the perfect jam/sing-along song, who doesn’t know the words!
We were taken into the evening of Muzikstan with performances from an eclectic lineup, featuring the very talented Senegalese kora virtuoso Kadialy Kouyate, who shared his West African griot repertoire with Birmingham for the first time. Also taking to the stage was Dirty Old Folkers, who brought their folk flavours full of fun and quirks, alongside The Mistakings, Tom Peel, and inspirational community choir Voices Together led by Daz Dolczech and Ann Jones.
We were lucky enough to have the very talented Ilvars Veinbergs down on the day capturing the all the fun and frolics, we hear the short video is almost finished so watch out for us sharing the link, you never know you might got yourself on film 🙂
We would like to thank all you lovely lot you who came down and took part in our first official Brum Spirit event, keep your eyes peeled for the photography from the day and night which we will be adding to our Facebook over the next couple of days, and make sure you have signed up to our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss our next Brum Spirit event!
Next time you see something that gives you Brum Spirit, why not take a snap and share it with us via Twitter, by simply using the hashtags #BrumSpirit and #somecities 🙂
Calling Out: Music Video Submissions!
So as you know Espirito Brum is about to embark the second instalment of fun this weekend in Kings Heath, the temperature and entertainment is set to reach an all time high, with many great activities taking place through out the day and night this July 13th!
We are teaming up again with the fabulous foodies Brum Yum Yum for BYY take over on the Village Square in Kings Heath.
Alongside Brum Yum Yum and Hare and Hounds we will be providing music, performances, and dance tutorials all day long – have a look at our event here with Flauntins Matua, Forro In Brum and many more making the day a treat for all the senses 🙂 Did we mention its also free admission?
As for the evening, well we have that covered too, because we are good like that, and Kings Heath Community Project special edition bringing Wanderson Lopez, Mendi Singh, and Joelle Barker playing live accompaniment with their “Intuitive EP Launch” and cinematic visuals from Expurgação – take a gander here.
Which brings us on nicely to the “CALL OUT!” We have some free screen time up for grabs, and we thought what better way than to call out for video submissions, so all the musical talent in the house hold your hands up, because we wanna’ see you, and we would quite like a lot of other people to see you too!
If you want your band, or your favourite bands video to appear at the cinema screening this Saturday then drop us a line to hello@espritobrum.org with links and a 150 blurb about yourself, or the band you want to recommend.
What are you waiting for get in touch and lets share some musical love about 🙂
Did you see us in Brum Notes, take a look on Page 12 🙂
The sun has officially arrived, the shades are finally out- and what better way to get into the summer spirit than to plan your Saturdays with Espirito Brum! Here at the city’s most captivating cultural celebration we have lots still in store for you!
We’ll start off by filling you in about what we’ve got going on on Saturday 13th July. From 12-3pm, make sure you head down to Kings Heath Village Square to catch an interactive musical performance from the one and only Flautins Matua. The creative Brazilian folk group have been performing live and presenting workshops for ten years, and have jumped on board to provide you with the best of Brazilian percussion, dance and joy.
Be sure to take inspiration from these guys (who have been known to make instruments out of anything they can get their hands on!) as we’ll be asking you to get creative too. The Espirito Brum team would like you to get involved in the festivities by bringing along your very own home-made instrument! You can be as experimental as you like. Whether you want to keep it simple with a make shift maraca (rice in an empty plastic bottle) or if you decide to go all Art Attack on us with a fully-fledged cardboard guitar, the choice is yours. But one thing’s for sure, we want you to make lots of noise! Also on this day, we will be joined by Wanderson Lopez, Mendi Singh and Joelle Barker for an intuitive EP launch- click here to find out more.
With your rice maracas and tin can drums at the ready, you may be wondering what on Earth is going on at Espirito Brum! Well, as you asked, this year we are looking to find treasure in our trash. This comes in anticipation of our final event on Saturday 10th August at 6:30pm, when you are invited to Kings Heath Community Cinema to experience a screening of the moving and thought-provoking film Wasteland.
Wasteland follows celebrated Brooklyn artist Vik Muniz as he visits the world’s largest garbage dump in his homeland of Brazil, making portraits of the garbage pickers in a true story that is astonishing and inspiring.
So empty your trash cans, put your music ears on and get creating as we gear up for yet another fun-packed, scorching Saturday!