Planet South Bank is delighted to invite you to the launch of our community creative writing anthology, How We Made It Through.

For six months in 2024, local residents and those who love South Bank were invited to create visions of hope for the future – looking back from the future, to say ‘This is how we made it through’.

Launch and celebration of the anthology: Tuesday 28 October 2025, from 6.30 to 8.30pm, Friargate Quaker Meeting House, York. More details here: https://yorkenvironmentfestival.org.uk/event/how-we-made-it-through/

At the launch we’ll be sharing extracts from the anthology, sharing how we ran the project and how it can easily be replicated in any local community. Get your own copy, and share ideas for helping local communities work together in the face of current future challenges. There’ll even be short performances from a one-off climate choir – details below if you’d like to join in as a singer.

More about the project: Twenty people responded initially and once our programme of free workshops and online calls kicked off, more joined along the way. By the end of the project, we had received more than thirty individual entries, in media ranging from prose to poetry, and from collage to needle felt. The generous support of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Abundance Press pulled all of our work into a beautiful book, copies of which will be for a donation at the launch, and an electronic copy made available online.

Would you like to be in the climate choir during the evening? The inspirational Catherine Heinemeyer will be leading a group of singers as part of the event, in three short songs climate and hope. Singers are warmly welcome! There will be one rehearsal, on Sunday 26 October 2 to 5pm (venue to be arranged). Please email laura.bok@balliol.oxon.org to show your interest and so that we can send you details of the rehearsal.

This evet is part of York Environment Festival. Take part in their wonderful series of events, running from to 27 September to 2 November 2024. https://yorkenvironmentfestival.org.uk/events/