CITY OF LOVERS: BIRMINGHAM’S CITY OF COLOURS STREET ART FESTIVAL
AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE FACES BEHIND BIRMINGHAM’S INNER CITY STREET ART FESTIVAL
“Wait! Don’t press record just yet!” Becci and Karl chime in a half-joking yet deadly serious manner. Festival organisers, Becci Wright and Karl Paragreen, have in little over a year gone from building a small graffiti blog to putting on Birmingham’s inner-city festival; City of Colours.
With her distinct southern accent, Becci could easily be confused with a recent Oxford graduate. “Everyone always thinks I’m posh!” she laughs. “I actually grew up in Liverpool with no money whatsoever. My dad was a vicar for a large part of my life. He then went on to teach at a boarding school, which was a massive lifestyle change for us.”
Becci went on to complete a degree in Zoology at Liverpool University. And has it influenced her artistic interests at all?
“None whatsoever!” She smiles. “I did art at school. I swapped my chemistry A-Level to do art instead, which was a very wise decision!”
Karl’s jovial accent is a bit closer to home. He grew up in the midlands with his parents and two sisters. “My family can’t believe what we’ve done in such a short space of time. Last April we set up a street art website for local artists and general graffiti blog, several months down the line we’re putting on a huge scale festival with 9,000 people – they’re a bit blown away! But really proud. My mum’s a full time carer for my little sister with cerebral palsy, she’s a massive part of my life and been a huge inspiration for me and have both played parts in shaping my life. My dad’s a mechanic; he rides motorbikes every week and has done for his whole life – more Redbull cross fighters than Hell’s Angels! So naturally I grew up racing motor cross bikes and have been hooked on urban sports from an early age. I think that’s where my route differed from everyone else’s”.
Karl’s interest in art flourished at a very early age, but it wasn’t until he met Becci that he began to pave a career.
“I’ve always drawn since I was a kid. It’s always been something that’s kind of been there, but never really went anywhere.”
Becci says they first started getting creative together at home, starting off with small-scale art forms such as stickers and paste ups, but soon that wasn’t enough. “I guess when we both first met we had a love of street art. Before we even set up Street Art Birmingham, we really pushed each other to get our work out there. I mean we both wanted to, but we were both just like… AHHH!”
Looking at the scale of the beauty that has been fed into Digbeth since City of Colours, it is evident to most that a lot of love went into the festival. Not so evident is the love behind the scenes. “We met in a shed at The Rainbow!”
Karl, perhaps somewhat wisely, interrupts. “Ok yeah. I was DJing. It was a bit strange – I thought Becci was dating someone else! We ended up chatting all night.”
I point out that City of Colours is in fact a love story, to which they both acknowledge with a giggle. “Of course it is. For the record, she wasn’t actually dating someone else!”
“No I most certainly was not!” laughs Becci.
It’s hard to believe that a festival run entirely by just two people allows time for day jobs. “Over the years I’ve had sooo many jobs. Since meeting Becci I’ve gone more down the creative route since she kind of pushed me to do it. I recently started a carpentry and joinery course at college and I’m now a full time carpenter, alongside college. It’s really helped me with building structures at our festival, not having to rely on others.”
Perhaps the secret of the festival’s success lies within their modern conventional relationship. Becci has spent recent years working with a number projects supporting young offenders, young carers and young people leaving care. “Something that was a key objective for the festival was to inspire young people and work with those from disadvantaged backgrounds. St Basil’s are City of Colours’ charity partner and we used the festival as a platform to raise funding and awareness of their amazing work. St Basil’s are working with those younger people that are really struggling and having a tough time, and they seemed like a natural charity for us to support.”
Alongside working with St Basil’s, Karl travelled around the city as part of their outreach programme to encourage youngsters to get creative.
“I went to three schools, and out of all of them, Park View was honestly the best school out of all of them”.
Park View has received a lot of bad press recently, with reports of “Islamisation” and advocating gender segregation. Karl introduced the children to local graffiti artist Mohammed Ali, also known as Aerosol Arabic – best known for combining Islamic script with street art.
“The kids were so much more engaged with everything. The reaction from the kids was phenomenal, they loved it. They didn’t want it to end.”
Karl’s advice to young people who would like to follow in their footsteps is simple. “If you’ve got a dream, then go for it. Get as much support from your family and friends as you can. But just go for it”.
Suzie Parsons
