Inspiring Creativity through Arts & Culture – Brave Words Theatre
In 2024, Brave Words were the well-deserved recipients of our Child Friendly Leeds ‘Highly Commended’ award in the category ‘Leeds 2023: Inspiring Creativity through Arts and Culture’. The work that Brave Words does in the community directly supports Child Friendly Leeds wish 7.
Wish 7 – Children and young people know about things to do and places to go across the city. They enjoy different cultural experiences including art, music, sport and film.
The following spotlight blog has been written by Brave Words, to share a glimpse of what they do as an organisation and the importance of inspiring creativity through arts and culture.
We are storytellers
We tell stories every day. We tell stories to our friends, our families, our classes and our co-workers. We tell them to understand and to empathise; to guide each other and to help each other; to share excitement, passion, heartbreak and laughter. Humans have been telling stories for thousands and thousands of years – ever since our caveman ancestors first spoke aloud and said: “Ugg, ug, ugg, ugg, uggg!” (“Watch out for that mammoth, he’s about to step on your foot!”)
At Brave Words, stories are our trade. We make exciting new plays telling stories with a social purpose. Our Pay-What-You-Can Youth Theatres give every child and young person the chance to make theatre based on their stories. Our storytelling events and workshops offer the same opportunity to grown-ups. Our education workshops let children explore mental health through stories, re-tell stories from history and turn their own stories into pieces of poetry.
Photo by Ian Hodgson photography
Find our true selves
There’s one value every story we tell has in common: authenticity. And one very big reason why. In 2025, it’s harder than ever to be our true selves. It’s hard to even know who our true selves are! Social media piles on the pressure to pretend to be someone else. Kids are assessed academically at earlier and earlier ages. Teachers are under so much pressure that it’s harder and harder to find space for creative expression and discovery in the classroom. How can we discover who we are, when there are so many forces trying to gobble up our freedom and decide for us? Amelia, a Year 5 student, wrote about her journey in one of our workshops:
Everyone wonders the same question:
what is their true self?
I tried to find mine under my bed
I tried to find it in the cupboard
I tried to find it by reading books
escaping to worlds in my imagination
I have tried to find it again and again
I will never succeed
I will never find my true self
because when the time is right
it will find me
From “My True Self” by Amelia, Aged 10
Photos by Liam Booth Photography
One of the reasons Brave Words was founded in 2018 was to create brave spaces where children can explore and find their true selves in their own time. Where everyone accepts each other’s identities, and the journey to find them can happen naturally, without pressure. Where it’s ok to not know yet and where every single story is valued (and sometimes platformed at professional theatres!) Where everyone – young people, adults, staff, parents, families – everyone – has enough space and time to find out who they are – or to let their true self find them.
