2011 was a year of unprecedented local, national and global protest – a call for change. England saw its most serious bout of civil unrest in generations and the world watched as protests brought down governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. One of the first Occupy camps, Occupy Wall Street, achieved global news coverage in September 2011 and this triggered a further 695 camps to be set up in 82 countries across the world.
In response to this Collective Encounters began it’s long-term programme: In Our Times. Â In 2012 we performed In Our Times: An Agitational Injection in the Casa Bar on Liverpool’s Hope Street. Â The event highlighted and explored the corrupting effect of money on politics, asking why the gap between the incomes of the richest and poorest people in the UK, which is greater than at any time in the last 30 years, continue to grow and what does this mean to the one third of the children in the UK who live in poverty.
Collectively created over 6 months by Collective Encounters’ community programme participants, the general public and a team of professional artists the In Our Times event was a busy evening of folk music, film, laughter, discussion and social and political passion.
