Hi I'm Mr Elephant. Here's a bit about who i am and what we do. - www.mrelephant.com
Well firstly i'm (obviously) a real elephant, and i live in a nice lickle park in Moseley, Birmingham. I came over to this country about 2 years ago, and have many great stories to share of my past.....That however, is for another day.
The first thing that struck me about Birmingham is the wealth of creative talent and this melting pot of cultures. After a short period of getting adjusted, i started meeting people who were showcasing culture's from all around the world alongside their own slices of life, and the more i dug, the more i found.
While it confused me that it wasn't in the tourist information office, or on the birmingham websites, i was inspired by this almost underground culture, and it is what has inspired me to create my own events, which i hope will help to shine a light on all this beautiful activity.
The other thing that struck me about this city is the friendliness of people. Human's not only willing to share their tips and knowledge with you, but also a real sense of wanting to get involved, with many of the city's creatives and promoters working for little or no money.
It also seems that while this city was once known as the workshop of the world, that the pace of today's lifestyle doesn't allow time to share knowledge and skills with each other, with most human's being restricted by problems that don't really affect us elephant's, such as money, time, responsibilities, etc.
So we thought it might be beneficial or/at least interesting to offer a platform for anyone who wants to share what they do. At our events, with support and workshops from our team, and/or on our website as part of the Workshop of World idea, by sharing your tips and links.
We figure if you can share what has moved you forward, it (a) introduces you to the local community, and (b) might be beneficial to others, hopefully creating new opportunities. Either way it'll be interesting to find out what we like to do, and we will be asking you for your tips at the next Mr Elephant, (and hopefully scratching them into the mix via the djs!)
We are doing short mentoring opportunities for people that are interested in doing what we do at our events, by giving them hands on experience and/or a workshop so they can experience what its like to be doing what they are into. We hope to make this into a Mr Elephant programme of workshops later this year, if we can find some financial support, so the workshops will always be free.
Our other strands of Mr Elephant are currently the explorations and of the 3 part radio show. The Radio show is designed to be accessible to a wide range of tastes, with an ecletic mixtape with narrative , a dj mix, and live recordings from Birmingham. It's free and the links to the artists are provided to encourage you to check them out. The cd covers and artwork by the way is designed by Aart Tanner, and are available for download.
The explorations will be hosted by me and Ruth Robinson, who will be conducting a period of research into the effects on local businesses of the current eastside development of Digbeth. I'll be looking at things that i'm curious about from the point of view of an elephant living in Birmingham , e.g like empty buildings, the big city plan, how easy is it to get your voice heard to the local council etc, and we'll both be blogging and/or recording our journey.
And last but not least, we we are working on/towards hosting festival tents and venues, offering music based on our radio shows, and workshops for all ages, alongside all the rest of what goes into a Mr Elephant tent/experience. We have the setup and the team to deliver events of any size, and are always open to any offer, though aside from the current festival bids, and collaberations with the local venues, this will be something we are looking to expand after the summer.
So that's about it. Collectively we hope the ideas will continue to evolve, and that it's something you might like to get involved with in someway. (Even if that be shaking your trunk on the dancefloor :)
One love
Mr Elephant x
