Drumroll please
Bradford young people’s honest thoughts about their hometown are to be celebrated in a new poster series.
Published: July 19, 2024
Young people from across Bradford are sharing their thoughts on what their hometown means to them in a new series of posters designed by local artists Kirsty Taylor and Asher Titre.
More than 65 young people took part in conversations and workshops discussing the joys and challenges of growing up in Bradford. They shared their experiences of food, music, horses, talky taxi drivers and pink tea, as well as more difficult topics including poverty, crime and homelessness.
Kirsty and Asher then took a selection of quotes from these sessions as inspiration for a series of posters going up in shops, cafés, libraries and other public places across the district.
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Have you seen one of the posters out and about? Take a pic and tag us to be featured on our feeds. (We’re @Bradford_2025 on Insta and @Bradford2025 on TikTok.)
With huge thanks to the organisations who helped make this happen: All Star Ents, Scholemoor Beacon, Stage 84, Summat Creative and TFD Centre: Open Access Youth Club.
Alongside the posters, the young people’s experiences and words have inspired this poem by Ash Titre:
Bradford is a broken kaleidoscope of northern lights
a kleptomaniacs collection of takeaways at night
lit up by sirens, fireworks n quad bikes
Bradford is a symphony of chatting aunties
‘hiyaaa loves’ n ‘no need to thank me’s’
swimming baths n seas of bassline shantys
Horses pulling a washing machine round the estate
it’s asian boy mullets and white boy skin fades
we are Bradfordians
so tek yer shoes off n welcome to our place
we always leave a light on, just in case
local legends n talky taxi drivers
lasses popping to shop in jim jams n sliders
We are home to some of the finest literary writers
What’s yer fave place in Bradford
If we had to put it to a vote, would it end in a tie or a win
In Bradford you can do owt
Whether thats, eat, dance, sing or even do some cycling
For culture there ain’t another city rivalling
Bradford is golden yorkshire stone
it’s yer mate saying if you need owt
‘am just at the other side of the phone’
Bradford is the city where dreams are grown
bursting with beautiful contradictions
where many tales have been woven
and so many still need inking
As-salamu alaikum, wagwarn, ey up
so many different languages spoken
but there’s one song we are singing
whether that’s cheering on the bulls or bigging up the bantams
having a knees up with a cuppa chai and some banter
‘git up that’s how we do’ is our mantra
we are the mill chimneys n the quaint country lanes
the Barry Roots who won’t see owt go to waste
home to the Kimberly Walshes, Melissa Steels, Zayns n Gareth Gates
Quite simply put
we are the diamond in the rough
and if you don’t like it
then tough
cuz it’s BFD on top
and we’ll keep saying it
whether yer like it
or not.
