From afar, loud music booms
Getting louder
A black guy cycles past
An amplifier attached to his bike rack
Pumping bass
Bystanders clap and cheer as he passes by
Pumping bass
Waning
As he disappears
Around the central bed and out of the opposite entrance
Those minutes of booming beats
And cycling spectacle
Generate joy
Whitworth Park feels like a free and easy space
A place where diverse activities happen
Jasmine wanted to move her body in rhythm to the trees
Free movement
Connecting her to the ash trees about
Picking up branches
Picking up bows
Extended limbs of timber
Touching the earth
Touching paper
Making marks with wetted soil
Paper
Branch
Human
Tree
Earth
Embodied movement in the park
Of the park
Not seeming out of place
Just another happening in a happening space
He watches discretely in the shade of a nearby ash
Then he too starts to move
Stretching
Downward dog
Lifting arms to the canopy
Part yoga
Part gym
Two bodies now moving
One oblivious of the other
I sit and observe
I sit and draw her movements
The paper on the grass
Moves
As the branches touch
Beginning in a symmetrical formation
Ending scattered about
An older white woman approaches
Curious to know more
Are we dancers?
She was a dancer back in the day
Performing at music halls and in variety shows
Chorus lines around the country
Tap and ballet
She tells us there is another park down the road
A much nicer park
With a boating lake
Plattfield Park
Whitworth Park is more of a pocket park
A local community green space
Access to urban nature
Respite for the community dwelling in terraced houses with small back yards
Students in adjacent six-story student accommodation
Students and Lecturers from Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Gallery staff and visitors
Manchester infirmary patients and staff
Visitors from diverse social, ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds
In
One
Small
Green
Space
With a central flower bed
From which Ash and London Plane lined avenues radiate outwards
To entrances around the park
Entrances into and across
Short cuts for some
Open access
Everyone welcome
