Poet and videographer combine to celebrate look and sound of the city for Leeds 2023

Rommi explains.

Ndrika and I have created a film-poem which celebrates something of the music, stories, voices and people of Leeds. It’s part of the LEEDS 2023 Letting Culture Loose commissions which are all about showing different sides of culture in Leeds.

It features images and voices of Leeds’ people, filmed across the city, by Ndrika. I wrote the poem first. I chose to perform it in collaboration with a diversity of people in the city: from clowns to doctors; allotmenteers to beekeepers. The film-poem was made last year and we’re excited that people can now see it.

As a poet, I work with music and musicians. In my poem, I aimed to capture the sound of Leeds. This is a city where over 170 languages are spoken. The poem references David Oluwale and offers that the presence and music of those languages (and the people who speak them) in the city, is a living memorial to him.

I started my writing process by researching music in Leeds. I am fascinated by the Dearloves, a family of instrument makers who opened a music shop on Boar Lane in the early 1800s. Their instruments were played in concert halls and homes across the world.

The words: ‘Dearlove, Leeds’, were pressed, like a signature, into the wood of their instruments. I love the idea that an instrument made in Leeds could sing in someone’s hands, or imagination, on the other side of the globe; people, everywhere, playing, or hearing, the sound of Leeds.

The poem is written in three stanzas. Each one represents a different timeframe in Leeds’ musical history, from the Dearloves to Soft Cell (who met at Leeds Poly), to the ‘shimmering half moons’ of steel pan as a homage to Leeds West Indian Carnival.

It is really important to me that the film-poem honours the vast cultural contribution that generations of people, including people of colour, have made to Leeds.

Ndrika continues.

Just as Rommi was interested in the sound of Leeds, I was interested in the look. Every area of the city has its own visual identity, from the red bricks of Chapeltown to the stone of Calverley. I chose to film the unexpected parts of Leeds, not just the shiny buildings of the city centre.

I wanted to capture the look of the city’s people as well as its architecture. The film is a celebration of people from all across Leeds, among them musicians, artists and members of community groups. The film acts as a visual connection to the variety of people and cultures that embody Leeds.

The film features video portraits of people looking straight down the camera lens, and they have an honesty and intimacy to them. I wanted these video portraits to have the same impact and prestige as paintings exhibited in grand art galleries.

Most of the people we filmed had never participated in anything like it before. Some were a little nervous about being filmed, but once we’d started they opened up to us. One of my favourite people to film was Ruth, an older artist, performer, clown and storyteller.

I never would have met someone like Ruth if it wasn’t for this film, and I feel incredibly grateful for that. She inspired me to always stay curious and to maintain a passion for learning.

Each city in the world has its own atmosphere and feeling. I hope that our film encompasses the feeling of Leeds, and that people who may never visit will still understand that feeling just by watching it.

We’d like to thank everyone who so generously gave their time to be in the film as well as those involved in making it, including composer and musician Dave Evans and the musicians Toby Evans, Kenny Higgins and Guy Rickarby, as well as Ed Heaton, who mixed and mastered the soundtrack and the musicians Judah and Paulette Morris (known as Royal Blood) who feature in the film.

‘Dearlove, Leeds’ is being shown at the LEEDS 2023 Roadshows and will be released online at a later date.