Currents of Change
Lived Histories of Liverpool’s Waterfront
Currents of Change: Lived Histories of Liverpool’s Waterfront explores perspectives on Liverpool’s shores. These shores are presently marked by flooding, dangerously shallow canals, depleted reservoirs and microplastic pollution, and its docks, primarily the Albert Dock, traversed by imperial circulations including the trade in enslaved humans. The project asks questions about Liverpool’s waterfront as a site where migration, labour, empire and environmental change intersect, centring the perspectives of communities historically central but overlooked in official narratives of the docks. In response to post-imperial racism, post-industrial poverty and eco-crisis, the city generates scenes spanning activism, spoken word and street art that articulate African roots, trans-Atlantic diasporic routes and planetary care, while on Liverpool’s transformed docks, the International Slavery Museum sits alongside the Merseyside Maritime Museum.
Bringing narratives of marginalised residents to the fore (including participants in the city’s historically overlooked Black communities), we will use a participatory photography methodology derived from “Photovoice”, originally deployed with disempowered women farmers, “to promote a process of women’s participation that would be analytical, proactive, and empowering” (Wang and Burris 1994: 179). Archival research to collect historical materials (e.g. in the Liverpool Echo local newspaper founded in 1879) that speak to themes of migration and maritime crisis, will constitute prompts for the community workshops, which are held at key sites around Liverpool’s docks and historic seafarer neighbourhoods. To respond, residents will be given cameras to produce alternative visual accounts of waterfront life, leading to a co-curated local exhibition on the docks, where participants’ photographs and stories will be presented.
Project lead: Daniella Shaw
Team: Amina Atiq
