Who Run The World?

In March, when our Build programme at LEAP (London East Alternative Provision) was postponed due to the pandemic, we wanted to find a way, remotely, to continue to support the young people who benefitted from the programme. Specifically, the Key stage 4 Girls’ group that we had been working with since September.

A well established and successful grounding activity that the group enjoyed was mindful colouring-in, which we would complete individually or in groups. The amazing thing about colouring-in is that you are literally taking up space with colour and texture, staying in or crossing over boundaries, finding your place and including yourself within something - these were all really important metaphors we considered, especially when working with young women excluded from school and so it seemed a good starting point for our creative resource.  

We brought together the Kazzum Arts team working on this programme, including facilitator Marie Horner and graphic designer Kathryn Corlett, to develop ideas for the aesthetic and to discuss topics of conversation that the group had responded to, and consider how these might be integrated. We decided upon 8 key overarching themes that represented the views, priorities and interests of the young people we had been working with. These were: Family, Respect, Love, Loyalty, Friendship, Power, Trust and Identity. We interspersed these words in bold, graphic fonts throughout the book with a few key questions to prompt self-reflection.

Alongside these self-reflection opportunities we included mandalas and a variety of shapes, images and patterns for colouring in, that represented the key themes in a visual and engaging way and provided opportunities for creative expression. To bring the book together we added in quotes from inspirational figures that the group had identified as role models or women they admired including: Jhene Aiko and Cardi B.

 It was important to us as a team, that young people’s views and values were represented throughout this book, so drawing on our experience of working with the group was essential. This enabled us to collate the ideas, comments and conversation they had brought to the sessions and create a resource that amplifies their voices and reflects what matters to them.

The final product was titled ‘Who Run The World?’ a playful nod to the famous Beyonce’ lyrics, and highlighting the empowering impact we hope this mindful colouring in book will have on the young women who interact with it.

Download the first few pages of our ‘Who Run The World?’ colouring book below. You can also get in touch for the full print version.

Image credits:

iStock.com/Refluo, ElenVD, Andrei Filippov, masan4ik, elfiny, Maria Zamchy, Oksana Ashurova ilonitta, natasha-tpr, Homunkulus28, vladimir_karpenyuk, Sybirko, kostenkodesign, Homunkulus28, L_Kramer, jsnegi, KatikaM, vladimir_karpenyuk, thunalab, lilipom & frimages