After a long and drawn out process, Cardiff Council has seen sense and will be returning the Millenium Walkway Hall of Fame to Cardiff’s graffiti artists.

This hoo-ha began back in March when I set up a petition to stop one of Cardiff’s only legal walls being sold off for advertising:

1,178 people signed the petition, but It was thought that advertising along this stretch of wall could bring in £100,000 of well-needed funds for the city and a new location would need to be found.

The new location was decided on, at Callaghan Square – not quite so peaceful – surrounded by traffic, but still a safer space than most graffiti spots, and easy for visitors from outside the city to get to. Finally though, it has been agreed that it makes more sense for the original wall to be re-instated.

The space has hosted a number of jams, including the ‘Back to Nature’ jam for International Women’s day:
I look forward to seeing many more events to come once the Council’s own branding is removed from the area.

Thanks Barry Diamond for this epic panorama image of the wall before it was covered up in April:

Related articles:

Knitting & Graffiti… Good for our mental health (millimagic)

Petition to save Cardiff’s graffiti ‘hall of fame’ from Champions League final adverts (The Cardiffian)

Tongwynlais Resident Starts Petition to Save Cardiff Graffiti Landmark (Tongwynlais.com)

Building a wall (millimagic)

Whistle-stop tour (millimagic)

The Writing’s on the Wall (Diff Graff)

RIP Cardiff’s Millenium Walk Graffiti Wall (We Are Cardiff)

Millennium Walk Away (Diff Graff)

A graffiti wall ban on Cardiff’s Millennium Walkway comes into force ahead of Champions League final (Wales Online)

No news = good news (millimagic)

Cardiff has a new graffiti wall and work has already started (walesonline)

I love Cardiff Council (millimagic)

Petition: Save Cardiff Millennium Walkway Graffiti Hall of Fame (change.org)

 

 

 

 

The Great Big Walk was inspired by the Great Get Together, organised by Jo Cox’s family. Jo’s life was taken last year, and her statement that we have far more in common than divides us stayed with me the whole time I was talking to all the amazing people we met on this walk. There are people across the whole of the UK, and across the world, working together to make their communities strong.

Along my way I began picking little bunches of flowers. It’s something my mum Latifah used to do, and I found it a nice way to mark the end of a walk, either passing on the flowers to somebody, or leaving them somewhere. I picked flowers for my mum on our walk through the woods to the Sea at Pembrey, which I let go into the sea for her, along with a massive release of tears and grief which I didn’t realise was still there inside me.

When Lowri introduced me to a lady at the Adamsdown Big Lunch, who had put together a bunch of flowers for Jo Cox it was so fitting with my journey I felt a bit adrift, until my focus was gently brought back again with some watermelon from Vaida – thank you x

The lady with the flowers is called Dance. I’d just been dancing my sox off to the fantastic samba band, and had a couple of nice exchanges with some of the younger locals, who had started out so shy, but joined in with gusto and then got on the mic to beat-box our departure. Dance had been overwhelmed by the fact that her daughter had not only been taught in school about Jo Cox, but had felt so moved by her that she’d come home to make sure her mother also knew how inspiring she was. They had put together a bunch of roses and brought them to the Big Lunch in Jo’s memory, and she passed them on to me.

I felt honoured to carry these beautiful flowers with me for the final day of the walk, to set them in the sea at Penarth, remembering Jo and all that she stood for. Andrew Carnegie (below) penned a poem which he read as we walked into Penarth, releasing the tears I’d held for Jo, and for the horrific tragedy at Grenfell Tower, reminding me of the power of poetry to connect far deeper than mere conversation.

 

To celebrate the life, work & legacy of Dylan Thomas I organised a paint jam next to Cardiff Castle, on boards that had been put up to protect the trees from UEFA happenings…

Cardiff Council very generously paid for our paint – a Welsh flag colour theme seemed appropriate, and I asked wordsmith Rufus Mufasa (Dope Biscuits) to pick out some Dylan lyrics. To link the theme to today’s living, breathing poetry, DJ Alchemy (The Hold Up/Applied Science) kindly helped me pick out some lyrics by our homegrown rappers.

Thank you to Over, Dan1, Plus, Tao, Sega, Squid and Mr Draws for the love. Graffiti and Hip-Hop is strong in Cardiff, and we are giving a nod to Dylan Thomas as well as recognising the important contribution of rappers to Welsh culture.

Find out more about Literature Wales’ International Dylan Thomas Day here.

 

I don’t have much to report on the Millenium Walkway Graffiti Hall of Fame, other than I’m hard on the case of the Council Officers who have promised to provide us with a suitable alternative before the advertising goes up. They are working to come up with an interim between the walkway and a new permanent spot where we will build a wall. I have suggested a few options and Matt Wakelham is working at getting permissions – he’s speaking to relevant people for Charles Street, Custom House Street and John St (where No Fit State was).

I’m keen on the Custom House Street/ John Street options, as they are close to Callaghan Square.

This area – shiny, polished and pristine – is not really used other than as a walk-through, and I believe, by skaters. We will be arranging to have the concrete structure on Callaghan Square painted next month, and hopefully will eventually be able to get an agreement for using this area for our new wall. If not I’ve suggested Bute Park as an alternative so watch this space…

In the meantime, I haven’t been able to prise a date out of anyone for when the adverts are going up, but true to Cardiff Council’s promise, this memorial piece has been delivered to Brave Toaster’s family. If anyone has any ideas of where we could put it up again please let us know.

It all comes down to money.

The Millennium Walkway costs £55,000 per year to maintain. Advertising on the Walkway will bring in £100,000 per year. We, as artists CANNOT compete with that!

Advertisers don’t want their shiny corporate image tainted with being associated with graffiti… let’s not take that too personally. We can’t share the space with them. BUT, we can share in some of the money that they’ll bring in to our beautiful city.

I’m pleased to say that Matt, Cath and Elaine from Cardiff Council, get it. They understand what we want for Cardiff – for it to be a place where everyone, no matter their financial or housing situation, their demographic or cultural background – everyone has a right to the spaces in this city.

We discussed the need for places where people can come together to paint, to gather socially and have real ownership of these spaces. The council have agreed to build us a new wall, somewhere safe, well-lit and central to Cardiff. They have also agreed to put a section on licence forms for building contractors, to legitimise painting on their temporary hoarding. They will also be securing permission for us to legally paint at skate parks and possibly building walls in these locations for us to paint.

On Monday I’ll be arranging to meet with Paul from Cardiff Council, to walk around the city centre and identify areas where we can paint legally. If not on walls, then on hoarding that the Council will put up for us. If anybody wants to join us on that walk around, or has ideas for suitable locations, please do let me know.

So although we didn’t ‘save’ our wall, we’ll be building a new one, and will transform Cardiff in the process. Thank you everyone who signed the petition – this is your city. I’ll keep the petition page open so I can keep you informed as things progress, because we now need to make sure these promises are kept.

Thank you also to Councillors Sarah Merry and Chris Weaver, Dan Wilson (Grassroots) and Oner Signs.