Facing it and Holding it, Together
Stories of Solidarity and Resistance
In the summer of 2025, racist and anti-immigration violence erupted across the UK. For many communities, this wasn't new, it was a rising of what has always been there, quiet but never gone. The relentlessness of it, the exhaustion of being perpetually on guard, the question that shouldn't need asking; am I safe, in the place I call home?
The Thirty Percy Foundation, recognising that their funded Changemakers were holding their communities through this crisis, wanted to offer a space to come together: "We recognise the roles you're all playing in your communities and the energy and labour that goes into organising and mobilising in moments like this. Our intention is that you too have the support you need around you, as you're supporting others."
In addition to Changemakers funded by Thirty Percy, I created the same space for a group of Changemakers in Leicester. I facilitated these spaces online in October and November 2025.
Below is a mixture of notes from myself as a Facilitator and words shared by those who participated, to give you an idea of the content. If you're reading this in different circumstances or different pain - I hope something here resonates or offers a beginning for your own work to grow solidarity and resistance.
22nd October 2025
Found Poem
Words and phrases taken from conversations, in the moment, in the order they arrived, but not in their entirety.
It hurts me that people don’t feel safe
The relentlessness
Are we back there
Then, here, now
Quiet but it never went away
Heartbreak in the older generation that their children now experience this
Holding in right now
What would my Grandma have said
Will I ever be ever seen as belonging
Where do I belong
Collective experience
Safety engineered in a particular way
One big family football fans
Now am I safe at all
Even if a carefully engineered way
I feel part of that community when there is a shared experience
Is that the definition of privilege when you don’t have to question - am I going to be safe?
Naivety comes in to my journey - I have never questioned my safety in relation to race only as a woman and now it crosses my mind
I don’t know what that guys thinking
I’m extra smiley on the tube
It’s hard when the hate comes
There’s solidarity
It’s heavy too
Everyone is feeling this anxiety and fear
Not a handful of people
“What's resonating with you?
What are you hearing?”
“Silence between shares is okay”
“Some movement would be good. Move. Stretch. If you need a reason to move please get some water. If you want to dance or stretch please do.”
I played this track at some point in all the sessions. I chose this track mainly because it got me moving. Movement for me is such a big theme in all these conversations.
The title of the track connected me to an idea or theme that potentially could be explored in our conversations - travelling, wandering, no place called home or multiple homes. I like the idea that the world has been created by people who move.
At the start of the sessions I shared - “I am here to facilitate the space, alongside but also with experience and connection to why we are all here.”
29th October
“I want action”
“What does this look like?”
Action
“Honour Myself”
“Family First”
“Meet up”
“Get together”
“Decision making”
“Making choices”
“Small acts are big acts”
“Re-ignite my intuition”
“I want to seek out more spaces like this”
“I want to create community more”
These spaces were difficult to name because everyone's needs at this moment are different. I have emails with all sorts of different ‘subjects’. We called them 'Support Circles,' 'Care, Hope and Resilience Support Circle,' 'Solidarity and Resistance Space'. I still don’t know if any of those names did it justice to actually bring people together?
What we wanted was a space for shared understanding, a space for the really difficult stuff - the anger, the rage AND the hope and the light. To face it and be with it together.
13th November 2025
Found Poem
Words and phrases taken from conversations, in the moment, in the order they arrived, but not in their entirety.
Sitting in a bleakness
This is a new cycle of we don’t belong here
That’s always what it’s like here
Where do I go
What can I do
Attacks within miles of where I live
If one person does it does that make it o.k
6 minute walk and I think about my safety
This is a reality
I don’t feel great sharing that lack of hope
Free writing - liberating
I don’t want to waste my time to be less than I meant to be
When I am in spaces that understand I am hopeful
Hope surfaces and then retreats - in the wider world
The colour of my skin
It glistens in the sun
This country drains me of my colour
Do they want to make me more palatable
I went on to celebrate all those things
I’ve made London my home
You stick out no matter where I go
How can we make home for each other
I don’t know if I will ever shake off the reaction
“There was singing.”
In the session on the 29th October 2025
What we held
Coming in: “Exhausted, Tender, I can feel the intensity, There is no space or respite, The intensity increases”
In the space:
“It feels homely”
“The best podcast I've ever listened to”
“I didn't know what I was coming to - but it is such a beautiful space and so needed”
“The light comes from the sharing”
“When I am in spaces that understand I am hopeful”
“I need to seek out more spaces like this”
The Sun Never Says
Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe Me.”
Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.
~ Hafiz
Shared
Poems / Readings / Thoughts
The poem above and those below are a snapshot of those shared in the groups and does not represent all that was heard. Alongside these there were many others written, spoken and sung by participants who came to each session.
Yrsa Daley-Ward - Kin
Maya Angelou - Still I Rise
Daze Aghaji - Belonging in fractured Britain: an argument for ritual
Sam Tovey - I’ve been thinking about my grandma
Lucass Joness - Send em all back
Indy Essence - ‘Paki’ Poem
“What am I belonging to fear or love?”
Other resources
Staci Haines - The Politics of Trauma
Esmée Fairburn - Useful Resources and Reports
Ruth Taylor - Recommendations Wider Reading/ Listening / Watching
Have you got anything you would like to share?
Facilitation Reflections:
Here are some of my notes from preparing and reflecting on the spaces
-
The opening questions worked beautifully - hearing from everyone about how they were coming in to the space and their favourite things to do at home. This takes time. Everything that was shared here formed a foundation for the whole session.
After about 5 sharing’s / readings, I played music and encouraged movement. Sometimes the energy needed to shift. People's bodies share so much, even on zoom.
Trusting that I could give the group more time when it was needed.
Not everyone shared readings, thoughts or poems, and that was okay. Some people needed to listen and soak in. In this space it was a way to participate.
-
We found a rhythm:
Sharing circles (witness, receive, no commentary)
Music/movement transition
Individual reflection (free writing)
Repeat
Open conversation
-
At the start I asked people if they were in a place to feel comfort/ support in their bodies? And to move to a place to find this if they didn’t.
It is so easy to get stuck on zoom, sat, facing forward. I reminded people often to move around anytime, leave the screen and come back, breathe, get water.
One thought about numbers - 10 was a great number. There was a variety of perspectives, thoughts, stories and ideas. We found the rhythm. People who didn’t know one other shared and heard a lot. I don’t know if people who came to smaller groups felt exposed?
Silence is a moment to pause and so useful especially in these spaces. These pauses can feel strange and awkward on zoom. I tell myself not to fill it when it comes and let the group lead. I am still finding my way with - choosing to set the order of people speaking vs leaving it open - unsure if the people feel the comfort of silence or the urge to do something in it.
*the images shared on this page are images I have chosen, inspired by the conversations. They did not form part of the sessions.