The People Speak

About The People Speak

The People Speak is a collective of artists and creative communicators based in Tower Hamlets, London, developing innovative formats, experiences and skills development programmes to repair society's damaging polarisation. We believe conversation is a creative medium that generates new ideas, working across arts organisations, museums, academia, science communities, and businesses to bring creativity into public decision-making and community engagement. Meet Talkaoke – our pop-up talk show invented 28 years ago. This live format places a host at the centre of an illuminated round table while participants control the agenda. Completely non-hierarchical and delightfully unpredictable, Talkaoke transforms strangers into collaborators through spontaneous dialogue. Beyond creating buzz at events, it serves as a powerful research tool for impact capture – revealing authentic community insights that traditional consultation methods miss. We create bespoke formats in response to every brief. Beyond established formats like "Who Wants to Be?", "The Slice is Right", and community art school Aberfeldy Stories, we design new participatory experiences like "Quacktion Time" (animal-masked Question Time) and "Heal the Net" (ritualistic internet cleansing). Each format creates conditions for authentic dialogue that plants seeds for changing perspectives. Our workshops equipping participants with skills for constructive and nuanced dialogue in our polarised world. Through hands-on practice, participants develop confidence in public speaking, active listening, and critical thinking – essential skills for rebuilding genuine understanding between communities.

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