Hello everyone 
 
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Stephen, and huge thanks to Monique for explaining why it feels to me more important than ever to keep drifting and dreaming. Sorry I didn’t see this yesterday, and I am so glad you could articulate why I do what I do.
 
Perhaps I should have explained the context of my work more carefully; I know there are many friend of loitering within WAN and I cut and pasted in haste, also assuming (wrongly) my signature with links to www.thelrm.org was working should you wish to find out more. I've been living, walking and working in Manchester for many years now. Briefly: The LRM was borne in 2006 out of years of working in community development and feeling love, curiosity for my home as well as rage and frustration at rising inequality and the impact of neo-liberalism on my home and its communities. I believe the derive offers alternative ways to think about space and walking together helps to connect, interrogate and explore space in our city, it starts conversations and asks questions and that feels more important than ever today. I believe the streets should belong to everyone and walking together is about finding poetry, community and magic in the streets as much as it is about getting from A to B. (I realise this is WAN so I don’t need to make a case for the power of walking so forgive me if I am teaching folk to chew tofu)
 
With regards to logistics, and respectfully as you don’t know our work please be assured I feel a deep duty of care to those who walk with me and we are not out to cause harm. As Monique says we are all taking risks every day but First Sundays are open to all and we all take care for each other, believing in mutual aid and looking out for each other. Past encounters with security have been very rare, always good natured and generally absurd, being about invisible barriers between public/private and street photography etc. I realise this is probably at least in part due to the group being majority white, mixed in age and gender and able to articulate ourselves, privileges we frequently acknowledge and want to extend. I find it hard to be believe we will be doing anything to attract or divert the attention of security forces. Our meeting point this month was chosen so it does not clash with those crowds and I did think long and hard before choosing our theme today.
 
I've walked across Manchester many times since the bomb. It feels the same but irrevocably different: Yes, I am very well aware of the raids, like anyone here  I can’t fail to notice  the armed police, helicopter buzz and eerily silent crowds at the shrine in St Anne's square. I hope this are things that never stop making me feel sick and sad.  This city has always felt to me like an urban village, and almost everyone  knows someone who has been touched directly by the horror. I've also had many conversations with people on the streets, in shops, and on public transport. far more than normal. I have been moved by the smiles, the hugs, the conviviality and the repeated assertion that diversity is a strength and reaching out, being with, and gathering is powerful and good. Nobody I have encountered wants to live in a state of perpetual fear. Yesterday The King St Festival and Envirolution both happened (amongst doubtless many other celebratory events I am unaware of)  By chance I was at the Manchester Place Writing Festival this week and since then an extraordinary number of people have been in touch to discuss our (re)mapping and (re)imagining of the city.

I am very wary of essentialism and environmental determinism; I’ve been troubled by a lot of the recent media coverage of what “Manchester” is and means but now is probably not the time for critical discourse analysis; well, certainly not by me here now. It is too soon and we are all still hurting but I am acutely aware that we are all, always, creating multiple stories of our place and that is an ongoing, active process. (I find myself returning, again, and again, to Doreen Massey here). In a small way what I do is add to palimpsest new stories that I believe add something good and do no harm. Yes, its politics with a small p but its creating a space to share and create
 
The architecture of fear and exclusion has been a preoccupation of mine for a very long time, and I believe a responsible citizen should be able to question authority and right now I suspect I am not the only person as scared of de facto martial law which normalises soldiers on the streets, condones racism and cultivates a culture of suspicion as I am of terrorists. I don’t want to confuse guns and helicopters with peace and safety and I don’t want to stop having that conversation. As I have said elsewhere I don't subscribe to the keep calm and carry on propaganda but defiant everydayness, solidarity and love are fine weapons
A key reason for me facilitating collective derives was listening to women who are scared to wander on their own. Amongst many other things the atrocity was an attack on women and girls disproportionately present at the gig. I believe cancelling an event is more disrespectful and alarming than walking sensitively with eyes, ears, heart, minds and arms wide open.

I realise this has been longer than intended because it has struck a chord with me. I will end with an open invitation to Stephen, and anyone, to join The LRM anytime you wish, and please do not hesitate to get in touch with any questions or comments.

 I have to dash now to get to the Touchstone and to see who is joining me today, The LRM have been facilitating a public derive on the first Sunday of every month for over a decade and if we cancelled today what message would that send?

With love and best wishes for wonderful wanders
Morag

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