Over the past year, Creative Black Country has been celebrating ten years of creativity, community and collaboration across the region and one of the highlights of our anniversary programme has been the Bostin News zine series.

Alongside our friends at Fused Magazine we are commissioning local Black Country (Dudley Borough, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton) creative writers, illustrators, photographers, and artists to contribute to the next editions of BOSTIN NEWS!

Dudley Creates started as a Creative Black Country commissioned cultural programme designed to make possible a diverse and locally relevant programme of high-quality creative participation opportunities for local communities across Dudley Borough.

On a regular Monday morning in Dudley, just after the COVID restrictions had begun to lift, creative artist Gavin Rogers led a small group of women, POC and members of the LGBTQIA+ community into Netherton Tunnel.

This inclusive and inventive poetry and animation project consisted of a series of online writing workshops with poet and playwright Nafeesa Hamid and further online animation workshops with Sarah to bring the poems to life in an animated film

What do a freelance photographer and filmmaker, the front-of-house manager at a theatre, a touring company general manager, an art gallery visitor assistant supervisor, and a museum outreach manager all have in common? 

What do get when you bring together the Dudley Peoples Archive, the wonderful Growing Up In Dudley project, a stack of linen squares, an ambitious, creative community facilitator and a welcoming space at CoLab Dudley?

Bostin News edition 01 is available to read in full online and to download.

We’re kicking off 2021 by sharing some Bostin News - quite literally. We have copies of the Newspaper that collates some of the lovely work you might of seen already on here but also some special pieces of content that we have also saved JUST for the newspaper. Would you like a copy?

Bostin News: Meet Content Editor Anneka French

Bostin News: Meet Content Editor Louise Bloomfield

Bostin News: Meet Content Editor Tim Brinkhurst

Bostin News: Meet Content Editor HEATHER WASTIE

Bostin News: Meet Editorial Assistant Eve Orford

When we started to follow @busybee_amy (or Amy Holland as we now know) on Instagram we were instantly taken by her illustrations. From beautiful plants to detailed drawings of imaginary characters in busy rooms - we loved her style. So when we wanted some illustrations of our content editors we knew who we had to ask.

Sound artist and producer Tim Brinkhurst has produced 5 sound pieces for Bostin News that speak of and share creativity. The final one is Interrupted.

Rupi Dhillon is a British Indian artist currently based in the Black Country. In her work she explores relationships between (wo)men and their environment, exploring how culture is connected to belonging. Her current work reimagines cultural experience through participatory performance, collaboration, gifting and found objects.

During lockdown, when many of us wondered how we might fill our days at home, Bloom Creative Wellbeing CIC launched their 21-Day Rainbow Challenge via social media. It caught the attention of Rosie who was looking for something to do with her toddler Nova…

Sound artist and producer Tim Brinkhurst has produced 5 sound pieces for Bostin News that speak of and share creativity. The fourth is I Can Hear Your Inner Thoughts - Father Barry Starts the Day.

The Battle of Stourbridge by Heather Wastie was written using memories of Jeni Hatton, Jose Wyles and her mother, Sheila Smith, during Alarum Productions’ ‘I Dig Canals’ research project.