Taja and Aimée talk about the importance of diversity and regional pride living in Birmingham.
Taja: Hi, my name is Taja. I'm a dark-skinned black woman with long black braids and gold earrings with a cream hoodie.
Aimée: Hi my name is Aimée. I'm a mixed woman. I have dark brown curly hair that's pulled up into a high pony, I have gold hoops and a white jumper with some black writing over the left-hand side. Me and Taja are currently sat in the main house at the Birmingham Hippodrome theatre. We're in amongst a sea of deep red velvet chairs in the stalls of the theatre.
Aimée: I would define a person from Birmingham as someone who has huge amounts of humility. Fantastic sense of humour because let's be real we're always the butt of the joke. [Taja laughs] Someone who is, generally speaking, is kind, super open, what you see is what you get.
Taja: I do feel like a bit of a patriot for Brummy, you're probably the same..
Aimée: Representing everywhere we go! After somebody lays eyes on you the next thing they will hear is your voice. So they'll be like, Birmingham. Or they won't say it like that, but you'll be talking or it might come up in conversation and they'll be like, I thought so, and you'll be like, well yeah you can tell like how broad the accent is. So yeah you do feel like you are an advocate for the city everywhere you go.
Taja: What I love about Birmingham is how diverse it is. As a black woman, you can be stared at a lot in different cities even though we've been here a while [Aimée laughs] It's crazy, but I don't feel that way in Birmingham.
There're so many different places I can go in Birmingham like Soho Road, Digbeth, and all these other places and just feel fine. Even like when I went to Solihull, I wouldn't feel that type of way. But I just think that's what I love about Birmingham, I love how not just diverse as people we are but the scenes. We do have a lot of different types of scenes here which is very expressive.
Aimée: You can go to a different town and it could almost feel like a completely different place but you're still in Birmingham. Like I can go somewhere and go, oh yeah, I know I'm in Erdington, for example. Or you'd go somewhere else and go yeah yeah now I know I'm in Aston, or you know that kind of thing. I guess it's how unique each town is that surrounds Birmingham but ultimately it all feels Birmingham.
Taja: Birmingham has a great restaurant scene.
Aimée: Definitely!
Taja: So we take full advantage of that!
Aimée: and I think that totally links into as well the city being so diverse. Oh my gosh, the food! It's like, think of a culture, there's food here and it's not just like, oh yeah there's food, no, it's like, there's FOOD!
Aimée: I think one of the challenges of living in Birmingham is actually the travel and travel links. There are buses; we have the tram. They are extending the tram now which is great. But, I still, considering the size of Birmingham, I don't think it's sufficient, I really don't and I've always said unless you have a car or you have access to it, I think it could be quite difficult to navigate around.
Taja: there should be multiple tramlines, night buses and trains going on for longer as well.
Aimée: What's it like working as an actor in Birmingham in the West Midlands? It has its challenges, massively. Opportunity is the biggest thing. There's not as much opportunity here as there is, in London, for example. A lot of people either create their own work which I know a lot of people have done, to bring their own opportunities to them and to people around them, or and which is the sad thing, is they move out of the city.
So I think a way in which we could make the arts, the arts scene better here in Birmingham is if we're able to have infrastructure that not only trains homegrown talent but also professional infrastructure so more filming studios and production houses etc. So you're able to train the people up, so they're able to do job and then they can go and get a job.
Taja: I don't know if I'll live here my entire life 'cos who can say. Obviously Birmingham will always be home. In 20 years, it's hard to say but I do think for me, the main thing, in order for us to be progressive is to just listen to the city. What does the city want, what does the city need and that means having active conversations, ongoing conversations with different types of people in the city. No matter where they are in class system. No matter where they are in race, disability, non-disability. We have to have an ongoing conversation and listen to what the city needs and wants.