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There are over 5000 trees, flowers and plants in the PoliNations super garden!
Head Gardeners from The Birmingham Botanical Gardens are here to get you better acquainted with our plants - where they come from, how they came to our shores and what stories they tell.
Whether you are an avid gardener with an eye for biodiversity, or a plant novice who is keen to find out more - these free tours are a great way to learn about our super garden!
This event will feature BSL interpretation: Tuesday 6th September, 3pm&nbsp; Monday 12th September, 3pm&nbsp;

Into the Garden

Come along to explore a playful journey &lsquo;From Soil to Sip&rsquo; with <a href="https://wearespectra.co.uk/">the Spectra cast</a>. An accessible, multi-sensory tour of the PoliNations&rsquo; super garden, we will explore planting, growing, harvesting, blending, brewing and drinking tea. Taking inspiration from tea growers and drinkers around the globe, we will discover seeds and plants, delighting in their wild fragrances and textures, while we brew the perfect mix of herbs and spices to share. Join us for the journey - tea drinkers of all ages welcome! &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Neurodiversity is at the heart of Spectra's work: they strive to cultivate a world which celebrates brains that work in different ways. We can&rsquo;t wait to welcome them to the super garden!
These performances will have a sensory focus and will be largely non-verbal.
Find out more about Spectra <a href="https://wearespectra.co.uk/">and their awesome work here.</a>&nbsp;

From Soil to Sip

Immerse yourself in the world of tea - an uplifting interpretation using influences of Kathak and live Indian classical music with the award-winning Jaivant Patel Dance. Prepare to be taken on an intercultural journey full of influences inspired by the Silk Road.
Knowing that the very landscape and plant life that surrounds us each day is multicultural; this experience reimagines the narratives and lived journeys of the global South Asian diaspora and its connection to the multi-layered influences that contributed to shaping its heritage and culture; with roots in travel and trade on The Silk Road such as tea, spices, poetry, dance and music.
Tea Ceremony is created by Jaivant Patel Dance in collaboration with live musicians Sanyogita Kumari (vocals), Hardeep Singh Sodhi (tabla) and Alec Cooper (sitar) and will feature stunning costume pieces created by PoliNations&rsquo; Costume Designer Joey A Frenette with Pakistan based Yousuf Bashir Qureshi and Riffat Aliani during a residency in Karachi, as part of British Council&rsquo;s UK/Pakistan Perspectives season in June 2022.&nbsp;
Presented as part of an exciting partnership with the British Council UK/Pakistan season.
The event at on Saturday 17th Sept at 11:10am will feature audio description throughout. If you would like audio description please meet at the Info Point at 10:50 to collect a headset and meet our Audio Describer.
The event at 15:10 on Saturday 17th will have BSL interpretation throughout.&nbsp;
Image credit: Ming de Nasty

Tea Ceremony

RELAX AND UNWIND
Join us for a calming and uplifting meditation after sunset and discover your inner peace.
Buddhist nun Gen Kelsang Leksang from Kadampa&nbsp;Meditation&nbsp;Centre in Birmingham will guide us through a simple&nbsp;meditation&nbsp;that will help you to relax and let go of stress and mental busyness and connect with your inner calm. Through&nbsp;meditation, we can discover that it is possible to experience happiness and contentment just by training the mind without having to depend upon external conditions.&nbsp;
The session is suitable for beginners and everybody is welcome to attend.
Gen Kelsang Leksang is the Resident Teacher at Kadampa&nbsp;Meditation&nbsp;Centre in Birmingham. The centre was founded by accomplished&nbsp;meditation&nbsp;master Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche and is dedicated to contributing to world peace by offering everyone the opportunity to develop mental peace through training in&nbsp;meditation&nbsp;and Modern Buddhism
<a title="http://www.meditateinbirmingham.org/" href="http://www.meditateinbirmingham.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0">www.meditateinbirmingham.org</a>

Meditation

Poli Nations, Created and Produced by Trigger. Photo by Fabio De Paola (8)

<h5>Opening Times</h5>
Monday &ndash; Friday: 09:30 &ndash; 20:00
<h5>Accessibility</h5>
<ul>
<li>The whole PoliNations site is accessible via wheelchair</li>
<li>The closest Accessible/Blue Badge Car Park is Pinfold Street parking and Waterloo Street parking. More information on this can be found on the Birmingham City Council Website.</li>
</ul>

Location A

Bristol

Enjoy a free cup of chai every day, whilst exploring the history of tea and its journey to the UK.
Thank you to our friends at&nbsp;<a title="" href="https://www.dishoom.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dishoom</a>&nbsp;for taking us on this fascinating chai-filled journey!

Tuk Tuk Tour Sheffield

Tuk Tuk Tour

Impact

The city centre will bloom into a vibrant living oasis filled with thousands of plants and brought to life through free garden tours, audio baths, live music and light shows, costume design workshops, sensory experiences, poetry and performance and more!

Screenshot 2022 09 27 at 10.47.40

PoliNations Trailer

PoliNations App

Using the PoliNations App

Listen to the Sunset Shift

Apple - Iconic Plant

Tulip - Iconic Plant

Tea - Iconic Plant

Willow - Iconic Plant

Fern - Iconic Plant

<h5>Opening Times (Daily)</h5>
Monday &ndash; Friday: 12:00 &ndash; 18:00 Saturday: 11:00 &ndash; 17:00 Sunday: 12:00 &ndash; 16:00
<h5>Accessibility</h5>
<ul>
<li>This is dummy text. It is intended to be read</li>
<li>This is dummy text. It is intended to be read</li>
<li>This is dummy text. It is intended to be read</li>
</ul>
<h5>Public Transport</h5>
Bus Stops: 00, 00, 000 Train Station: Name Station

Assembly George Street

<h5>Opening Times</h5>
Friday 2nd September: 14:00 &ndash; 22:00 Daily: 08:00 - 22:00 Saturday 17th September: 08:00 &ndash; 00:00
<h5>Accessibility</h5>
<ul>
<li>The whole PoliNations site is accessible via wheelchair</li>
<li>The closest Accessible/Blue Badge Car Park is Pinfold Street parking and Waterloo Street parking. More information on this can be found on the Birmingham City Council Website.</li>
<li>We will have an accessible viewing platform available during the Poetry &amp; Perfomrance Festival and Ballistic Seed Party</li>
<li>Many of the events will have BSL interpreters and Audio Description available.</li>
</ul>
<h5>Getting here</h5>
<h5>By Train</h5>
The nearest train station to Victoria Square are Birmingham New Street (0.2 miles, 6-minute walk) and Birmingham Snow Hill (0.4 miles, 9-minute walk).
<h5>By Bus:</h5>
The closest bus stops to Victoria Square are for buses 9, X10, 82, 87 and 89. Bus services are operated by <a href="https://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands">National Express West Midlands</a>.
<h5>By Tram:</h5>
The nearest tram stops to Victoria Square are: &bull; Colmore Row (Stop Sh11) is 222 meters away, 3 min walk. &bull; Colmore Row (Stop Sh1) is 246 meters away, 4 min walk. &bull; Baskerville House is 300 meters away, 4 min walk. &bull; Colmore Row (Stop Sh2) is 312 meters away, 5 min walk. The West Midlands Metro runs regularly. For more information on where it runs and how to buy tickets visit the <a title="" href="https://westmidlandsmetro.com&nbsp;" target="_blank" rel="noopener">West Midlands Metro Website</a>.
<h5>By Bike: </h5>
Bike racks can be located on the corner of Edmund Street and Eden Place or in the Southwest corner of Victoria Square. Birmingham benefits from segregated cycle routes into the centre from Selly Oak and Perry Barr as well as an extensive canal network providing traffic free routes. Find out more about Birmingham's cycle routes on Birmingham City Council website. Don&rsquo;t have a bike? Don&rsquo;t worry you can hire an E-bike! A dock is located near Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. To find out more visit West Midlands Cycle Hire.
<h5>Parking:</h5>
Access to parking will be limited and we want to avoid congestion within Birmingham City Centre, so we encourage you to get to the site via walking, cycling or public transport. Birmingham is a 'Category D Clean Air Zone'. What this means is that owners of high-polluting vehicles will get charged for driving within certain parts of Birmingham &ndash; including around and near the location of PoliNations. To find out if your vehicle will be charged visit the Brum Breathes website.
Nearest parking to Victoria and Chamberlain Square is Paradise Circus Car Park and Town Hall multi-storey car park. It is operated by Birmingham City Council and charges will apply. If you display your Blue Badge, parking is free with no time limits.

Victoria Square

Birmingham

The Factory

Clifton Road Youth Centre

Scouts

Beavers

Concord Youth Centre

Kingstanding Youth Group

Trinity Day Centre

Grand Union

Northfield Arts Forum

Kinmos Volunteer Group

Saheli Hub

Nechells POD

New Heights Community Project

The Active Wellbeing Society

Bearwood Community Hub

Birmingham Cathedral

Community Environmental Trust

St Thomas Community Project

Birmingham Thrive

Birmingham Institute for the Deaf

Open Theatre

Birmingham Settlement

Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens

Masefield Community Garden

Friends of George's Park

Welcome Change Community Garden and Centre

Balsall Heath City Farm

Highbury Orchard CIC

Quaker Meeting House

Migrant Help

Stories of Hope & Home

Women with Hope

RESTORE

Czech and Slovak Club UK CIC

Oasis Church

Spring Housing

Fircroft College

Ashley Community Housing

Micro Rainbow CIC

St Annes Hostel

In her Shoes

Apple

Pansy

Willow

Amaranth

Lavender

Fern

Tulip

Rose

PoliNations opens! Hundreds of plants will be co-planted by local communities and schools who have nurtured them from seed, ready to take pride of place in the pop-up garden.

Plant Up

On top of our regular daily programming, PoliNations will present a weekend of spoken word events, featuring performances from the brightest sparks from the local, national and international spoken word scene.

Spoken Word Weekend

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PoliNations will culminate in a four-day Ballistic Seed Party, combining the joyful spirit Carnival and Holi!
Over this extended weekend, Rangoli art will spread outward from the garden into the surrounding streets with celebrations taking place throughout the day and into the evening, when the garden&rsquo;s giant trees will burst into a cloud of confetti and colour. This is Carnival and Holi combined into one brilliant, messy party and everyone is invited!&nbsp;Enjoy epic performances, take part in Holi celebrations, and enjoy live music from some of the UK&rsquo;s best up-and-coming talent. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to see our full programme announcement!
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Sunday 18 September is the final day, which will be dedicated to self-care with chilled out acoustic music for everyone to enjoy in the blissful oasis. Plus, we&rsquo;ll be giving the plants from our forest garden away both to local communuty groups and audiences for free! Once PoliNations has closed, the remaining plants and saplings will be distributed into the community, contributing to the growth and development of Birmingham&rsquo;s green spaces.
Check back here soon to see the full festival line-up!

The Grand Finale

It's been two days since PoliNations ended, and we've been reflecting on an extraordinary 17 days in Victoria Square, Birmingham.
PoliNations wouldn't have been what it was without the hundreds of thousands of people that visited, participated, celebrated and reflected with us. THANK YOU to each and every one of you that joined us in the garden.
PoliNations was created by Trigger Collective and led by Bristol based arts organisation <a href="https://www.triggerstuff.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trigger</a>. This project was the result of an incredible amount of work, from a world class team who we feel very lucky to have worked alongside. We'd like to give an enormous thank you to our <a href="https://www.polinations.com/partners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">creative team and collaborators</a><a target="_blank">.</a>
We've been blown away by the enthusiasm for PoliNations. While we were disappointed not to present the full programme as intended following the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, it was an exceptional and truly unforgettable 17 days.
We've listed some of our favourite moments below - and we'd love to hear yours! <a title="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU4moAoFMVU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Watch this video</a> to see what some of our audiences loved most, and remember that you can still explore the Virtual Super Garden&nbsp;is still available through the <a href="https://www.polinations.com/create">desktop platform</a> and PoliNations app. Download now for <a href="https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/polinations/id1634837679">iOS</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.megaverse.polinations">Android</a>.
We can't wait to bring PoliNations to more audiences, connect with more communities, and share more moments with you. Stay tuned, PoliNations is on the move&hellip;

Thank you, Birmingham

PoliNations, Created and Produced by Trigger. Photo Katja Ogrin

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Did you know that more than 80% of plants found in UK city-gardens originated overseas?

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