For The National Chaordic Symposium in September 2025, we commissioned artist mandla rae to create a unique performance. Her work was a profound highlight of the event, and we are delighted to share the poetry she presented as part of it.
Love is an act of protest
manchester is a city built by the disrupters.
is it the city or the people who demand change?
of course, it’s the people!
the people feel
the people protect
the people build
the people liberate
the people scheme
the people burn down what doesn’t serve us and we grow a new world out of our love.
that’s how laws change,
through the people’s rage at the ones created by the masters out of
hate.
remember section 28?
even the queen changed her mind and offered alan turing a posthumous pardon.
and when i say people
i am thinking of the ones who have had their humanity stripped away,
the ones who build themselves up from nothing, sometimes every day
the disembodied voices no longer lost in the wilderness
the people who create home out of community
the people whose data the institutions desire, yet they rarely give them the tools to sit at the heads of their tables. why is that?
data is just another way of telling stories,
of marking down who was where,
what they did
and how they felt.
participation is reciprocal,
the venues are just empty buildings without the people.
the thing about representation is that it’s got to empower not exploit those who see an image of themselves recreated by those with power and reflected or sold back to them.
the world is always changing,
in the midst of this anxious society is a bubbling anticipation
where the joy of recovery takes centre stage
held up by an infrastructure of
care.
where the oppressed stand hand in hand with the neglected and criminalised,
building memorials for those
who the maniacal despots
plot to erase
from collective memory
by shoving them in jails.
we hold on to the warm hugs of the ones otherwise lost in the careless system.
we embrace the communities devastated by austerity + hostile environment
and look for the moments of beauty in the every day.
we are the kindness served up with a healthy meal,
because in a world filled with division and hate,
love is an act of protest,
particularly the love of the self at the heart of the recoverist’s journey.
we never know what’s hiding behind a person’s smile or frown
and we don’t need to know the depths of someone’s pain
to make them feel like they are fucking beautiful.
and everyone in this room
is fucking beautiful.
written by mandla for Portraits of Recovery Chaordic Symposium, September 2025
manchester is a city built by the disrupters.
is it the city or the people who demand change?
of course, it’s the people!
the people feel
the people protect
the people build
the people liberate
the people scheme
the people burn down what doesn’t serve us and we grow a new world out of our love.
that’s how laws change,
through the people’s rage at the ones created by the masters out of
hate.
remember section 28?
even the queen changed her mind and offered alan turing a posthumous pardon.
and when i say people
i am thinking of the ones who have had their humanity stripped away,
the ones who build themselves up from nothing, sometimes every day
the disembodied voices no longer lost in the wilderness
the people who create home out of community
the people whose data the institutions desire, yet they rarely give them the tools to sit at the heads of their tables. why is that?
data is just another way of telling stories,
of marking down who was where,
what they did
and how they felt.
participation is reciprocal,
the venues are just empty buildings without the people.
the thing about representation is that it’s got to empower not exploit those who see an image of themselves recreated by those with power and reflected or sold back to them.
the world is always changing,
in the midst of this anxious society is a bubbling anticipation
where the joy of recovery takes centre stage
held up by an infrastructure of
care.
where the oppressed stand hand in hand with the neglected and criminalised,
building memorials for those
who the maniacal despots
plot to erase
from collective memory
by shoving them in jails.
we hold on to the warm hugs of the ones otherwise lost in the careless system.
we embrace the communities devastated by austerity + hostile environment
and look for the moments of beauty in the every day.
we are the kindness served up with a healthy meal,
because in a world filled with division and hate,
love is an act of protest,
particularly the love of the self at the heart of the recoverist’s journey.
we never know what’s hiding behind a person’s smile or frown
and we don’t need to know the depths of someone’s pain
to make them feel like they are fucking beautiful.
and everyone in this room
is fucking beautiful.
written by mandla for Portraits of Recovery’s The National Chaordic Symposium, September 2025