JanineUnsung Sports 2023 by Peter Spafford
Unsung Sports is an arts project celebrating less well-known sports in Leeds and the people who play, organise and support them. Did you know that Leeds has won more international medals in Aikido than any other single city in the world? What’s Aikido? Look it up, it’s amazing!
Over the last six months, as Lead Artist on the project, I’ve spent time with Leeds Petanque Club, Ichiban Dojo, and South Leeds Valkyries women’s basketball team. Petanque is a French game but there’s a flourishing Yorkshire League. And the Valkyries in South Leeds won a Leeds Sports Award in 2022.
In Phase 1 of Unsung Sports, we worked with table tennis, roller skating and Gaelic Football, making three short films, several podcasts for Chapel FM, and a gallery of over one hundred photo-portraits of players. We also wrote a set of brand new songs. Well, football has loads of songs, why not table tennis or basketball?!
Phase of Unsung Sports 2023, which is part of Leeds 2023, all comes together on two nights this month: Oct 25th at Leeds Irish Centre, and Oct 26th at Leeds City Museum. It’s free, but you need to book a place and they are going fast.
