We are seeking submissions from talented student writers, artists, illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, filmmakers and more to showcase their work as part of the Lights Up exhibition, a unique event celebrating cycling and women’s empowerment and representation on our roads.

This exhibition will follow the Lights Up night-time bike ride, an inspiring community event promoting safe cycling for women in Manchester taking place on Saturday 9th November. This is an opportunity to collaborate with other creative students and have your work featured in a public exhibition at the iconic Victoria Baths.

The event

Manchester Mayor of Cycling Belinda Everett will lead a night-time bike ride this November, designed to bring women from across Greater Manchester together to illuminate the streets and ride as an empowered collective.

The Lights Up event offers women and girls the opportunity to engage in cycling, while promoting safe riding at night and raising awareness of the underlying issues. This is especially important as winter approaches and the number of female cyclists on the roads drops significantly as the days get shorter.

Partnering with Manchester City Council and Manchester Metropolitan University, the ride will start at All Saints Park and travel through the university campus, passing the illuminated School of Digital Arts and travel through the city, ending at Victoria Baths.

Weekly production meetings:

Join us on Wednesday afternoons to work on your submissions alongside the aAh! Editorial Team and receive feedback on your ideas.

• Wednesday 23 October, 4:30PM in Grosvenor East – Join our MS Teams Group for invite
• Wednesday 30th October, 4:30PM in Grosvenor East – Join our MS Teams Group for invite
• Wednesday 6th November, 4:30PM in Grosvenor East – Join our MS Teams Group for invite

Event themes to explore: 

• Cycling: How does cycling shape your connection with the city? Explore the joys and challenges of navigating Manchester’s streets on two wheels. How does cycling offer a sense of freedom or empowerment? What barriers do cyclists face in urban spaces, and how does this affect participation, particularly among women and girls? Reflect on how cycling can be a form of protest, self-expression, or a tool for reclaiming public spaces.
  
• Lighting: From street lights to bike lights, how does lighting transform your experience of moving through the city? How does lighting contribute to feelings of safety and visibility? Consider the symbolism of light and darkness in your work – how does the presence or absence of light influence how we interact with urban spaces? Reflect on the role of lighting in making cyclists visible and the metaphorical ‘lighting up’ of voices and communities that often go unseen.
  
• Empowering women: In what ways does cycling serve as an act of empowerment for women and girls? Explore stories of personal achievement, confidence and independence that come from taking part in physical activities traditionally dominated by men. How does cycling contribute to breaking societal norms and encouraging more women to engage with outdoor spaces? Delve into the barriers women face in sports and how events like Lights Up challenge these obstacles.
  
• Personal safety: What does safety mean to you when navigating city streets at night, especially as a cyclist or a woman? Investigate how issues like harassment, street design and community awareness affect personal safety. Explore the psychological aspect of feeling safe versus being safe – what steps need to be taken to ensure all cyclists, especially women, feel secure and supported in urban environments?
  
• Visibility and representation: Who gets to be seen on Manchester’s roads? What does a typical cyclist look like, and how can we challenge the stereotypes surrounding cycling? Reflect on the role of visibility in both a literal and social sense – who is visible and who is left out of the cycling narrative? Are all cyclists treated equally in terms of road safety, respect and access? Explore how cycling can be more inclusive, highlighting the voices and experiences of women, minorities and other underrepresented groups.
  
• Celebration: Lights Up will be a ‘Disco on Wheels’ – how can we celebrate the achievements and joys of cycling? Think about the exhilaration and community spirit that events like Lights Up bring. How can art, writing, or photography capture the celebratory aspects of this event? Consider cycling as a form of liberation and expression and the role celebration plays in creating a supportive, vibrant community.

Featured Artist Guidelines

A spotlight on a visual artist – submit up to ten entries to be featured in our exhibition. Fine artists of all practices welcome, illustrators, photographers, graphic designers and filmmakers. Send us a brief bio and explanation of how your work relates to the core themes explored in the Lights Up campaign outlined above.

Artists and designers are welcome to submit works in any medium: painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, photography, textile, installation, any mixed media, digital, performance and film. All visual art mediums are welcome. Submit your visual work in a digital format in the highest possible resolution you have available – not below 300 dpi.

Our Featured Artists work may be published alongside a range of creative prose, poetry, and other journalistic and multimedia submissions.

Pitch your ideas to the team on aAh.Editor@gmail.com. Once you are ready to submit your work, email your submissions to aAh.Editor@gmail.com with the subject line ‘Lights Up Creative Submission’. Deadline: Monday 4th November, 2024

Journalism Guidelines

We are looking for journalistic features, interviews, opinion, films and multi-platform stories that offer a critical, insightful and creative slant on the core themes explored in the Lights Up campaign outlined above.

Pitch your ideas to the team on aAh.Editor@gmail.com. Once you are ready to submit your work, email your submissions as a Word document to aAh.Editor@gmail.com with the subject line ‘Lights Up Creative Submission’. Deadline: Monday 4th November, 2024

Creative Writing Guidelines

We are accepting works of prose, poetry, flash fiction related to the core themes of the Lights Up campaign, including the experiences of cyclists in Manchester, representation and visibility, and women’s and girls involvement in sport.

Send us your best creative fiction and/or non-fiction pieces that explore some of these questions posed above. All submissions should be a maximum of 1,500 words. We allow a maximum of three pieces of poetry per submission and one piece of creative fiction or nonfiction per submission.

Pitch your ideas to the team on aAh.Editor@gmail.com. Once you are ready to submit your work, email your submissions as a Word document to aAh.Editor@gmail.com with the subject line ‘Lights Up Creative Submission’. Deadline: Monday 4th November, 2024