iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 02/06/2026

AMPLIFY STROUD is dedicated to documenting the social history of the place where we live, to platforming new writers and creating opportunities for YOU to tell your stories. If there is something you would like to share with us, please get in touch at antenna@amplifystroud.com

The Amplify Stroud brandmark - a white, underlined lowercase letter 'a' on a hot pink background

000

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 02/06/2026

We also get a glimpse of Sam’s recent work with HALIMA MALEK and a hint of the next project from IMAGINARY MAN PRODUCTIONS. COVER PHOTO: Nikoletta Monyok

Halima Malek - a young woman wearing a hijab, a cream-coloured silk top with an elaborately detailed tunic or waistcoat sits in front of a projected photograph of her mother. She is reading from a script and she is bathed in pink light. In front of her is a microphone on a stand.

200

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 02/06/2026

Sunday 7 June at the Sherborne EMILY BAINBRIDGE - BEATING THE BOUNDS (2025) JOE MURPHY - A FILM ABOUT DAD (2026) PAUL DALY - MIRRORS (2022) SAM POPE - THE LITTLE CINEMA IN GLOUCESTER (2025) You can get tickets here >>> tinyurl.com/sherborne-7j... <<<

Three people walk across a common at sunrise. They are dressed as morris dancers with bonnets, waistcoats and long skirts all matching. They each hold sticks.

Below are the film credits and film festival selection logos. The film was produced and directed by Boss Morris / Emlyn Bainbridge, filmed and edited by Emlyn Bainbridge, with music by Miranda Rutter, Rob Harbron and Sam Sweeney. The film was commissioned by the WILSON

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 12/02/2026

Sudanese journalist Almigdad Hassan has received the Newcomer of the Year – Hans Verploeg Award 2025 thesudanist.com/journalist-a...

A young Sudanese man dressed in navy blue with a press bulletproof vest on looks into the camera. He is wearing in-ear headphones and he has a large plaster on his temple.

000

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 07/02/2026

The blessing forms part of a global campaign to give rivers fundamental rights: to flow, to be understood as having sentience, to be free from pollution; to restoration and to be treated as living entities with legal guardians.

A woman with long grey hair, wearing a pink jacket and a green, pink and blue tartan scarf stands amongst a line of people on the grass. She is holding a small bodhran (Irish hand drum) and watching the celebration closely. In her pocket she has a red woolly hat.

The image is half covered by a pink panel on which is written the following text:

”There is a campaign across the world to give rights and sovereignty to rivers and watercourses and this is in direct opposition to the continued pollution of our rivers by water companies.   “Many local councils up and down the country are engaged and committed to this shared outcome.”

— Robin Layfield

110

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 07/02/2026

Robin Layfield takes us on a deeply personal journey of inspiration and celebration, of chanting and wishing, of practical magic and climate activism.

In the foregound a small brazier is set on the grass. It is stacked with wood and it is burning with the flames leaping into the air a few inches above it. This is where people will cast their fears and doubts and where they will draw in the warmth and heat of Brigid, Celtic goddess of the end of Winter.

A woman dressed all in white stands in the background. She is a Water Maiden, part of the celebration and there to channel the energies of the Frome into the ritual.

A pink panel covers half of the image, overlaid is the following text:

“THERE IS SOMETHING DEEPLY MAGICAL about reconnecting with the land and the water around you, about acknowledging that we are all just a tiny part of this world and that no amount of tarmac, river pollution, AI or doomscrolling can take away our fundamental links to and our origins within nature.”

— Robin Layfield

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 28/12/2025

THANK YOU for reading, you don't know how important your support is!

000

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 28/12/2025

What we aim to do is produce evergreen content that captures a mood, a spirit or a feeling. We are building a social history of Stroud from 2015 onwards and we are capturing each moment as it happens

Cover of a recent article, titled "REDS - Stroud's new youth hub". The image features a group of young people standing with their arms outstretched and cheering. The tag line reads "Community" and there is a small amplify brandmark in the cornre (a lower case underlined white letter 'a' on a pink squircle — square with rounded corners)

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 28/12/2025

We have covered a diverse range of topics from the hyper local, to the global, from community activities, to local government and national policymaking. We've had good representation from Dialect Rural Writers and from the young people of the RYSE, which is a point of pride for us.

A selection of recent articles from 2025. The titles are as follows

The Ghost of Christmas Future

50 Years of Rising Stars FC — Nikki Laine interviews Ayoob Moulla

It's not just workers calling for a wealth tax — millionaires are too!

Requiem for a Protest? — A response

Emergence Re-Stock — the Campaign to reduce textile waste

Common Ground

World Suicide Prevention Day

”Music is the Key to Radical Resistance” — Los Fastidios

110

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 28/12/2025

Thank you Alex and Alyssa (top Deputy Editors), thank you David, Emma(s), Nikki and Alun. Thank you Sarah, Roma, Kam, Rami, Eli, Jezza, Tattie, Milly, Will @willluker.bsky.social from The Shire News, former MP David Drew, and Chikara Shimasaki from the Stroud Commons.

A young person looks away into the distance. They have long brown-blondish hair and several ear piercings.

An older man in a smart grey jacket with a navy shirt and a green and navy scarf. He has short grey hair and a short grey beard. He is wearing an 'XR' badge and has an 'XR' patch pinned onto his jacket. He is staring off into the distance

A man with piercing blue eyes stares directly into the camera. He is wearing a flat cap and standing behind the peeling bark of a Silver Birch tree.

A smiling young woman with long red hair is holding a black labrador to her as she looks towards the camera. The label reads "ROMA"

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 28/12/2025

THANK YOU ~~~~~~~~~ Thanks to everyone that has put pen to paper and taken the time to write one or more articles for Amplify Stroud over the course of 2025. You have all written such interesting articles and hopefully you have more to share.

A young man with a septum piercing or nose ring, shortish brown hair and a beard. He is smiling towards the camera. The label reads "ALEX”

A young woman with shoulder length dark brown hair and wearing a teal cardigan. She has brown eyes and is smiling towards the camera. The label reads "ALYSSA"

A woman with long blonde hair stares confidently into the camera. She is smartly dressed in a grey polo-neck with matching grey jacket. The label reads "NIKKI"

A young woman with shoulder-length curly light-brown hair and hazel eyes. She wears a green dress with a geometric print. She stares off into the distance. The label reads "EMMA"

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 15/10/2025

“The events related to direct solidarity are always the most important for us, because they further demonstrate the power of music. That's the music we love: the music that unites people from the East to the West.”

130

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 15/10/2025

“We can't wait to return to Stroud. Last year was wonderful, and this year will be even better,” says singer Elisa Dixon. “We return to Stroud with great enthusiasm, a new album and a great desire to have fun and entertain, in the name of solidarity.”

A woman with short dark hair and stylish black sunglasses smiles at the camera. She has her arms folded and is wearing a black t-shirt with an illustration of woman with a 'suedehead' hairstyle - the t-shirt is a band t-shirt and the illustration is of the woman herself. Accompanying the picture is a quote attributed to Elisa: "Music has always been an important vehicle of resistance and criticism of fascism. Today, more than ever, as our musical masters — The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat, The Clash etc. — taught us, we must turn up the volume on our radios, our amplifiers, our microphones to spread the music of unity and freedom everywhere."

120

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 30/06/2025

“And particularly, I'm fed up with certain leaders of the Orthodox conservative Jewish tradition who claim to speak on behalf of the whole Jewish community. I am not alone in this.” — Colin Levine from Na'amod Gloucestershire

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 30/06/2025

“I've felt that it's important for me to identify as a Jew who feels this way, rather than simply as a person who feels this way, because I think Jewish people are generally perceived as supportive of Israel, and if we don't say anything, then that's what people will assume.

Pictured is a man wearing a red beanie hat, a reddish-orange scarf and small black round glasses. He is holding a large banner which is charcoal coloured and has the word Na'amod written on it in yellow, along with the tagline "UK Jews against occupation & apartheid"

Overlaid on a pink background are the following words: Na'amod - “We Stand” exists to bring about change within the Jewish community in Britain.

Local activist Jeremy Green interviews Colin Levine from the recently formed Na'amod Gloucestershire branch to get his perspectives on the Jewish campaigning organisation that is calling for an end to the Occupation and Apartheid.

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 30/05/2025

Nick Hayes is the co-founder of the Right to Roam campaign and author of The Book of Trespass. It’s part history, part nature diary and spans several centuries of land rights in the UK. This potent mixture of topics and styles made reading it feel as easy as a glass of cold water on a hot day.

010

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 30/05/2025

“Between Emma’s down to earth humour and Nick’s relaxed and impish charisma, it’s a highly entertaining and informative hour. There’s no pretentiousness here, and I was immediately drawn to the way that Nick talks about the outdoors.”

110

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 13/05/2025

Tattie Baker, writing for The RYSE, finds out more.

A photograph of a young person, with short spiky hair and earrings. They are wearign a blue t-shirt under a charcoal hoodie and a silver necklace. They have a quizzical expression, part considerate, part smoiling. Overlaid on a pink panel is the following text: “Starting with the personal is great, so how do we open these conversations up further, to create the emotive spaces that we need, so we can talk about our grief over the climate emergency and those in other parts of the world who are dying from the overreach of UK arms industry.”  — Tattie Baker | The Ryse

000

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 13/05/2025

One of the talks was about an ambition project from the minds of Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, situationist anarchists. The People’s Pyramid is being built in Birkenhead one brick at a time from the cremated ashes of ordinary people to form an anti-capitalist monument for the generations.

A monochrome print of an artist's impression of the People's Pyramid. A towering structure made of 34,592 individual bricks containing cremated remains. Overlaid on a pink background is the following text: “The panel described the structure as “part manifesto, part peoples artwork”, intended to create situations of profound feelings – love and loss, grief and joy – attempting to open us up to talk about death in more honest and insightful ways. ” “Seeing projects like the The People's Pyramid tackle as deep and humbling topics as the end of life and still come away with rampant joy is delightful. ” — Tattie Baker | The Ryse

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 13/05/2025

NeoAncients is the Beltaine Festival of Weirdness that pops-up once a year in Stroud. Organised by Julie Howe, John Best and Ben Wardle, in partnership with “Weird Walk” magazine it presents a varied and eclectic diet of oddness and out-there events: dance, music, books, spoken word and comedy.

A bald man with a sharp beard holds a brick (off camera) in one hand and a microphone in the other. The light glistens off the top of his head. He is wearing a dark shirt and black jeans. Overlaid in a pink panel to the right is the following text: “Something that struck me about the speakers was how rascally they seemed, like they had never lost their sense of play. Call it a twinkle in their eyes. “They seemed completely convinced of their unserious-ness yet (un)grounded in deeply sincere work, calling potential mourners in with untethered joy and “ambient house residual sludge”.  — Tattie Baker | The Ryse

110

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 08/05/2025

Read more at >> amplifystroud.com/2025-05-kirs... << #crafts #environment #nature ~~~~~~~~ SUPPORT NEW INDEPENDENT WRITING Amplify Stroud is free for everyone. Upgrading to ‘Paid’ enables us to develop more stories and local commentary as they break.

010

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 08/05/2025

Kirsty left the world of tv production and art to be closer to nature and the land. She discovered a passion for the traditional craft of dry stone wall building.

A photograph of a smiling woman in a blue baseball cap, leaning against a stone wall and holding a heavy stone. There is a large pink panel obscuring the left side of the photograph. On it is a block of text in white that reads: "There are so many stories of the people who do them, the reasons they get into it, the histories, the stone and all of the treasure that you find, like the old sweet wrappers, and marbles, and pottery. I did one at a house that was an old children's home, and apparently there was a stone that they used to hide their cigarettes behind in that wall but unfortunately we never found it. - Kirsty Donnelly"

110

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 08/05/2025

“I would like to see more promotion, it would be nice for it to be more commonplace, if I’ve inspired even just one of those kids from Thrupp Primary school I would be happy.” — Kirsty Donnelly

A photograph of a woman holding a masonry hammer in one hand and a big stone in the other. The right hand side of the image has a large pink panel with white writing on it that reads: "I love all the different dry stone walls in the Cotswolds, those dreamy stones for me are absolutely part of the fabric of the Cotswolds and what makes it beautiful. In Scotland they have massive boulders in their walls so you can see right through In Devon they put them upright with slate. - Kirsty Donnelly"

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 07/05/2025

The event takes place with a gathering on Selsley Common, talks, drinks, music and film over two days at the Prince Albert pub in Rodborough.

A photograph depicting a mural in nearby Newport that has sadly now been destroyed. It shows English Redcoats soldiers firing at a mob of protestors some of them in top hats. The "Red coat" fabric was made exclusively in Stroud and the colour is known as "Stroud Scarlet". Some of those being shot at may have been millworkers that made the fabric.

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 07/05/2025

The event is the brainchild of Stroud-based Radical Historian Stuart Butler and Radical Stroud, with support from Stroud Trades Council and Unite the Union. It will comprise a 2 day festival commemorating the Chartists and Stroud's deep connection to them.

A monochrome photograph of Stuart Butler local historian. It depicts a thoughtful, gray haired man with striking black round glasses looking into the distance. Overlaid is the following text: "This event is the brainchild of Stroud-based historian Stuart Butler" and "Relatively little is well-known about Stroud's involvement with the protest movement of the 19th Century, so the festival is a way for people to learn more about it. The gathering of thousands of people locally to call for political reform was perhaps the precursor to the ethos of political activism that we still see in Stroud today"

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 07/05/2025

The six points of the People's Charter were: ✅ 1. All men to have the vote ✅ 2. Voting should take place by secret ballot ❎ 3. Parliamentary elections every year, not once every five years

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 05/05/2025

Of course our very own Emma Kernahan @crappyliving.bsky.social popped up throughout the weekend, hosting an interview with Nick Hayes and performing as part of the Lost Mythos Mythical Entities crew with poet JLM Morton and all round incredible musician, sound tech and singer Mara Simpson

A photograph from a performance of LOST MYTHOS with performers dressed in blue suits and pointed fluorescent headgear to represent earthly avatars of the genius locii that make up the Gloucestershire Association of Mythical Entities - an otherworldly Parish Council concerned with gnomes, wizards and giant toad manifestations in the local Tesco Express

032

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 05/05/2025

Look out for our writeups coming soon.

NeoAncients poster on a dark background. It has a repeating "Tingle Stone" motif and the following writing: NeoAncients x Weird Walk, May 2nd — May 4th. Weekend festival of music, art, films, talks, ritual and lore

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 05/05/2025

With a little bit of BOSS Morris, witchery, horror movies and tarot thrown for good measure

Pictured are two smiling women - Lilly and Alex from BOSS Morris who have been seen all over the festival. They are wearing bright floral clothes and Lilly has fluorescent ribbons in her hair

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 05/05/2025

The festival brought people from far and wide to enjoy a weekend of imagination and inspiration. Pictured are Chris and Kerry who travelled over from Bristol.

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 05/05/2025

NEOANCIENTS That’s a wrap! Amplify Stroud has spent the weekend covering the NeoAncients x Weird Walk festival - something that is uniquely Stroud - a Beltaine themed festival of arts, music, spiritualism, film and talks all about the land, weirdness, cultural obsessions and language.

An illustration of a local landmark, the Tingle Stone, that is said to leap up and run a circuit of it's field at midnight. The illustration is a black and white ink painting of a standing stone, pockmarked with holes on a radiant yellow background

120

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 01/05/2025

SUPPORT NEW INDEPENDENT WRITING Amplify Stroud is free for everyone (the topics we cover deserve to be read widely). #Community #Trans #Justice

000

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 01/05/2025

On Saturday April 26, Cheltenham hosted a peaceful protest to defend trans rights in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling. Stroudies were there in full support.

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 01/05/2025

STROUDIES FLOCK TO CHELTENHAM TO STAND UP FOR TRANS RIGHTS WRITER: ALEX PARNHAM-COPE | April 2025 >> amplifystroud.com/stroudies-fl...

111

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 08/04/2025

The Greenham Common protests against nuclear arms, the paintings and writings of Monica Sjoo, the work of ritualist and witch Starhawk, and artists like Ana Mendieta and Judy Chicago, exploring feminine aspects of spirituality, often referred to as the “divine feminine”.

A picture of the multidisciplinary artist Sarah Dixon. Accompanying text reads: "It's hard to say exactly how many Goddess Temples there are in the UK, but we do know it's a growing movement and they are "popping up" around the country."

010

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 08/04/2025

“My world has completely changed in the past few years, and so I feel has the world. I am part of this wider shift, a search for new modes and institutional possibilities. I feel immensely privileged, and still surprised, by these opportunities and invitations that have presented themselves here.”

A picture of a shrine to Cuda the local goddess of the Cotswolds. She is sat upon a luxurious swathe of rich leaf green fabric. Accompanying text reads: "The name Cuda may also have a deeper importance for the region today as it may be the predecessor of the word Cotswolds itself. This may have changed over the years from 'Cuda' to 'Coda', then to 'Cotta' and lastly to 'Cots', according to Dr Stephen Yeats.

110

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 08/04/2025

THERE'S A GODDESS IN THE COTSWOLDS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sarah Dixon | WAAS Sarah explores the remarkable development of the Goddess Temple in Stroud. amplifystroud.com/theres-a-god...

111

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 31/03/2025

Gloucestershire-based journalist Will Luker attended community Iftars hosted by Stroud and Gloucester-based Muslims to find out more about the meaning of Ramadan and why this is such a holy time.

A picture of a man serving rice on a paper plate. He is bearded and wearing a charcoal grey outfit and glasses.

Overlaid to the left is a large hot pink panel with the statement: "Ramadan is drawing to a close and Eid al-Fitr will mark a joyful celebration, but what does it mean to the community in the district?

"It is a deeply spiritual time of increased community engagement, charity and self-reflection"

Below is written "Eid Mubarak from all of us at Amplify Stroud"

000

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 31/03/2025

The sighting of the new moon this evening (March 31) marks Eid-al-Fitr - the festival of the breaking of the fast at the end of Ramadan.

A picture of a bearded man wearing glasses, a reddish brown prayer hat, grey black shirt and a scarf with a Palestinian flag on it and chainlink design, stands in the space. Other people are visible in the background.

Overlaid in white on a hot pink rectangle are the following statements: "For around 30 years Stroud has welcomed the community - Mustafa knows Stroud best for being a decent and welcoming town. Mustafa says Ramadan is important because

"we try our best to transform ourselves and it's a condensed self-improvement opportunity. It's a period of renewal and inner peace within ourselves."

110

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 31/03/2025

DATELINE: 31 MARCH 2025 SUBJECT: WHAT RAMADAN MEANS FOR THE MUSLIMS OF STROUD AND GLOUCESTER WRITER: WILL LUKER | CALL ME WILL

110

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 02/03/2025

Alex and Alyssa schlepped to London for the day to find out what life in Westminster for an MP representing a small rural constituency is really like.

100

Amplify Stroud @amplifystroud.com · 08/09/2024

Twitter changed the use of language - the introduction of #hashtags was a seminal moment in linguistics, bringing context, relevance and brevity to conversation and discussion. That was the high point. Today we deactivate our twitter account as we refuse to be complicit in our own dehumanisation.

Riffing on an old anti-Nazi meme about disposing of swastikas - the picture depicts the silhouette of a human tossing a Twitter 'x' into a wastebasket.

030