In popular culture

This page is full of creative ideas and pieces from across popular to inspire you to think differently about how you express and convey your thoughts and emotions. It's important to not focus too much on the quality of the end product, but rather on the process, format, style, and how the piece makes you feel.

The Scream

Edvard Munch

This oil painting is one of the most famous depictions of anxiety and fear. The choice of subject, colour and framing all contribute to an all round sense of uneasiness and panic.

The Long Goodbye

Riz Ahmed

This short film blurs the lines between acting, spoken word and rap, in which Riz Ahmed explores the layers of his identity.

I'm Gay

Eugene Lee Yang

This dance by Eugene, one of the members of the popular YouTube group 'The Try Guys', is a retrospective reflection on his childhood and growing up exploring his sexuality.

Crab on its Back

Vincent van Gogh

This oil painting by Vincent van Gogh may not seem as obvious as some of the other pieces on this list, but the choice of subject and the position chosen invokes themes of helplessness and struggle.

Black

Dave

This performance of rapper Dave's song Black is seen as one of the best live performances ever at the BRIT Awards, and walks us through his reflections on Black identity through the ages and today.

Originally

Carol Ann Duffy

This poem by Carol Ann Duffy explores her reflections on childhood, growing up and identity.

We came from our own country in a red roomwhich fell through the fields, our mother singingour father’s name to the turn of the wheels.My brothers cried, one of them bawling, Home,Home, as the miles rushed back to the city,the street, the house, the vacant roomswhere we didn’t live any more. I staredat the eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw.
All childhood is an emigration. Some are slow,leaving you standing, resigned, up an avenuewhere no one you know stays. Others are sudden.Your accent wrong. Corners, which seem familiar,leading to unimagined pebble-dashed estates, big boyseating worms and shouting words you don’t understand.My parents’ anxiety stirred like a loose toothin my head. I want our own country, I said.
But then you forget, or don’t recall, or change,and, seeing your brother swallow a slug, feel onlya skelf of shame. I remember my tongueshedding its skin like a snake, my voicein the classroom sounding just like the rest. Do I only thinkI lost a river, culture, speech, sense of first spaceand the right place? Now, Where do you come from?strangers ask. Originally? And I hesitate.