Share your stories of Luton's Bury Park and help create an audio museum

A new community project wants your stories of times past to help create an interactive history walk.

Museum of Stories: Bury Park will be a digital audio walk made in partnership with Bury Park communities past and present. It is the brainchild of local production company Applied Stories, run by award-winning playwright Fin Kennedy.

And it's calling on people to submit their stories to create an 'audio art gallery’. When completed, people will be able to walk down Dunstable Road using a geolocated app, in which audio stories appear as pins on a map.

Each five-minute story will feature a real community member telling a personal story, developed with the support of professional writers. Fin Kennedy and Shemiza Rashid, both writers, will be joined by a third, Titlola Dawudu, who was behind the acclaimed Hear Me Now monologue series.

Fin Kennedy said: “I’ve always loved coming to Luton, it’s such a thriving place with its own feisty identity, but its public perception isn’t always so positive. This project aims to put real people centre stage, and support them to tell their own stories in their own way, for anyone to experience. We had tremendous local interest and support during last year’s pilot. Shemiza and I can’t wait to start making the full walk.”

Shemiza Rashid said: “I am delighted to be part of such a marvellous project again. Museum of Stories has further ignited my curiosity and has fuelled my intrigue for a town that is like a treasure trove of stories waiting to be found and told."

You can listen to excerpts from some of the stories already submitted in the video in this article

And Titilola Dawudu added: “As a storyteller, I'm most excited about receiving stories from a community with so much heart and depth to who they are. I can imagine there will be stories that have long been buried that need unearthing and bringing to light. Stories that have passed through families, woven through generations."

The Museum of Stories phone line is open for submissions from now until the end of April. Call 01582 250444 and leave a voicemail. There is also a project Facebook group, and a free public launch event to find out more on Sunday, March 26 from 3pm to 4pm at Alexandra Opticians.

More information can be found on the project’s web page, which also features some initial stories received as part of a 2022 pilot including a ghost story at Allders opticians which will become one of 12 new stories produced as an audio drama that will form the walk.

Lindsey Pugh, creative director of Revoluton Arts said: “We are excited to be working with Applied Stories to continue our growing partnership activity with and for Bury Park residents (and audiences beyond). This project represents an excellent opportunity for community engagement - to explore, commemorate and share cultural heritage, co-created with local people and partners.”

Lilly Smith, Luton Borough Council’s Heritage Development Manager added: “Bury Park is one of six strategic heritage action zones across the town and we are delighted to support Fin, as one of this year’s Luton (community engagement) Heritage Fund awardees. We are sure the innovative approach to engagement and quality creative story production of Museum of Stories will contribute a positive impact.”