Chapter 3 - City of One

CHAPTER THREE.

CITY OF ONE

A minority

I judge the space.

Is there room for me? Will people look at me? I am the only single woman. I am the only person of colour. These are sill thoughts which I judge when entering a space. I do feel uncomfortable. But what the city allows me to do is share. I share the step with a handful of others. I share the street with hundreds of others. And within these crowds I blend in, with the locals, with the visitors, with men, with women, with families. And there is space for us all to take up.

The city’s eyes

To be alone in the city I still feel I am in the wrong. But I find it immensely exciting. It allows me to be the cities eyes. I am able to watch people go by. At the top of the park I can see the city’s landmarks rising into the sky. As the observer I am no longer the focus.

But the cities eyes are also on me. The mannequins watch me as I pass through St Peter’s Lane. The transparency of the arcade no longer becomes a supressing space. Turning the corner, the eyes of Liverpool have caught me. The cameras turn. The curtains of the apartments move and the silhouettes on the balconies above. There are others out there watching over me.

Resistant stone

The Spirit of Liverpool sits on the Walker Art Gallery, with the Liver Bird. She is a royal woman. She dominates the seas; in her left hand is a propeller, in her right hand is a trident.

Queen Victoria stands on her pedestal where the Castle once lay. Her allegorical figures representing justice, wisdom, charity, and peace. People congregate at her feet.

Kitty Wilkinson smiles in St Georges Hall. She stands proud among 12 figures of men.

I stand, looking up and among these figures. I see their strength. Their honoured commitments in the city. Their right to take up space.