What is the North?
It’s grit, it’s graft, it’s guts, it’s gold.
It’s stories told and heads held high,
It’s dreaming big beneath grey skies.
It’s mills and minds, the old and new,
The beating heart, the work we do.
And who are the leaders?
Mayors with plans, with power, with sway,
All of us who rise in the everyday.
The makers, the doers, the ones who care,
The grafters who shape the change in the air.
What is it to innovate?
To break the mould, to push, create,
To question, to listen, to dare, to relate.
Not just the shiny, sexy, and new
But what is bold, real and true.
And what is ‘enough’ in these times?
When trust is cracked, and pockets thin,
When power’s a game we don’t all win.
Yet still—we rise.
Community hubs and hands that mend,
Strong roots and bonds that refuse to bend.
Innovation that builds from where we came,
That weathers the storms and avoids a return to more of the same
So—are Northern leaders being innovative enough?
Some are. Some shine. Some spark the flame.
But a movement needs more than a moment or a single name.
We need leaders who listen, who love, who fight,
Who turn warm words into firelight.
Not leading over—but leading with.
Not just a badge, but a bridge to a new way to live.
This stuff, isn’t just fluff
And we aren’t innovative enough,
Until we design and build with structure and form,
Embedding people power and voice as the norm.
Until we enable all to participate and grow,
Create the conditions for agency and hope to flow.
So if the North is to rise and thrive and be,
Then its true leaders and innovators
Are we.
Eve Holt 