Manchester’s streets have long been alive with colour, but few artists have captured the city’s pulse quite like Sam Edwards – better known in local circles by her whimsical alter ego Phoebe Foxtrot. Sam moves through her community with the same quiet magic that infuses her art. A self-described ‘gentle activist”, she stitches bold colour into ordinary days through her ‘craftivism’, turning repurposed fabrics and sunlit street corners into spaces for creativity and imagination. In a world that often rewards the loudest voices, Sam’s work hums with a softer tune: an invitation to slow down, look closely and rediscover the joy in creating everyday.

Phoebe Foxtrot started out when Sam was just a little girl. Growing up neurodiverse with dyslexia, Sam recalls that she found the education system difficult.

“Me and my mum used to say “don’t worry, when you leave school, we’ll open a café and we’ll call it Phoebe Foxtrot’s”, says Sam, “I never got the café, but Phoebe Foxtrot became this alter ego that helps me do things that Sam wouldn’t find that easy”.

Phoebe Foxtrot started out as a small illustration business with an aim to spread gentle feminism, but has turned in to an entire brand – almost as if by accident.

“Rewind seven years ago; I was a new mum, and I’d had an alright acting career, and an alright career as a theatre-maker, I’d done a small bit on Coronation Street that felt horrible- it felt like nothing fit me anymore. I was really lucky that I had The Royal Exchange reach out and ask me to run a legacy community arts project, so I said yes. And now, seven years on, I’ve got this beautiful career that I could’ve only ever dreamed of.”

Sam’s work focuses on themes of feminism, encouraging people to find their own magic, sisterhood, and positivity. She is constantly creating; forever facilitating workshops all around the Northwest and encouraging ‘craft activism,’ or craftivism, as she calls it.

“All of my art and practice is rooted in positive social change,” she tells me, “there’s room for all kinds of activism in our society, but not everyone feels like they can go on a big march or that they can be really radical, but it’s really powerful to have small conversations and do small acts to make change”.

About a year ago, Sam did a durational piece of performance art at Preston Bus Station called Capacity To Hold about self-identifying women’s stories, where she dressed as a vase and offered participants a chance to tell her stories about women in their life that are extraordinary, and then she sang their anecdotes back to them in a musical theatre style.

“To me, it was really about women taking up space. We have a problem in our society with misogyny, it’s entrenched in everything, so my goal was to change the narrative of women being allowed to take up space,” says Sam.

Spreading sisterhood and feminism is something that Sam clearly holds close to her heart, as she juggles Phoebe Foxtrot’s growing success with raising two daughters.

“Juggling being a business owner, facilitator and a mum is a challenge, but it makes for a really interesting person. If you’re a parent or a carer, and also an artist, you’ve got to be really strict with yourself, and I think it gives you a determination that you wouldn’t ordinarily have,” Sam reflects. “Being a community artist is my whole life really: it’s my bread and butter. It’s what I go out to do every day, and it’s everything to me. Sometimes people fob community artists off as ‘not that high end’, but what I see people do daily is extraordinary.’

Sam tells me about a participant she met three years ago. Their first encounter was at one of Sam’s free workshops at a festival, and now, three years on, the same participant is starring in a play at HOME in Manchester.

“So much in society, you just don’t get the opportunity, so how would you know that you’re an incredible painter if you’ve never had anyone give you some paint? Or that you’re an incredible storyteller if you’ve never been given a stage to step on?”

As well as the the over-arching themes of girl power and positivity, the ideas of opportunity and accessibility shine through in Sam’s art.

“I’m trying to be the ‘yes person’ for other people,” she tells me, “the kind of person that encourages constantly and finds out what people want to do and enables them to do that. Not everyone has that person in their lives.”

Sam was recently recognised at the Manchester Culture Awards, as an Independent Creator of the Year. She said it was “so special to be recognised for my work, but also in that city” adding that “I’m in Manchester every week with bags full of art material, traipsing to community centres and libraries.”

So, what’s next for Phoebe Foxtrot? Sam tells me that she’s been lucky enough to be a recipient of support by the Arts Council England this year, as part of a year of development. And Sam’s chosen medium? Ceramics. “I’m making some very lovely pots!” She says with pure joy.

“We only ever get anywhere by putting one foot in front of the other, and I’ve been so lucky that I’ve been given so many great opportunities. Coming up, I’ve got projects all around the North West, and I’m looking at doing a piece around ceramics and singing, so keep your eyes peeled!”