During May and June 2022 we ran a programme called 70 Conversations, designed and delivered in partnership with Cubitt Artists. A six-week programme that developed participants’ creativity, promoted community cohesion it offered opportunities to learn from, and engage with, culture and heritage. The programme connected young and older people in Islington to co-produce a [tea] party and a podcast to celebrate the borough’s diverse communities. It drew creatively on both the local legacy of communities with common values gathering together for positive change and the tradition of tea parties to celebrate Jubilees. 70 Conversations engaged sharing stories and a celebration of effecting community change through discussions of contextualised social movements, personal experiences and creativity.
The two groups – the younger group drawn from year 8s from Arts and Media School Islington (AMSI) and one from the older community of Islington residents met independently as well as in collaborative sessions, each run by art practitioners Lucy Steggals and Mai Omer. They explored the role of Islington’s rich history in bringing communities together, as well as learning the importance of how to strengthen communities and to have much needed conversations. Throughout the sessions the groups got the opportunity to discover ways of telling their own stories and one beautiful example is the first time the groups came together in a session held at AMSI.
The exciting collaboration of the intergenerational group during this session provoked a stimulating conversation about what it means to live in society today. The session began with powerful talk by Nadia Joseph, who recounted her experiences as a young person involved in the movement against apartheid in the UK and seeing the movement through the eyes of her parent’s activism and organising and her own participation. Both groups shared their experiences about how growing up and living has changed throughout the years and conversations generated a deeper connection between the two groups on various issues relating to their environments and society today. Activities included creating stories together using genres of fantasy, action, sci fi and comedy, and told through a lens of politics and activism and interactive word games using wooden letter shapes. Their imaginative offerings were recorded for the project’s podcast.
The afternoon reminded us all how important it is for there to be spaces for individuals and communities of all generations to feel confident to speak on issues and stories important to them. Artist Mai Omer explained the space as a great place for young people especially, “to discuss sensitive, controversial or painful political issues, as sometimes there is a lack of opportunities to do so.”
Over the weeks, the groups deepened their ideas and explorations of their personal and political climates. Facilitated by the artists, the groups were led through an exploration of past and present examples of Islington collectives and public gatherings using archival materials including photographs, video and ephemera as prompts that showed the power of the arts as a vehicle for transformation.
The younger group, led by Mai Omer, learnt how to use Zoom voice recorders, the art of creating Foley sound effects and developed and honed interviewing skills. Using blown up scans of archival images, the young people engaged with their local and wider cultural heritage (in the tradition of gatherings to activate societal change) and learnt how to draw out, respond to and reflect on the visual imagery and societal commentaries that the photographs provoked. They used charcoal to trace and project areas of interest from the photography. The young people mapped timelines of events that were meaningful to them, created collages and drawings which were incorporated into the invitations for the tea party, developed party games and crafted a decorated tablecloth to bring to the tea party planned as the finale for the programme.
The older participants, led by artist Lucy Steggals, sparked by engagement with archival images from anti-apartheid collections to scaffold discussions on local activism through the decades (e.g. the country’s first LGBTQ+ public gathering on Islington’s Highbury Fields) and linked these to public displays of activism around more contemporary issues (e.g. inequalities exposed by Covid). Throughout the weeks the group experimented with paper modelling (to create table settings and food stuffs for a party with invited guests ranging Nelson Mandela, the Queen and local neighbours), stencil printing (creating packaging for word games, printed dice and decorations, including bunting, for the party) and poetry writing.
The final event, held at Wray Crescent Islington on 29th June, was coined ‘not a tea party’ by the participants (co-named during their collaborative session) to reflect that they wanted an opportunity to gather, share stories, play games and celebrate each other, rather than a focus on food and beverages. In spite of this, the cakes sourced from Hillside Clubhouse, a social enterprise who provide work for people with mental health and learning challenges, were highly commended by all! The two groups extended invitations to the wider community; over 90 people joined for the afternoon’s party games, conversation and music. Conversations held and music, dances, poetry and spoken word performed during the party were captured by the younger participants and can be engaged with in the podcast created to document the programme to listen to the podcast please click here.
As Not a Tea Party closed and the afternoon wound down, the two groups and their guests had become one with renewed energy and smiles all round, carrying memories of beautiful conversations and new friendships forged.
The 70 Conversations project reminds us of the importance of sharing our experiences, our histories and our memories to build community and spaces for all to participate collaboratively, particularly intergenerational spaces that provide platforms for engaging rich understandings on issues experienced by society today. It reminds us of the integral role collaboration and communication with our neighbours can have in building communities of resistance, love and hope.
With our sincere thanks to partners Cubitt Artists, AMSI students and teachers, older Islington Community members, artists Mai and Lucy and the programme funders Arts Council Let’s Create Jubilee Fund and the London Community Foundation for making this all possible. Images courtesy Marta Cortado/The Liliesleaf Trust UK/Cubitt Artists.
Written by Rachel Ishmael, Programmes Lead, July 2022
