I just interviewed Kaspian on his involvement on the Headstart Programme as he uses it to further his interests in music. I found the role of being the an interviewer very challenging. I felt as if I was trying to channel a certain message out of Kaspian, which wasn’t being picked up but he did give me very interesting and unexpected answers that kind of rendered me speechless.
Today, Jake, Claudia, Bianca and I had a training session for the Eastside Community Heritage Oral History project. We learnt the basics of how to extract stories from the community about their history, which I found to be a completely different experience with very different rules to journalism.
We completed a task where we interviewed each other and also played the role of the interviewee, which allowed us to experience how we would make our potential interviewee feel as we delved into their life stories.
As an interviewer, I second-guessed myself as I felt that I was asking journalistic questions that were leading the interviewee. Funnily enough, I managed to lead my questions back to the subject of the Olympics. I also managed to read body language to determine what subjects Jake appeared more open with and therefore more willing to talk about.
As an interviewee, Jake managed to put me at ease quite quickly and I felt compelled to tell him more about my history but I was also aware that I held a lot back as the ability to talk about myself without gearing it towards a certain angle was quite foreign but I quite enjoyed both roles.
On the 25th February, we went to the Discover Young Hackney Closing Party, which celebrated the talent found in young people in Hackney. It included compelling and spirited music and dance performances as well a fashion show with Hackney-inspired trends.
One motif that seemed to be repetitively implemented into the show was the mixture and integration of two cultures using performance. There was a Vietnamese dance troupe that combined a more traditional form of the Vietnamese dance form with the sounds of a more edgy and hip-hop style, which personified London’s youth culture. I think that it was a particularly inspired way to infuse the two cultures that someone might belong to in a way that celebrates the mix of the heritages.
Other events included spoken word performances by host Raymond Antrobus as well as the jovially funny Joe Dunthorne, which I particularly enjoyed as I realized that there was a level of comedic timing involved in performance poetry; something I may attempt integrate into my own poetry.
On Saturday 25th, the SMJ’s spent the day covering the Discover Young Hackney Closing Party, which was planned and hosted by the Headstart’s Create Programmers. It celebrated the diverse culture in Hackney through performances by a Vietnamese dance troupe and a Turkish Musical.
What I found most interesting were all of the groups in Hackney that provide opportunities for young people allowing them to express themselves through the arts. I watched a film of the work that the Key does with children with disabilities. It was about allowing the children to express themselves through dance and performance.
I just like making up my own dances, it makes me feel happy.
A large proportion of Britain’s Asian population fail to pass the cricket test. Which side do they cheer for? It’s an interesting test. Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are? - Norman Tebbit, 1990.
What country’s team to support during the Olympics is a fairly plausible dilemma.
There is:
The country in which you originate.
The country you reside in.
The country you’ve always wanted to visit.
The country with your favourite athlete.
Or all of the above, and then some.
Or my personal favourite, the winning team.
London is a multi-cultural city and as it gears up to host the Olympics later this year, I think that it is important to recognize and nullify the quote above. It’s ok to support whatever country you want. I, for one will be proudly supporting Zimbabwe, if they manage to raise the funds, Team G.B, Canada and whichever country I pull out of a hat, just because I can.
On a more serious note, I think that in order to truly recognize the dynamic mix of people who live in London and those who will visit London during the Games, the diversity of London needs to be celebrated and then incorporated into the Olympics and I will tailor this blog to express this idea.
On Wednesday 8th February, Claudia, Sandra, Fran and I attended English PEN’s ‘The Crisis in Prisons’ debate at the Free Word Centre. The event was constructed in one of the more intimate rooms at the Free World Centre, which created the relaxed atmosphere that allowed the critical exploration of the topic.
The panel included Mark Haddon, John Podmore, Lindsay Mackie and Nina Champion, who all gave compelling and well put together speeches that articulated the view that the government’s agenda did not address the problem of illiteracy in prisons because of the cuts to many services but what intrigued me the most was Alex Wheedie’s account.
Alex served a short-term sentence in prison after the Brixton riots in the ‘80’s. He shared that during his sentence he had discovered the captivating world of books after an inmate threw a book at him and told him to read it. This led to his successful career as a writer and personally I thought that this was the most effective way to get the Arts Council representatives and other interest groups in the audience to really sit up and listen because I definitely did so.
The debate did highlight a very significant point about the media and their attitude towards prison literacy programs, which I know I’ll take away with me. There seems to be a very ‘lock ‘em up and throw away the key’ mentality held by many and it is important to note that prisons are to rehabilitate and to make sure offenders do not reoffend but without programs that allow people to take steps to improve their lives on the outside on the inside, it is very likely many will reoffend.
At the end of the evening, we took home booklets created by English PEN. The booklet brought together all of the works written in the English PEN’s writing competition, encapsulating veiled snapshots of the taste of freedom writing gave.
My favourite line? “A free mind is certainly as important as physical freedom.” Perhaps even more so.
As I’ve tailored my blog to feature the different aspects of Culture such as nationality, I decided to interview my SMJ cohort Bianca Manu on her stance on the Olympics, winning and how her nationality combines the two.
I have a strong sense of my multicultural background and I am quite patriotic but I’ll always support the winning team.
Images and videos of the accommodation set up for the Olympic and Paralympic athletes have been released with the BBC and Eurosport showcasing the newly developed apartments to be used by athletes during the length of the games.
The newly named East Village with the post-code E20 have apartments with views that stretch around the Olympic Park and beyond. 16 Architects have designed the buildings with tell-tale signs of their individual markings on the outside of each of these apartments.
The Athletes’ Village is one of the most important legacies surrounding the 2012 Games with 675 of the 1,379 properties owned by Triathlon Homes being put into Newham Council’s control to provide for people on the council’s waiting list whilst 1,439 properties owned by the Qatari Diar Real Estate Development Company will be available to rent affordably.
East Village London E20 is also home to a medical centre available to the residents of the apartments and a new school called Chobham Academy with 1,800 places for young school pupils aged 3 to 19, turning a very lacking area of Newham into a central and thriving part of London.
On Tuesday 22nd November we were lucky enough to take a tour of the Guardian offices. We stumbled past rows and rows of desks whilst admiring the illuminated apple signs and tutting sympathetically as journalists tapped away ignoring the night’s darkened hints.
We spoke to three Editors who told us that journalism was about finding something we are interested in writing about, no matter how geeky and weird it may seem as we will be more committed to writing about something we are passionate about. They also told us that we need to do something that nobody else does to make our blogs unique.
As i’m finding my feet with the idea of blogging and experimenting with different topics, I think it was a good learning curve in how to get into journalism and as my blog develops, i hope i learn become passionate in my stalking abilities. Journalism joke.
Having travelled to Stratford many times in my 16 years of life, especially in the last 2 years since the start of my Headstart affiliation, I could have been forgiven for thinking that the journey today would be pretty dull and ordinary.
However, with the newly built Westfield Stratford City Shopping Centre, or Stratfield as i can’t seem to stop calling it, it is safe to assume that until you’ve truly grasped the maze that has now been created in Stratford, your journey will be anything but dull and ordinary.
Claudia and I, with well over half an hour to get to our destination, A New Direction, left Stratford’s tube station via the Westfield exit and after walking tirelessly through the entire shopping centre before exiting at the wrong side with an empty road directing us to Leyton. After almost walking around the length of Westfield, via the docking bays, we turned back to Westfield where we came across the connecting Brooklyn bridge-esque bridge that finally linked us back to Old Stratford.
I think the most depressing thing about the entire ordeal was how connected the transfort system was to the New Stratford or the area that was bare and empty and untainted with the liveliness of Stratford’s people and culture. I think that it would be so easy for someone visiting during the Olympics to come to Stratford via the tube station or International station and shop in Westfield and then visit the Park but never truly experience the real Stratford.
If the Olympics are going to be such a secluded and sectioned off affair, i wonder whether it could be held anywhere.
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