Coming up in November

Urban greenery, a cornucopia of cloth and a cosy park café – coming up in November

Our monthly walk – a return visit to Canary Wharf

Saturday 9th November, 11.00. Meet outside the Jubilee Line entrance to Canary Wharf tube station

From Eden Dock, by the Eden Project, to new artworks, there’s all sorts for us to discover. Download the fabulous art map and guide here.

Plenty of lovely opportunities for coffee and snacks too.

Our monthly meeting – a talk by Sophie Rochester, CEO and founder of Yodomo

Thursday 21st November 7pm for 7.30 at our usual venue, St Margaret’s House, 21 Old Ford Rd, London E2 9PL, via the gate entrance. 

From its beginnings in wellbeing through craft, Yodomo has been interested in reuse and creative community. It's now an award-winning company working on textile waste, running workshops and stocking cloth pieces, yarn and other materials for makers at its textile reuse hub in Hackney Wick.

“We partner with industry to reduce waste, sell affordable materials to makers and create social and environmental impact by fostering a creative community and sustainable, circular economy.”

If you are coming to one of our meetings for the first time, please contact us for more details on access to our venue.

Our monthly coffee and catch-up – Riverside East in the Olympic Park 

5, Thornton Street, E20 2AD, meet between 10.30 and 11.00

This month, we plan to try the newly refurbished Riverside East, in the Olympic Park by the ArcelorMittal Orbit, opposite the Aquatic Centre. 

Buses: 108/339 to the bus stop at the Aquatic Centre; the 388 and a walk across the park; or tube / rail / DLR to Stratford, take the Westfield exit, walk towards the Stadium and take a left to the Orbit.

Pictures: Canary Wharf by Christine; Yodomo and café by Lydia

Our October coffee morning

A movable chat – our October coffee morning

Following on from our October walk in Dalston, our coffee morning was at Allpress, which we had passed on our route. 

Karen writes: 

"Just the four of us today. The café was busy and bustling, we moved tables three times!"

If you fancy joining us at a coffee morning, look out for our Coming up blogposts.

Photo by Karen

Our October talk and film screening

 

Our October talk by Maggie Pinhorn and screening of Tunde’s Film

Producer and director Maggie Pinhorn focused on her work in Tower Hamlets, which started in the 1970s. She had studied theatre design at Central School of Art and Design, worked in the film industry and then become independent.

Maggie was approached by Dan Jones, a youth worker in Stepney. Was she interested in making a film about a group of young people he’d met on the street. Maggie had a long family history in the East End. So she met them, mixed race, Black and white boys hanging around with nothing to do, badly-behaved, with a sense of fun – but that didn’t mean that they didn’t have ideas. And they wanted to make a film. 

Tunde wanted to do a story about being trapped and not being able to see any way out. He wrote a synopsis and they got together to plan it. It was improvised, like a Mike Leigh film, with words spoken for those who couldn’t read. 

Maggie asked for help from everyone she knew in the film industry and got funding from the Rowntree Trust. She had a visit from The Guardian because it was so unusual to see a film project by young people rather than about them. A top sound editor and sound engineer stepped forward, interested because that was where they came from.

Tunde’s Film was shot in a week and the boys visited the cutting room.

The film was shown at London and Edinburgh film festivals, in independent cinemas and then came an approach from BBC Open Door to make a film. So they did: news, weather, the lot, packed into an hour (see the film here).  

Maggie’s work grew into a community arts centre in the basement of the old town hall. They couldn't continue making films at that level but video opened up new opportunities. “You could draw with it” – and people did, making films now in the London Community Video Archive.

To work in the community you had to know about football and you had to learn how to swear well. And an event project came from the estate-based football teams, with a truly collaborative spirit. It had to start with football, then music… and the beer tent generated the money for the performers. There was strong resistance to funding that didn’t go into the local community.

Tower Hamlets Arts Project – THAP – followed. Maggie organised for all of the projects across the borough to be exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery, where Nicholas Serota was new in post, a public showing of what people could do. 

Next came Alternative Fashion Week at Spitalfields Market. Student designers were invited to submit work. There were lunchtime shows, stalls – and for live music, they had to tell the Musical Director about their collections. There were modelling lessons at the Brady Centre, with models of colours, sizes and abilities. Visitors loved it and the press loved it. Maggie also started street theatre in Covent Garden.

Spitalfields Show at Spitalfields City Farm was like a country show. SpitLit was a literary festival for every kind of writing, opera in a pub had cardboard bow ties for everyone. There was the Battle of Cable Street Group, International Women’s Week, Photomonth, which showed work in every setting and will return next year, run by group of photographers. There's Black History Month and Women’s History Month. 

We were treated to a screening of Tunde’s Film, which we all agreed was a wonderful piece of film making, with much of relevance today.

Maggie was asked where the film was made. Everything was shot in four streets around Cable Street and Watney Market.

There was a comment about how well-dressed the boys were. “They all worked in the Schmutter trade”, Maggie replied – they would make their outfits. Looking good was important to them.

Where are they all now? Some are dead. But Tunde went on to write more plays and has worked at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Another of the boys became a cab driver. Lesley, the girl, lives in the West Country. Dan Jones still lives in Cable Street. And Maggie was delighted that when the boys got together for a screening at the Genesis Cinema, they were as badly-behaved as ever. 

Through all of Maggie’s work, and at the heart of Alternative Arts, is a desire to give people that opportunity. Maggie quoted the Nolan Principles: selfnessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. “These things matter.”

A massive East End WI thank-you to Maggie for a talk and screening packed with stories.

Thanks too to St Margaret’s House for letting us use the beautiful Anson Room while works in the hall are underway.

Our monthly coffee corning: Friday 25th October. Meet between 10.30 and 11.00, Allpress, 55 Dalston Ln, London E8 2NG

Meet for coffee and a chat. After coffee, an opportunity to visit the lovely Dalston Curve Garden.

Our October walk

Vibrant artworks, market bustle and an urban oasis – our October walk in Dalston

In honour of Black History Month, for our October walk we followed the Dalston end of the Windrush Line walk, from a series of walks by TfL and walking app Go Jauntly based on the recently-renamed Overground lines.

Starting at Dalston Junction station, our first stop was the Hackney Peace Carnival mural designed in 1983 by artist Ray Walker, finished by fellow artist and friend Mick Jones and restored in 2014. In the same space is Future Hackney photography and social engagement project The Strip, A visual love letter to our neighbourhood.

Walking along Dalston Lane, we passed new shops, tucked-away buildings, our October coffee venue and curved round to Ridley Road Market. Since the 1880s, the market has served the area's diverse communities. We wandered through a world of stalls: clothes, cloth, rugs, cookware, fruits and vegetables (Giant avocados, anyone?) to the mural at the end.  

Our next stops were Bradbury Street and Gillet Square, rich in music history, home to the Vortex Jazz Club and with a mirrored artwork where we paused to play with the multiple images it gave us of our walking group.

Dalston Curve Garden, at the start of the route, is open from midday, so as we meet at 11am, we made that our last stop, a beautiful green oasis for coffee. We reached the end of the garden just in time to be treated to a tour by the head gardener of its normally hidden growing and education space, with raised beds, espalier apple trees – and some magnificent tromboncino squash, modelled for scale by our very own Heather.

Fancy joining one of our walks? Look out for our 'Coming up' blogposts.

Pictures by Alison, Christine, Heather and Lydia

Coming up in October

 

Film, Black history, coffee and Curve Garden – Coming up in October

Our monthly walk: Saturday 12th October, meet at Dalston Junction Station at 11.00

This month’s walk has again been suggested by our walking group.TFL have launched a series of walks with Go Jauntly related to the renaming of the London overground lines.

As a nod to Black History Month we thought we’d do part of the Windrush Line walk.

“The Windrush line runs through areas with strong ties to Caribbean communities today, such as Dalston Junction, Peckham Rye and West Croydon and honours the Windrush generation who continue to shape and enrich London's cultural and social identity today” TFL

See the Walkers’ WhatsApp group for more info. on the day

Our monthly meeting: Thursday 17th October, 7pm for 7.30 – Maggie Pinhorn, East End Film director and local activist

NB: we're in a different room this month – we will still be at St Margaret’s House but in The Anson Room. Come to the front of 21 Old Ford Road and walk up the steps to the main entrance. Beccy from St Margaret’s has kindly agreed to be available and let us all in, so if you're coming along, it will be great if you can arrive before 7.30pm.

Maggie Pinhorn has a long history of  involvement and innovation in Community Arts in London and in the East End in particular. Currently her organisation Alternative Arts runs Photomonth — the East London Festival of Photography.

Maggie started her career in the film industry but, dissatisfied with it, became an early pioneer of using film and video making in the community.  The first film she made with a mixed group of young people in Tower Hamlets – Tunde’s Film – was a seminal film of the period. The process of making the film became the basis of her setting up The Basement Project, which went on to become a major Community Arts project, London community video archive.

Maggie will be showing Tunde’s film as part of her presentation.

Our monthly coffee corning: Friday 25th OctoberMeet between 10.30 and 11.00, Allpress, 55 Dalston Ln, London E8 2NG

Meet for coffee and a chat at Allpress, reviewed below by one of its regular customers

“Really nice staff, cool venue, amazing coffee and gorgeous food (brunch, have never tried other meals here). I go here as often as I can. It has a lovely outdoor area that's perfect any time of year, even in winter, it's nice to wrap up warm and enjoy the scenery”

After coffee, an opportunity to visit the lovely Dalston Curve Garden.

Our September coffee morning

Cheer, chat and discovery – our September coffee morning at the Mary Ward Centre

"We're going to need a bigger table..." Third time lucky – we'd tried two previous Fridays that were outside term time – and on a morning of bucketing rain, there was an impressive turnout for our September coffee morning. The Mary Ward Centre brought the sunshine, decked in yellow and fizzing with possibilities for learning everything from Tai Chi to printmaking. 

All manner of things were chatted about, recommendations swapped and we headed for our various modes of onward transport. Though the wonderful bicycle artwork was tempting... 

Our September talk

 

“Most of it is about not being embarrassed.” Our September talk from Sylvie Boulay on producing her graphic novel Beyond Beige

“Old.” We knew we were in for an interesting evening when Sylvie Boulaye started her talk by explaining that she wanted to write about getting older without using euphemisms. 

Sylvie took us backstage into the production of the book: finding a publisher, doing the illustrations and what it’s like after a book has launched.

When Sylvie reached 70, she didn’t feel different but she noticed that the world had started treating her differently. She had become invisible. But one thing she could do was have a voice. She had the urge to sketch how it felt, drawing initially to amuse herself and her friends. A concertina file was filled, in compartments by topic and that was the start of the book.

At 60, Sylvie had given up work to look after her granddaughter. She had worked at at a clinic for people with addictions and she thought of her first book, Take Charge of your Diet, as a graphic novel. Her straight-talking publisher would tell her what did and didn't work. When it came to making a book on old age, Sylvie expected friends to talk. But they wouldn’t say much. Imaginary people? Her publisher said that it wouldn’t work. A conversation with her body? Awful! 

A stroke of luck came from appearing in The Guardian’s column A new start after 60. 

Sylvie took a hand-made mockup of the book to a meeting with her publisher – who it turned out had always wanted to publish something like that. Sylvie panicked and said she couldn’t actually draw but was advised just to get on with it. Offered six months or a year to produce the book, Sylvie chose a year and didn’t want to be paid until the drawings were done.

Sylvie took us through some of the topics:

Tiredness – “I can’t bear the thought that I can’t do anything about it.”

Technology – the learning curve in taking on drawing on iPad with Procreate software.

The joys – grandmothering and being with friends. “We sat like lizards in the sun.”

The fears – lying in bed wondering if you can get away without going to the loo…

Cancer, which Sylvie has had twice, and how she wanted to be talked to.

Mental health, which was even harder to talk about with friends.

And the conclusion that Sylvie is glad to be old; delighted to be alive.

Sylvie talked us through how her ideas come, in a jumble that won’t go away until she writes or draws. Sylvie needs to draw from something in front of her so she bought an artist's mannequin – which wasn’t natural enough so she made her own wire figure. Then she found a student from Slovakia who trained her in drawing. 

Sylvie took us through the fear of not being able to finish on time because of injury, wondering if being French, ideas would be lost in translation (friends not only understood but were more willing to talk), showing the book to her family – her son-in-law said to her daughter, “I now understand what it’s like to be old” – and the challenges of designing the cover. There was the excitement of getting the first printed copies, the knowledge that she could no longer change things and then, the feeling of “What am I going to do with my life?” 

10 years ago, Sylvie said, she couldn’t have produced the book because she would have worried too much.

As ever, there was a lively Q&A, with questions about how Sylvie selects her drawings, the tech, making changes, marketing – and getting the book into the Cartoon Museum shop. Sylvie had walked in with a copy, been told to email, said she would prefer to talk to someone and stayed politely until somebody emerged… who turned out to be the curator. 

At the start of the talk, Sylvie had said how good it was to speak at a WI because of its tradition of lobbying about women. We were delighted to have her – a massive East End WI thank you to Sylvie for her fascinating, witty and relatable talk.

Beyond Beige is published by Ortus Press and available on Amazon, Bookshop (where you can also nominate a local bookshop) or to order from your favourite bookshop.

Illustrations © Sylvie Boulay.

Our monthly coffee and meet-up: Friday 27th September – Mary Ward Centre Café, 275-285 High Street, Stratford E15 2TF. Meet between 10.30 and 11.00 am

We are reassured that the café will be open for this visit! And if you haven't explored the Mary Ward Centre's courses yet, you'll be able to see what’s going on for yourself.