2022 Scribers Hive Europe Exhibition Day
The Scribers Hive exhibition was the result of perspectives on social issues impacting people all over the world. The multimedia project used journalism articles, graphic design, podcasts, videos and art. At the Culture House near Shepherds Bush, people from the community gathered to enjoy the display on December 14th from 5:30 PM to 7 PM.
This group travelled to Athens, Greece earlier this year in May to start the project and part two took place here in the United Kingdom in Luton, London. Scribers Hive was created in 2018 and was supposed to start in 2020 but it was pushed back to this year because of the pandemic.
Founder of You Press Farah Mohammoud created the methodology for the idea of Scribers Hive years ago, and with the help of connections he made with leadership at Momentum World, the project came to life.
“Scribers Hive is a very special project for me because it represents giving community members a voice that wouldn’t normally be able to express themselves,” Mohammoud said in the Scribers Hive project introduction video.
Ben Holland is a youth development leader and Paul Oxborough is the founder and creative director at Momentum World.
“It’s about discrimination. It’s about womens’ rights. It’s about humanity. There’s so many words coming out here that are powerful,” Paul said in the Scribers Hive project introduction video.
The work featured in the project comes from youth spread across five different countries: Ukraine, Jordan, Greece, Armenia and the United Kingdom. The exhibition features art with the social themes war, climate change, education, mental health and women’s rights.
*Meet some of the Scribers Hive artists from across Europe:
Kateryna is from Ukraine and she made artwork about social media in society. Social media is an “iminate problem,” according to Kateryna. She’s a graphic designer and this display of her work is another step in her journey. She hoped that people would enjoy it because she put a lot of work into it.
Gabriella Rudenko is also from Ukraine. The intercultural evening was the most memorable part of the trip for her because everyone shared their traditions and food with one another.
“It’s our network where we can share creative ideas and memories together,” Rudenko said.
Zhenya Ter-Vardanyan is from Armenia. She discovered Scribers Hive through the organisation she works with.
“My most favourite thing is getting to know different people from different cultures.
We get to talk about social issues that are impacting us in our own countries which is a part of the networking,” Ter-Vardanyan said.
Vasilia Valourdou, Joanna Papadopoulou and Nikos Koutsouris are from Greece. Together, the three of them wrote articles and produced videos about war and sexual education.
“It’s interesting because sex education in others countries is normal but in our country it’s not,” Valourdou said.
Reflecting on social issues going on in Greece was not easy for these three students, but they are glad they did it.
“I enjoy the challenges because we work as a team and everyone works together. I know the result is going to be amazing,” Koutsouris said.
Emmanuel Otunla is from the United Kingdom. He works at You Press and took the role of programme manager for the Scribers Hive Exhibition event.
“I’m feeling happy. I’ve seen a lot of hard work from my coworkers and I and it’s nice to see it all come together tonight,” Otunla said.
These individuals are not the only ones who helped with assembling art pieces and planning for the exhibition. Performers graced the Scribers Hive stage as well!
Ali, known as “Nomadic Libaax” performed spoken word poems about Somalian identity through a historical perspective and confidence.
On stage, he said he felt this was a good topic to perform at the 2023 Scribershive Europe Exhibition because his global perspective fits in well with the theme of the project.
Followed by this performance, Marianna Zappi, who runs The Collective programme at You Press, played her guitar and sang two original songs she wrote.
The response from the crowd and passion for the songs overwhelmed her with emotion by the end.
René Bossman, an alumni of The Collective programme, also performed at the event. He sang a song called “I do.” His work is a product of working hard on his music independently after experiencing good training from The Collective years ago.
To wrap up the event, Farah Mohammoud returned to the stage to give final remarks and thank everyone for coming.
“We believe that when people tell their story and own their story, change happens,” Mohammoud said.
The impact of the event in a single night was incredible. Attendee Altino Barradas is from Portugal and he came to the Scribers Hive Exhibition to hear people’s stories.
“It was a very big impact because it was a result of two weeks of work. It’s incredible that the team put all this together in such a short amount of time,” Altino said. The story that stuck out to him the most was about two girls’ experience from Jordan.
This Scribers Hive project concluded with the 2022 exhibition event but, there might be another Scribers Hive project in the future.
In the meantime, you can check out the six podcast episodes from Scribers Hive Europe on the You Press YouTube page. Also, follow both You Press and Momentum World on social media for updates on when the 2022 Scribers Hive Exhibition will be posted online!
By: Naomi Washington, Creative Writer and Digital Media intern
