ROOTS LDN – Community Research Project 2018

You Press collaborated with the GLA (Greater London Authority) in order to find out how improvements could be made in bridging the gap between communities who are less well-represented and the authorities. We originally planned for 12 young researchers between the ages of 16-30 in the BAME community to conduct research with at least five family members and friends to see what concerns them in the community. The project gained so much attention that we ended up bringing on board 18 bright young people who were keen in expressing themselves creatively.

On 7^th February 2018, we delivered the first workshop for our Community Research Project called ROOTS LDN at the Paddington Arts facility. Like most meetings, our selected researchers were shy in communicating with each other at first. But after three core workshops over the course of six weeks, all of us managed to open up to each other, sharing our stories and expressing our diverse range of artistic thought.

In the opening core workshop the group established 5 group values that we would reflect on over the course of the project:

Honesty

To be honest with not only the You Press team, but with yourself in what you will be able to commit to during the duration of the project.

Trust

To have trust in the You Press staff to provide a safe space in order to work and communicate regarding the project. Whilst utilising the trust you already have with family members to record effective and detailed data.

Empathy

To relate to the stories we share with each other. Creating a bond that not only brings the community together, but helps provide a better understanding of the plight of others.

Inspire

To inspire and be inspired. With the anecdotes you share and collect, the ability to convert what you gathered into a creative piece of art.

Fun

To have fun! In order to work effectively, there must be stimuli that helps you get your creative juices flowing. Whether through conversation or sharing your creative pieces in the workshops.

In the second core workshop, the researchers alongside project coordinators shared their countries of heritage. From that, each participant created a short piece of poetry to share back to the group. Some of the work achieved that day displayed a lot of powerful verses revealing not only the pride of each researchers’ countries, but also the hardships faced through their history.

In our final core workshop, we discussed and demonstrated the literary technique used by writers known as ‘Anecdotal Recollection’. In pairs, participants had to tell each other a short bizarre story with the task being to rewrite the story that they listened to. The aim was to demonstrate the core value by listening to these stories and interpreting them into their own artistic styles in written form.

All researchers were required to record their data from a minimum of five family members and submit their creative output by the end of March 2018. From this we produced a final report and a celebration of the project including each researchers’ creative output.