“Artivism is the intersection of art and activism, harnesses the critical imagination to design events and strategies that provoke new questions and new meaning in pursuit of more respectful ways of being”.
Spring is here, maybe even early summer and Arts & Culture in Thames View and Riverside are set to come alive in our shared spaces. This is the spring of the imagination, you could see it as part of nature’s call to spring into action.
SAVE THE DATE: 27th May | The Warehouse, 47 Thames Road.
A number of artists are coming together to spark the imagination. Arts and culture are the building blocks of civilisation, and we are coming together with performing artists and musicians for performances to entertain and empower the community. Look out for the artists we are working with below very soon.
Has been representing Latin music and the Latin community throughout London for the last four years. She has been using her talent in Argentina, taken part in a reality TV show in Honduras and studied Sound Engineering in Denmark. Ana mixes her styles in sound, and performs in community settings, Hip Hop circles and in Latino events.
Her talent as a singer, songwriter and producer includes engaging in community integration between Hispanic and Latin communities with other protected groups. She also focuses her arts and work on the wellbeing of women and uplifting their struggles with creative expression workshops. We are keen to work with Ana’s critical input in empowering women’s voices with song writing and performances and hope she will deliver the practical elements of her learning to residents on Thames View and Riverside.
Being one of the first female producers from Honduras, she has been challenging the rhetoric of inappropriate imagery and content from Latin music such as reggaeton and using an empowering and uplifting energy. In Thames View and Barking Riverside, we need to get our music and arts off to a strong start. Ana’s work displays strong feminist values. In an area where there is a lot of income deprivation and less community empowerment, Ana is due to trailblaze a voice to the locals that demonstrates what the socially uplifting music and arts we need in the area.
UKON are a steel band collective who have been serving communities for a number of years, including performances at Barking Carnival, Notting Hill Carnival and various festivals across the UK. They have a library of Calypso, Soca and cover rhythms to inspire audiences. UKON, have been working towards delivering workshops in Barking and Dagenham, most recently at John Smith House.
UKON have been delivering workshops in local communities in improvisation skills, the history of steel pans and confidence with team working skills. They build fun rhythms locally and nationally to get people ready for the uniqueness of African and Caribbean culture at Carnival every year and do bespoke events and learning sessions with local residents.
Thames Life hopes to see the UKON Steel band work more regularly with residents in Thames Ward and Riverside to get residents together and celebrate cultural unity, bringing a sense of connection to the area with live music from the ground up.
Starting his career in Breakdance in Italy, Emanuel was ‘getting down’ for a number of years battling and dancing across a lot of international competitions and dance cyphers. He decided to move into a DJing career, spinning soul and funk to audiences across Europe and with a residency in Brixton Hootananny with Floor Rippers, a hustle and Breaking event with live musicians and house band. For the last ten years, Emmanuel has moved his career onto drumming and has been teaching with Harrow Arts Centre and gigging every weekend in freestyle music sessions, pub band nights and weddings.
EMC has taken up the drum kits and has been empowering local communities, drumming at community events alone and with his full live band, the Each One Teach One (EOTO) band. EMC has been teaching drums to young people as an outlet for creative expression and is undertaking live music sessions in community spaces and with organisations across London that want to provide music lessons to young people who may not otherwise be able to afford them due to income inequity. EMC offers his drum skills for free in online tutorials and with EOTO, performs at EPIC Jam twice a year.
EMC is a community advocate and is often offering his skills for free with a passion of bring live music to areas where is needed. Live music events do not take place as often as we would like in Thames View or Riverside wards, and we are looking forward to EMC playing at an event we have coming up, where we can spark the community into artivism to raise community voice and spirits.
Sabaman has been performing as a Selecta and rapper specialising in Roots Reggae and Dancehall, performing in Rome and Bologna in Italy and in Birmingham, and London in the UK. He runs a monthly night with Unity Radio, showcasing multi-cultural talent from the world. He has a number of rap albums and runs a record label called RahStars based in South London.
Sabaman has been delivering workshops at urban arts festival in rap and has been a social uplifting force in the London community, working with a number of grassroots groups to keep the spirit of reggae alive, including ensuring BAME groups take part in the social integration music without losing touch of its African and Caribbean roots.
We hope Sabaman might be able to stimulate some energy in Thames Ward where grassroots organisers and people will be able to feel there is a way forward to get movements from the ground up in creating social change and positive upliftment. Sabaman intends to drop some roots reggae and provide a cultural and historical context to his work in the reggae, rap and dancehall world.
IVAYLO
Hailing from Bulgaria, Ivaylo started his career as a breaker and has been winning competitions worldwide. He now works as an architect in a central London office and has been DJing for five years in countries including Spain (EachOne TeachOne, Malaga), Italy (Strictly Underground) and the UK in areas such as Newcastle (Just Jam), London and Cambridge (House parties). Ivalyo plays funk and soul, which keep the party going and guests entertained with the uniqueness needed to bring forgotten vibes of a bygone era back to life.
Ivaylo has been donating his skills as an architect for community groups that need his design support, time pending, and is happy to share his basic knowledge in design. He has completed a number of workshops in community settings such as Crystal Place Festival and in Peckham Levels delivering scratch workshops for young people.
We are hoping that Ivalyo will be able to share his skills on the turntables, in architecture and with Break Dancing with local residents in the area. For these creative arts to continue to inspire residents, they are easily accessible and a prime way to get into playing music with portable turntables, AutoCad, the freeware for architecture design and body movement to funk and soul.
So please do put the 27th May in your diary and watch this space for more info to come!