Homelands
Overview
Homelands is an intergenerational reminiscence storytelling project by Jazanne Arts. This project brings together older people aged 60+ and primary school children aged between 8-10 years old to explore themes of migration.
Jazanne Arts will be working with the following Newham partners to deliver the project:
Cornerstones Café
Our Community Cares
Forest Gate Community Gardens
Earlham Primary School.
Using drama, artefacts, poetry, movement and music, participants will share stories about their original homeland, why they left, their journey to the UK, experiences on arrival, settlement and how Newham has become their new homeland.
Once the stories have been collected, Jazanne Arts will share them via an interactive exhibition in March 2025 at Applecart Arts. The exhibition is aimed at schools and older people as well as peers, extended families and friends. It will include opportunities for the audience to interact with dramatised stories, view photos and artifacts as well listen to soundscapes and recorded stories.
Homelands will be a valuable experience for all participants; giving them an opportunity to share experiences and learn from each other. Homelands will enable important stories from our elders to be archived, heard and shared, helping the next generation to understand the pioneering role in creating the richly diverse Newham that we know today.
About Jazanne Arts
Jazanne Arts is Community is a non-profit making Community Interest Company. We place older people at the heart of all our work using the arts to improve resilience, wellbeing, and quality of life. Our aim is to build positive relations across communities and help to get people connected. We are passionate about including voices from those living with Dementia and those from the Caribbean community.
Jazanne Arts recently completed a project called Cooking Connections. This project focused on collecting reminiscence stories related to cooking then subsequently producing a colour cookbook. The cookbook was successfully launched at the Swift Centre.
We also recently complete a project called a play called ‘Breadline’. This was written and performed by one of older people’s drama groups. It was staged at Applecart Arts.
In addition to this we have run intergenerational projects, produced plays, films and radio plays for older people’s groups.
About the project partners
Cornerstone Café - The Café is used by older people. It hosts many community group events including a Warm Space and a Chatter and Natter group.
Our Community Cares – This organisation provides a foodbank and advice for diverse, disadvantaged older participants and volunteers who are facing hardship due to poverty.
Forest Gate Community Garden – The Community Garden hosts events and activities for a range of Newham schools. It offers students learning opportunities beyond the classroom to enrich their lives.
Earlham Primary School – Earlham School believes that learning opens door and changes lives. They aim to give their students the best education possible so that achieve their full potential and flourish in the world. They continually strive to give their students a wide range of opportunities to engage with the world.
What is the Shaped by Community commission?
The Shaped by Community commission called for projects that will enrich the creative experience within Newham and provide opportunities for residents to engage in artistic and cultural activity. Our organisation has a strong focus on ensuring that the work we support is shaped by what communities across Newham need and want.
We held an open call to apply for up to £15,000 each for six projects.
To us, ‘Shaped by Community’ means that your community’s wants and needs have guided all levels and stages of the project, including in the decision-making.
Newham is full of creative communities that have rich, cultural experience to share. This commission aims to create space for people to create and be celebrated within this borough that we call home.
Meet the rest of the projects on the Shaped by Community project page.
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