Newham Dictionary of Culture
Michael interviews Newham artist SWANANDONLY. Photo courtesy of Links Studios
Overview
What does ‘culture’ mean to young people in Newham? Links Studio supported young people in developing their own podcast exploring culture – from interviews to artwork. The podcast was released as part of Newham Heritage Month, in June 2023.
Listen to the Newham Dictionary of Culture:
How local young people developed this podcast:
Links Studios, based at Community Links in Canning Town, is a production and recording studio that offers after-school music design and sound-mixing sessions for local young people. The work produced by the young people who attend is absolutely brilliant, yet when asked about culture, many of them hesitated to describe themselves as ‘cultural’ or ‘creative’.
Given the young people’s interest in sound mixing and recording, developing a podcast seemed a natural fit.
Culture Within Newham held a day-long creative workshop to generate ideas and shape our plans for a Newham Dictionary of Culture podcast, where the group of young people decided what themes they wanted to cover and who they would like to feature on their podcast. We commissioned artist Ada Jusic to capture the discussion that took place in this beautiful illustration:
Visual notes of the creative ideation day at which the plan for the Dictionary of Culture podcast was shaped. By Ada Jusic.
Young people curated a list of Newham-based creatives that they wanted to interview and we organised one-on-one interviews at the state-of-the-art Links Studios. The final group of interviewees included a singer-songwriter, a rapper, a drummer, a DJ, and a chicken shop owner, among others.
They then took part in interview training, teaching them how to develop interesting questions and an active listening style. They chose to ask their interviewees:
How they got into their creative jobs
What it was like to perform or set up their own business
What role growing up in Newham played in that.
The result was a wide range of conversations about how Newham has changed over the last few decades and where the young people and their interviewees found space for creative expression.
In some cases, there turned out to be a lot of similarity between the lives that interviewees had led in Newham and those of the young people. The message that came through clearly was that culture is for everyone, no matter where you are from or what your life looks like. Creativity can inspire everyone and there is plenty of it in Newham!
Kamal interviews DJ Shorty.
“When it comes to art, you can come from different backgrounds, you can have different amounts of financial stability, you could be living on the breadline, or you can be a multi-millionaire…but art is for everyone. It doesn’t matter how much money you got, it doesn’t matter what education you got, it doesn’t matter if you’re some elitist or if you’re just some everyman - everyone can appreciate art.”
While the episodes were being edited, some of the young people are using their artistic skills to design covers for each podcast episode. The artworks feature a dictionary word, inspired by the interview itself and the profession or background of the interviewee. Creating the artwork also meant that young people who were not comfortable conducting an interview had an alternative way to be involved.
For the young people, taking part in this podcast project has offered a very unique opportunity not only to interview their local cultural heroes, but also to set their own creative brief on a project with a real public output. Some young people expected they would be working on a dummy episode, so the opportunity to be a professional host and develop a portfolio to could share with the world was really exciting. For many, it grew their confidence in the opportunities they have as ambitious creatives in Newham.
For Newham Heritage Month in June 2023 we released the full list of podcast episodes together with their tailor-made artworks. The podcast was launched with a celebration event at Community Links on Tuesday 20 June 2023 as part of Newham Heritage Month.
Joel and Amanda from Links Studios with Jaeden, a young podcaster. Photo by Navneet Jayakumar.
About the project partners
Newham Heritage Month
Newham Heritage Month is an annual heritage festival organised by Newham Council with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund. Learn more on their website.
Links Studios
At Links Studios, young people aged 10 – 25 can access positive and meaningful activities outside of school time, and have the opportunity to learn valuable life skills whilst doing so.
Through its state-of-the-art music facilities, the studio enables voices to be heard, giving young people the opportunity to channel their curiosity, passions and energy through creative activities that are designed to assist the development of their personal, and creative abilities.
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