Look Up 2018

I was so glad to be a part of the Look Up week of talks, interviews and performances in september.

Having spent much of my life on the road it was great to set up shop in my local community and work closely with Stoke Newington school to discuss mental health issues.

Like many others we have been stung by tragedy amongst our young and need to talk it through as best we can.

Here are some highlights of the week….

Here are some of the shows and talks hosted by Erica Mckoy, Tash LC and myself with Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, Jordan Rakei, Dave Haslam and James Lavelle.

Worldwide FM - The Look Up Show

Worldwide FM - Goldie Interview

Thank yous….

Lee Henshaw and Claire Henshaw who came up with the idea and produced it.

All at Silence Media (Lee's company) - especially Verity Bouette who did all the social media.

Andy Spence - The Old Church gigs

Ina Tatarko - worked with Andy Spence on artist liaison and setting up the gigs at The Old Church.

Marion Chadwick runs The Old Church - venue for free.

Tilly Sleven - works at Art Words - on the team from the start - helped with design and then took a week off work at her book shop to work at our shop!

Oli Roberts - shop interior units

Tom Salmon and Richard Wilson - Tom's company - Traffic - did the website.

Mark Maddox - social media.

Lindsay Evans - Publishing Consultant - contacted all the publishers.

Michel Schranz - designed the interior of the shop

Danny Brooke Taylor and Jim Bletsas - Danny's company Lucky Generals did all the Look Up branding.

Paul Kennedy and Hannah Roberts-Owen - Paul's company Zeitgeist did all the Press

Fran Plowright - Create Jobs - supplied a whole production team of young people.

Alice Williams - Radio Producer - helped with producing interviews and mentoring Fran's Create Jobs production team.

Nico Raufast - Sound Engineer - helped in the gallery with sound and mentoring Fran's Create Jobs production team.

Dan Moss and Worldwide fm team

Danny Hannaford and Magdalena Kellman - Dice.fm - did all the ticketing for free.

Then there's all the artists and interviewees that took part too, especially The Connor Brothers

Create Jobs for the charity A New Direction.

The young people involved are:

Photographers:

Yasmin Lawal

Abdul Alashe

Sarah Martins

Yumi Codner

Film Makers:

Jordan Banjo

Rawshawn Richards

Aidan Isik

Junel Rahman

Podcasters:

Luis Gonzalez

May Abou-Amer

Queenie Akoto

Shannon Adomeit

We managed to raise £20,000

"This was the most exciting and moving community project I've ever had the pleasure of being involved in. Something really special just happened and I won't forget it in a hurry. It was wonderful and so inspiring to hear people like Goldie, Jordan Rakei and Aaron Unknown speaking so frankly about their own experiences with mental health and how they deal with it. The amazing local Stoke Newington community turned it up a notch and helped in every way they could to make Look Up such an uplifting and successful week of mental health awareness and fund raising for our young people. We are all so happy to have helped Safaplace to move forward with achieving their ambitions of promoting and enabling positive mental health at Stoke Newington School and beyond. Thank you to everyone involved. What a team!” - Claire Henshaw

"Jordan Rakei gets in to a comfortable position, where he feels safe. He closes his eyes, places his hands on his lap and simply counts to 10 repetitively, for 25 minutes. That was one of the techniques Jordan shared with Stoke Newington School and myself whilst talking about how he curbs his anxiety. Jordan like the other artists who were interviewed over the week gave us a real insight, and reminded everyone involved that everyone faces fear, and everyone has moments when their mental health may not be balanced. But we learned some really tangible things that we can take on, and use in our everyday lives. It was a really powerful week, which I am honoured I was able to be a part of. I think it is so important to remember that hard times don't last forever, and often speaking and sharing what is troubling you brings a tonne of relief." - Erica Mckoy

Gilles PetersonNovember 6, 20181 Comment