In 2022 the lead practitioners of two small cultural community organisations received funding support from the GLA Untold Stories fund to develop a way of working together.
The lead practitioners - Toby Laurent Belson of BB and Mama D of CCK - have engaged each other to develop a way of working with an intergenerational group, that is informed by their own experiences and outlooks; and by ways of being, seeing and working that are indigenous and beyond Europe and the West.
The lead practitioners - Toby Laurent Belson of BB and Mama D of CCK - have engaged each other to develop a way of working with an intergenerational group, that is informed by their own experiences and outlooks; and by ways of being, seeing and working that are indigenous and beyond Europe and the West.
brownbaby X Community Centred Knowledge
Brownbaby (BB) has been delivering bespoke art, design and educational projects in North Kensington since 2006. BB works in a responsive manner, responding to local need, to develop and produce a range of creative outcomes for and with local communities.
Community Centred Knowledge (CCK) centres the experience, histories and aspirations of people of African and Caribbean heritage. CCK works across the United Kingdom, developing and delivering a range of immersive workshops and facilitation for community development and systemic change in ways that encourage allyship and affirm Ubuntu as a core philosophy for our collective progress.
"Untold Stories is a £1m fund to help communities test, develop, create and grow projects that share their community’s stories with the city.
In 2021, Art UK published the first comprehensive audit of public sculpture across the capital, revealing huge disparities in representation. Our own conversations with community groups showed that Londoners wanted support and resources to develop grassroots ideas that make an impact through multiple means, from audio tours that highlight invisible heritage to new objects and artworks that celebrate important themes, events, everyday Londoners or historical figures.
Untold Stories is supporting 70 projects across the city."
Brownbaby received 'test and nurture' funding support from GLA 'Untold Stories' to develop of a way of working that may be able to produce a public artwork in the area surrounding the Pepperpot Centre - a long-established day centre for people of African Caribbean descent, situated in North Kensington, West London, beneath the Westway elevated motorway.
The following pages chart the development of a practice as it is informed by conversations and readings, ahead of the delivery of an intergenerational workshop.
It is made up of notes from a series of recorded conversations between the two practitioners, interspersed and supplemented with relevant published texts and video.
To note, a number of texts are published by European people and institutions, rather than published by people of minoritised backgrounds, the Global South or indigenous communities.
To note, a number of texts are published by European people and institutions, rather than published by people of minoritised backgrounds, the Global South or indigenous communities.
The first meeting was held at King's Place
in central London in February 2023
The second meeting was held at Westway Trust
in West London in February 2023
ADDITIONAL TEXTS
A selection of texts focused on indigenous, pre/post colonial and beyond-European creation.
To note, a number of texts are produced and published by European people and institutions, rather than produced or published by people of minoritised backgrounds, the Global South or indigenous communities.