Come and join us for a FFantastic evening of curiosity, intrigue and inspiration. Tickets available here: http://billet.to/s/eDLNSzM
We will be holding this event at The Signal Pub in Forest Hill on Thursday 18th July at 7pm.
Welcoming back Annie - The Fandangoe Kid!!
The Fandangoe Kid is a print artist who makes large scale narrative driven installations. Her work seeks to smash taboos around complex subject matters, predominantly death and traumatic loss, mental health and gender constructs.
She has created work for a broad range of purposes from the Turner Prize in Hull 2017, Bristol University, Brooklyn Industries to WAH Nails, always seeking to uphold integrity in her message.
Having lost almost all of her family in NYC in 2011, Annie's work seeks to create a platform for open conversation about typically taboo subject matters.
She has worked with young people in Hackney for over 10 years, setting up an Art and Design Department in a brand new school in the neighbourhood, her remit being to encourage young people from all backgrounds to know themselves better through their creative practice.
Find out more about Annie here: www.fandangoekid.com
My name is Ricky Nuttall. I'm 38 and a London Firefighter. I work at a specialist rescue station and as such my role and skill set is very broad.
I spoke here just over a year ago about a specific work incident which I will touch on again but this time around I will be talking about mental health.
There is still a huge stigma attached to talking about mental health, especially as a man in a "manly" job.
I will be speaking about my abusive childhood, my own breakdown, my struggle with alcohol and drugs. The breakdown of my relationship and how I used poetry to self counsel through it all.
I will also be talking about finding love and my recovery. Mental health is the most important health. It runs or ruins everything. It's high time we realised this and high time we took action.
Watch Ricky’s film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnODirnvbA4
Cat Bateman – as with all us humans these days, she has several hats: she uses nursery-rhymes to bring exhausted Mammas in her local community together; employs her small platform in the social media community to spread the word about Type 1 Diabetes, the complicated, life-long condition that requires a strong element of control. Cat is also a singer-songwriter nearing the end of recording an album of her own songs and will perform a couple to round off her 15 minutes.
Cat lives in Sydenham with her husband and two very-full-of-energy boys. She has been running her small business, little folk nursery rhymes for 7 years in the local community sharing joyful sing-songs, accompanied by her guitar, with anyone who will listen. Her eldest son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of 5, it has had an element of control over his life ever since, he is now 12. And whenever she can crow-bar it in, she works on writing songs and playing at open-mics.
Post becoming a Mum, Cat discovered a very strong community in the Mum-world and saw how everyone really pulls together when experiencing common issues – namely the exhaustion of motherhood! And though starting her small business with the aim of earning a few pennies around her kids, she quickly saw how new mums formed a bond with each other at her singing groups, this has been very special to her as she clearly remembers how tough and isolating those first few months can feel sometimes. She believes strongly in the power of music and singing to make people feel better and firmly believes that little ones learn so much through these fairly innocuous songs. As time has gone on, Cat is thrilled to have also stepped into other hugely supportive & thriving communities, namely Small Business, Instagram & Music. Talking a little bit about what it’s like being in these communities with a view to hopefully making other Mammas (and Pappas!) with a spark of an idea take the leap of faith – as she was inspired to by other women that were on her radar at the time of set-up. Tipping her hat to our CONTROL theme, Cat wants to share the journey her family has been on since the diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes came into their lives – bit of myth busting and sharing symptoms to look out for – having an element of control over this condition is key to not letting it run, or indeed ruin, her lad’s life.
Cat and her incredible many strings can be FFound here:
Website: www.littlefolknurseryrhymes.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/littlefolknurseryrhymes
Instagram: @littlefolksing
Facebook: little folk nursery rhymes
Twitter: @littlefolksing
SINGER-SONGWRITER
Website: www.catlawless.com
Instagram: @cat__lawless
MUM TO TYPE 1 BATTLER
You will find these websites very useful if you want to find out more about this condition:
Websiter: www.jdrf.org
Website: www.diabetes.org.uk
Christopher Syrus is a spoken word artist with a self-published poetry book. The book ‘LoveLife6958 Memoirs from the pen…’ is a collection of poems that were written while he was serving his prison sentence. From the realities of how his family were affected to the personal turmoil of missing birthdays and christmas year after year, the book is a real insight into the mind, emotion and hopes of a young man who uses honesty as his strength and lyrical talent as his outlet.
LoveLife6958 is the symbolic transformation of his allocated prison number LL6958, representing the change from his negative past towards a promising and positive future. Christopher has dedicated himself to working with young people enabling them to learn from his mistakes.
During his sentence he studied Psychology with the Open University, completed an NVQ in Advice and Guidance, 7303 Teacher Training and Goals for Young People facilitation. For his accomplishments in 2008 he was awarded the Learning Skills Council ‘Achieving Against The Odds’ award.
With these acquired skills and training he delivers motivation, personal development, creative writing and mentoring workshops. His personal testimony and life experience makes his courses very real, hard hitting, engaging and inspiring.
Christopher has received many accolades for his work in the community, he has been given the honored role of patron for ‘Mothers Against Guns’, awarded the Peace Award 2010 (handed to by London Mayor Boris Johnson), his acoustic band LoveLife6958 won the Testing 123 Unsigned band Award in 2011. In 2012, Christopher was awarded ‘Croydon’s Next Top Role Model’, from the organisation Croydon African Caribbean Family Organisation (CACFO). His short film ‘LoveLife6958 Memoirs from the pen…’ achieved Platinum Award from the Koestler Awards from leading prison charity Koestler Trust. He was awarded Back to Black community award and most recently British Empire Medal.
Christopher’s continuous self belief has provided him with the determination to guide and influence young and vulnerable individuals to become law abiding, successful members of their community and achieve beyond their personal expectations.
Find out more about Christopher’s work here: www.syrusconsultancy.com
Paul started Urban Trench an unique concept in upcycling Burberry Trench coats giving them an entirely new identity and look. These trenches are transformed from their former city worker ubiquitous overcoat to a one off piece of wearable art.
Paul’s business has gone from a market stall to having a permanent shop in Shoreditch, his trenches now being in high demand many selling for three times more than their original face value. The Urban trench story is not just about upcycling it’s about giving a second chance to more than coats; but to people too. Having been in and out of prison for much of his life Paul had to find a new way to live his life. Starting urban trenches was his second chance and he wants to share his success by reaching out to the younger community who feel trapped in a cycle of low level crime and unable to gain access to the support and spaces to explore what they can achieve. Giving young people a space to be creative to tap into their entrepreneurial spirit letting them find their own second chance is what Paul hopes to do with Urban Trenches.
Follow on instagram: urabn_trenches_london