Quiet Rebels: Hackney Quest
After a sold-out tour in autumn 2022, the journey of Quiet Rebels in the community continued in Hackney, where the spark for young people’s storytelling was firstly ignited with Creative Futures’ artists at Hackney Empire.
Drawing inspiration from the research and stories unearthed in the theatre play, writers / directors of Quiet Rebels, Julie McNamara and Hassan Mahamdallie, led a programme of weekly creative workshops with and for young people at Hackney Quest, a local youth organisation.
Together with young people they explored ways to search and discover forgotten stories in their families and community, remember and celebrate people that have shaped Hackney’s history and what this means to them.
Guest facilitators Awate, Musician / Composer, and Deni Francis, Actor / Improviser, who had been involved in the development and the tour of Quiet Rebels, added their unique touch with creative approaches to storytelling.
The group visited the At Home in Hackney exhibition at the Hackney Museum and browsed through objects and photos of the local community’s history from the 1950s to today.
Young people interacted with the exhibits, such as re-enacting a day at the barbers and getting ready to become a chef!
They also closely examined a big replica of the Holly Street Estate flats, shared stories from their families in response to some of the exhibits and noted how the photos told the history of Hackney people’s rebellious response against racism in the past.
The next step was to create photo-memories: an instamatic camera was the creative tool of choice.
Young people experimented with taking photos, having them instantly printed and added to their diaries.
Resisting digital-only photo records may be a novel, rebellious act these days. Or maybe not. It was definitely immensely enjoyable!
Young people at Hackney Quest, together with Youth Workers, recorded a song capturing the stories they had been sharing in the workshops, in their own voice, as they wanted these to be told and shared.
