Oct Highlights: Black History Month event & Jazz Workshop

Special Reminiscence Event for Black History Month

By Caitlin Jordan, Islington Now reporter

To commemorate Black History Month, Age UK Islington hosted a workshop this Wednesday which invited the elderly in the local community to come and share their stories.

The charity partnered with Every Voice, an anti-racism grassroots organisation, who ran the talk and provided an image exhibition of African, Caribbean and South Asian nationals who lived in the UK during the 19^th century.

Andrea Sinclair, activities and partnership coordinator at Age UK, believes that sharing stories can enhance one’s wellbeing. “To talk about things from their past and have other people interested in them, it gives a kind of validity to their memories,” she says.

One of the attendees, Eunice came to the UK from Barbados in 1958. While living in North London she encountered some instances of discrimination, like being ignored in shops, but added it “never affected me”. Eunice recalled memories of gathering water as a child and how she struggled during her first days in the UK, “to see where I lived and then to come here, I was crying”.

Andrea says that sharing personal stories is not something that people regularly do. “They’re not really asked to share their memories about their past very often. This gives them a sense of confidence and self-esteem to have their stories valued as much as other people’s,” she says.

-------------

We also had a recent WTW Jazz Workshop at Drovers.

The WTW (Wall Theatre) workshops provide musicians with an environment whereby they can develop their improvision skills playing wide a wide repetoire of music in a performance environment.

"They did a fantastic gig for us which covered different styles of jazz and got us all up and  dancing to South African Jazz tunes. It was very popular and many people have been asking when we can look forward to them playing at another event for us".

For those of you who enjoy music, why not join us for Carols By Candlelight? Thursday 19th December, 5 - 6.30pm, at Drovers Activity Centre.  Call us on 020 7607 7701/020 7281 6018 to book.