The Creative Café (CC) is a pop-up café, gallery and creative workspace on the Marks Gate estate in Dagenham that ran on and off from 2015-18. I established the project in 2015, the CC utilised a space within the Community Centre on the estate transformed into a pop-up café, gallery and creative workspace with a team of local residents from the estate who volunteered their time painting, decorating, upcycling furniture, creating displays and more. The CC was launched in April and was open for 5 months offering a new creative activity on each day of opening. The project in 2015 engaged 959 local residents.

In 2016 we were able to relaunch the Creative Café for nine months from May to January 2017. We engaged a total of 2000 people during the 9 months, becoming a vital resource and arts hub to the Chadwell Heath community.

In the summer of 2018 we delivered a series of pop-up family events during the summer holidays to re-engage with families who had previously attended the Creative Café during 2015-17 and also build relationships with new families and residents.

Impact

The Creative Café became a haven for Marks Gate residents, both young and old, providing a hub for creativity, a space where local people could meet, share, learn and gain new skills and get involved over a cuppa. It became a social space for residents from all walks of life to discuss and exchange ideas whilst having the opportunity to get creative.

The project provided local residents with a platform to celebrate their creativity, develop confidence and feel a real sense of pride and achievement. A unique aspect of the project is that it was intergenerational, engaging local residents from a variety of backgrounds and age groups to participate; to date we have had residents as young as 2 and as old as 93 access our activities.

Residents referred to it as their haven; ‘an oasis away from the chaos that is normally Marks Gate’, providing some much needed respite away from their day to day lives. For parents who cannot afford after school activities for their children and/or have limited transport the café provides a stimulating environment where they can engage with their children and other parents, creating friendships and a local support structure.

The project fostered community links and cohesion by providing a space on the housing estate for different communities to meet and mix. Participants developed friendships and relationships that continued outside and beyond the project thus breaking down barriers, developing positive relationships and facilitated integration.

‘There are people here who speak very good English and some who don’t speak any, but we find ways to communicate and we’re all at the same stage learning something new. I’ve made so many friends, life is all about variety and I have that now.’

Jeanette Scipio, local resident

‘The Creative Cafe brings the Marks Gate community together; it’s proven, I see it every time I come here. It’s changed people’s lives, it connects them and it gets them out of their homes.’

Coby Stewart, local resident

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‘Framing Marks Gate’ tells the stories of some of the Marks Gate residents that I met through the medium of photography and film. Working with the photographer Connie Taylor we ‘framed’ local people with their stories or art. These photos were exhibited at the final event of my residency, the ‘Marks Gate Arts Festival’ and showcased online. I also worked with two filmmakers; Shazia Ur-Rehman and Joseph Obasi to create a series of 6 two minute shorts of 6 very diverse residents using the format of film, you can watch the films here.

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The tea parties were born in late 2010. From January to March 2011, I hosted six tea parties at Valentines Mansion as part of the project ‘A Local Dialogue’.  Using tea as a connector, ‘A Local Dialogue’ is an experimental approach to working with words and language for a project that inspires residents of a particular local area. As an avid tea lover I decided to host the tea parties for local residents, creating a communal space for local people to meet and discuss the local area.

‘’The idea for the tea parties came about from my own love of the beverage and how a good cuppa can be the setting for a really good conversation. I wanted to create a space where strangers could connect and engage over a conversation and I thought about an activity that all communities and cultures shared, and tea drinking seemed apt.”

Each tea party served a different type of tea from a different part of the world, guests were able to experience how tea is drunk in South Asia, North Africa, Persia, China and of course England. An authentic experience was provided with each tea party, I also set a topic of conversation about the local area and history designing fun and interactive parlour games for guests to play.

Since then I’ve taken my tea parties to a number of locations including the National Maritime Museum and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. I even met the Queen in a special performative tea party as part of the London Pride Festival.

For further information check out: http://sadiasteaparty.com/

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“Pashtun’s are an Eastern Iranian ethno-linguistic group with populations primarily in Afghanistan and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, federally administered tribal areas and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. The Pashtuns are typically characterised by their usage of the Pashto language” – Wikipedia

The objects displayed in the makeshift museum display, mimic toys that children in the Western world have whilst growing up and grasping the English language. At the age of 5, when I began to attend Primary School in London, English became prevalent slowly but quite surely, slipping into the family home and becoming the primary language of communication in the Ur-Rehman household. I  began communicating with my siblings first and foremost in English, this followed through to parents and my maternal family.

Relearn, Reclaim is me relearning and thus reclaiming my mother tongue, and paying due to my cultural heritage. The museum display pays due to the importance of my mother tongue to me and my family.

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‘Pakistan Zindabad’ was filmed in Green Street, East London, on Pakistani Independence Day on 14 August, 2010. This short documentary captures, how first, second and third generation Pakistanis in England celebrate and mark Pakistani Independence.

Independence Day is a national holiday observed annually in Pakistan, commemorating the day when Pakistan achieved independence and was declared a sovereign nation, following the end of the British Raj in 1947. In 2010, Pakistan was hit by the worst floods in its history.  Independence Day in Pakistan was not celebrated that year as a show of moral support to those affected by the floods. However in London, a series of celebrations took place as documented in this film. Behind the bravado and noise we also get some thoughtful comments about identity and community, and see British Pakistanis coming together to help raise funds for those affected by the floods in Pakistan in 2010.

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