Windrush 2020
2020 saw Windrush activities pivot in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Working with artists, poets and community members, we were still able to honour our Windrush legacy while launching our momentous Windrush Artwork Commission.
Read on to find out more about the artworks and other ways we celebrated our Windrush community.
Veronica Ryan OBE - Turner Prize-winning artist and winner of Hackney’s windrush Artwork Commission.
Windrush Artwork Commission
2020 saw the launch of Hackney’s Windrush Artwork commission consultation which would go on to deliver the UK’s first public permanent artworks to represent the Windrush legacy. A group of external curators nominated artists with Afro-Caribbean heritage to submit proposals for the artwork, and the three final proposals were put forward to residents to have a say on which piece is commissioned. The three finalists were artists Veronica Ryan, Thomas J Price and a joint proposal by Hew Locke and Indra Khanna. Thomas J Price and Veronica Ryan were announced as the chosen artists on Windrush Day 2020.
Americana Music Fest - Windrush songwriting workshops
Ahead of the first pandemic lockdown, Hackney Council partnered with the Americana Music Festival where the festival worked with Hackney Empire Elders for a special song-writing workshop. Here, first-generation Windrush residents created songs about their lives together with the AMA-UK songwriters and performed them at the Hackney Picturehouse in January. Through informal conversations, six original songs were created, as well as new friendships amongst the elders and songwriters. You can read more about the songs and hear them performed live on the American Music Association website.
We Are Windrush
With events on hold after the announcement of the first lockdown in March, the Windrush programme looked to hosting online events. We Are Windrush Poetry and Storytelling was an online event hosted by special guests Colin Grant, Raymond Antrobus and Hackney Empire's Alter Ego finalist Phoenix who delivered the brilliant poem You Black People. Poems and stories were also shared by Hackney residents. Watch the video.
Digital Exclusion Project
To support our elders through the pandemic, Hackney Council also provided iPads to Uprising community Club members so they could join in with their weekly exercise and catch up with each other on Zoom every week. Read more on the Uprising Community Club website.