2020 is the year of the Staycation. So now we ALL have to rediscover the local 🙂 It’s also the year when Hackney Tours moves closer towards its aim of giving back to the community on multiple levels. Not just in the sense that tours can make people happier, provoking curiosity about where they live…
Hackney Changemakers: Ella Wiggans
I met the Good Beans crew on one of the social enterprise networking events run by Doug Racionzer (see earlier post) here in the Hackney social enterprise ecosystem. They write copy for a living, so you know you’re in for a good read as you find out how Ella (right) and Claire Birch (left) came…
Hackney Changemakers: Pete Dublo
This year I became the first Writer in Residence at Grow Hackney. It’s a vital hub of arts and culture but you might not realise how it contributes to Hackney Wick in other ways. You’ll find sustainability initiatives here, art made from waste and even a way into physical activity that promotes good mental health….
Hackney Changemakers: Kofi Oppong
Get some Hackney social enterprise inspiration from the brilliant Kofi Oppong of Urban MBA.
Hackney Changemakers: Guardians of the Arches Tour
How is a small group of community organisers in Hackney changing the game for hard-pressed railway arch businesses?
Imagining Future Cities: Guy Debord’s Ghost
What does the Situationism of Guy Debord and Paris ’68 have to do with sustainability and the need to imagine better futures?
Street to Screen and Back: Wick Speaks!
When you’re all about IRL (in real life) work and Covid hits, how do you respond? This was the challenge for myself and The People Speak when we did the pioneering Wick Speaks! project in 2020…
Hackney Changemakers: Sara Kärpänen
The latest in the Hackney Changemakers series, Women of the Wick founder Sara Kärpänen shares her story with us…
Hackney Changemakers: Thea May
“I realised that I can not teach people to lie any more. My line in the sand is clear. I cannot and will not no longer coach people to give charismatic talks that they don’t care about. That is how we got into this problem in the first place! Disconnect from self and others. Business detached from its social and environmental impact.”
Shadowlands: Gothic Abney Park, After-Dark
Is the Gothic a thing of the past? Or does our contemporary culture haunt us the same way that the anxieties of the Victorian age bled out onto the pages of titles such as Frankenstein or Dracula? How do our worries about the future connect with those who lived through the Age of Reform? You…
Wick Speaks! Sat 17th Oct
Exciting times Saturday 17th October sees the culmination of the Wick Speaks! project, a collaboration with the exciting interactive East London international artists of The People Speak. We’ve been out in the Wick, collecting stories from local people who are going to feature in an online tour, tomorrow. It’s free and anyone can join. BOOK…
Hackney Changemakers: Doug Racionzer
Hackney Cooperative Developments have been here several decades, trying to keep commercial rents affordable so that existing business owners can stay where they have established themselves and, often, where they live. They are closely involved with the council on the Hackney Social Enterprise Borough initiative and this is how I met Sophie Higgins (see previous…
Hackney Changemakers: Luke Billingham
Hackney Quest do brilliant things in E9 for Hackney youth. Those who spend most time with our young people are the ones who’re most positive about them. There’s a real buzz about this community hub; more and more I realise what an incredible job youth workers do, with less and less resource from central government…
Hackney Tours: East LDN Creative Exploration 