Whitecross bees
My Peabody colleague is on secondment so I have just picked up on Whitecross again after 5 years since my work at EC1. https://hazeldurbridge.com/ec1-new-deal-for-communities/
Last Saturday I worked all day at the 6th Whitecross Street Party/Festival on the Peabody stall which was consulting with local people about landscaping improvements to the huge estate on the street. It’s wonderful to be back in EC1 and see the food market I was so involved in setting up grown and well established. John Broaders, one of the local residents I encouraged to trade back then is still there. He gave me a big hug.
The party was awesome with 40 live artists, two stages, dance floor etc and had a great family feel. I was right by the dance area and it was so moving to see old people dancing with young and an elderly lady hula hooping in the same arena as a 3 year old.
In the run up to it I helped out at a bee event. Peabody are supporting temporary installations of street art on the estate including one celebrating bees which will rest on site for a few years before the planned demolition of the garages. We trucked up to celebrate the artist completing the mural. I worked with a former EC1 colleague who is now based at St Luke’s community centre where EC1 had their office in the final downsizing years. We had a bee expert with his portable hive section and were encouraging residents to make candles, taste different honey and plant bee-friendly seeds.
This sort of thing is enormous fun. You learn lots of new stuff, e.g. the biology of bees. Basically being a male bee is not a good option AND get to have lots of engaging conversations with young people while they scoop earth in to pots rather like they are playing in a sand pit and attempt to roll beeswax in to candles.
The artist is amazing. I researched him and found out his dad was born in a mud hut in Cameroon – see http://slantedmansion.com/louis-masai-michel . Love the colours and eclectic nature of his décor. He has a new dog, same breed, called Yasmin which you can see in the picture. The mural is not quite finished here. In the 3 hours we were there he spray painted lots of baby bees on to it. It was a bit of a health and safety issue standing on the bin which we did bring to his attention. Youff!