Harris Academy Peckham Page

Felix and I have been working with a cohort of young people between Years 7-10 at Harris Academy Peckham since October 2021. The group, now known as The Outsiders Collective, are incredibly incisive, creative, curious individuals who collaborate effectively and without prejudice. They've all been incredibly receptive to our style of facilitation, and as a result have participated in engaging, thought-provoking conversation and the creation of artistic work.

The Collective have been introduced to various styles of art – visual, written, audial, moving image, performance – to encourage critical thinking, imagining new worlds and find entry points into pieces and concepts seemingly far removed from themselves. We approached the delivery of each session thematically as opposed to via artistic mediums, which has encouraged the group to move away from lateral thinking and delve into the abstract; the Collective examined ideas of "silence", "fear", "expansion/taking up space" and "care" through movement, drama, improvisation, meditation, discussion, mindmapping, poetry, soundscapes and... screaming. We've drawn on influences that span nations, generations and practises including multimedia artist Yoko Ono, musician Al Jarreau, filmmaker Jenn Nkiru, playwright babriye bukilwa, and poets Kayo Chingonyi and Amaal Said.

I think the biggest surprise for me so far is knowing that, although there are some clear friendship dynamics, the group has been really open to collaborating across year groups and genuinely see themselves as an artistic collective. The next stage is to examine our explorations so far and settle on an idea to iteratively develop and refine in the beginning of 2022. They're keen to use film and audio to create their debut piece as a Collective, so next we will be looking at developing moodboards, storyboards and treatments to uncover a narrative arc for their pieces that will cast a non-linear and abstract lens reflecting on their last two years as young people growing up in London during the health crisis of a generation. Watch this space!