The amazing art and sound installation Caribbean Takeaway Takeover; Identities and Stories is now showing at S&S Caribbean Cafe until Sunday 22 July. There is still time
to visit the installation.
Over the opening 70th Anniversary weekend and first few days over 150 people brought their families, elders, children and grandchildren to see the installation and listen to the recordings of ten Windrush Generation elders.
The installation features wall and table collages with ten limited edition photo etchings
of elders produced by creative director and Artist Evewright along with audio interviews complied by the EAF team, Ionie Richards Producer/Writer and volunteers. The art installation is an immersive experience
which depicts present images but also fading thoughts, aspirations and memories created to document and reflect participants lives.
The audio recordings are ten-minute extracts of each elder's stories told over a two-hour period. See our programme schedule in the leaflet provided online or at the venue.
Artist Evewright says the installation is timely as "it has created an opportunity for people to immerse themselves and find out about this generation of people and ask questions which many felt they were unable to do before. With the recent Windrush deportation scandal our community needs not just healing but the general public need to learn more about these Windrush pioneers and what this generation and their children means to British society."
Why not pop in to the café and sample the Caribbean cuisine and hear about Alford Gardner's experience on the Empire Windrush, or Tina's achievements of delivering 2000 babies in Thurrock and how Nell and Lenore as nurses tackled racist attitudes raising mixed raced children. Listen to why Alton got everything he wanted. Find out why Carlton's contribution to sports earned him an MBE. Hear Don and Carol talk of their time in the NHS, explain SuSu and explore questions of identity. Why was Gloria thankful that Jamaican's bought houses? Hamilton thinks the British government remains, "far from the truth." Come and find out why and hear more of their journey and the barriers they all had to overcome to make a life in England.
Ionie Richards said. "It's been an amazing first week which has brought contributions of stories not just from the Windrush generation and their children but stories of migration from Syrians, Kurdish, Chilean, Vietnamese people who have posted their stories to our board. Why not join the conversation by writing your migration story on passport postcards at the venue and add to our memory wall or go to our blog page on our website to upload your story there? These will be added to the archive and shared on our website."
The elders who participated in the interviews visited the installation as part of a special luncheon organised by EAF. Carol Sydney added her comments to our memory wall about the experience.
She said
"This is an excellent idea to keep our history alive. Black people need to know where they come from to help them to move forward."
The full-length audio recording will be available to the public from the Essex Record
Office once the project ends.
