Broadwater Farm
Project
Lost Blocks Collective
Client
Karakusevic Carson Architects & Haringey Economic Team
Location
Broadwater Farm, Tottenham, North London
Creating space for culture and community to connect is at the core of our work, and our collaborative project on Broadwater Farm Estate did just that. We began collaborating with the youth community of Broadwater Farm Estate in the Autumn of 2020 and continued throughout the pandemic. We commissioned five young residents living on the estate in Tottenham to co-design a series of creative and cultural workshops, events and projects.
We worked with the youth collective to help shape their vision and mission, which is a future where the community of Broadwater Farm Estate are celebrated for their diverse stories and cultures, with their mission being to change the narrative of Broadwater Farm Estate, this lead to the creation of the Lost Blocks Collective in 2021.
Working with the Collective we took over a disused drying room on the fourth floor of one of the housing blocks and turned it into a podcast studio and creative space. We interviewed other residents and those connected to the estate to begin to tell the often unheard stories of Broadwater Farm residents.
The collective wanted to explore their communities’ histories, so we planned a trip to the Black Cultural Archives (BCA) in South London, where they explored the archives and uncovered residents Classford Sterling, Dolly Kiffin and Martha Osamor had come together with residents to take over a disused chip shop to initiate a grassroots youth-led organisation in the 1980’s. The Collective drew upon similarities in terms of fighting for space in their community and the need for more resident led initiatives for young people.
The collaboration with the BCA lead to Collective member Jasmine Love joining the Black Cultural Archives panel event ‘Uprisings! 40 years on: Policing and Demands’, which can be seen on the video on this page.
LOST BLOCKS COLLECTIVE
The Lost Blocks Collective developed new skills from our team in event planning, budgeting, marketing and fundraising, as well as practical skills such as how to setup as self-employed, submit self-assessment tax returns, raise invoices and more.
Though our engagement we supported the Collective in securing an additional £20,000 grant from Haringey Council’s Socio-economic Team to launch a new media project, which saw us co-design a week-long skills development programme for young Londoners focused on the creative arts. This saw us collaborate with music space The Recordshop, photographer Brunel Johnson, art studio Bud Studios, poet and spoken word artists Theresa Lola and Suli Breaks as well as the Black Cultural Archives.
The programme the Collective designed was aimed to open up a dialogue between the young people sharing their views, aspirations and fears for the future of their community.
The skills programme saw young people create original music, art, photographic images and poetry that featured in an immersive exhibition in the summer of 2022, which opened on Broadwater Farm Estate, curated by the Lost Blocks Collective and Beyond The Box, exploring the past, present and future of The Farm .
