Community Projects | Kwanzaa Collective UK

Kwanzaa Collective UK recognises the importance of health and wellbeing rituals for our artists and communities. We inspire Black, Brown and Global Majority people to prioritise their wellbeing. Inspired by the GirlTrek movement, we’ve run online and in person wellbeing, social sessions and walks. We’ve held gardening sessions. We hold annual programmes in May for Mental Health Awareness Month and have explored work about Men’s mental health. We also recognise that art improves wellbeing and brings people together physically and culturally through its capacity to tell stories, inspire reflection, and form connections that transcend differences.

We recognise that racism, discrimination and structural racism can have a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of Black, Brown and Global Majority people. This includes their physical and mental health.

Parnter: Restoke (space in kind), Funded by Coop community fund.

During May Mental Health Month, we invited women to a free three-day retreat series, where they were guided through an empowering journey exploring their identity and roots.

This retreat was for black and brown women to explore who we are, the beauty in their past and the burdens that they have carried because of it. The retreat invited women to move, walk through nature, meditate and use art/creativity as a form of expression.

Together, they rested with creative, mindful and meditative practice to step fully into their power. At the end of the last session, they celebrated the completion of the first Roots & Culture retreat with some Caribbean cuisine.

Led and Curated by Daby Obiechefu and Clover Ray Douglas.

Commissioner: Urban Wildderness CIC

Gabriella Gay invited black women from Staffordshire to walk together in green spaces after the first lockdown in Spring 2020. She collected the experiences and transformed them into poetry. The women’s stories were shared simultaneously with Caribbean dance artists. Three separate dances were devised and rehearsed in isolation and then performed and filmed on location in Hanley Park.

Lead Artist & Poet: Gabriella Gay, Walk Leader: Monienne Stone, Choreographer: Caroline Muraldo, Dancers: Caroline Muraldo, Shona Muraldo-Parks, Shanice Harris, Filmmaker: Cynthia Coady, Composition: Paul Rogerson & Tony Reid, Support & Advice: Clare Reynolds, Restoke

https://www.socialartlibrary.org/library/to-change-75ntb-ffjbj-n5b7h-hw3zw-tp5gp-z3s6z-yzn8s-m45cy-gs7r2

Partners: Keele University & Restoke

“Mother to Mother” was an exhibition which centered on the voices and stories of mothers raising children of colour. Developed through a series of creative journaling and wellbeing sessions with ten mothers in 2021, the exhibition combined poetry, photography, and audio to share the successes and challenges of women of different ages and races joined by their experience of mothering a child of colour in Staffordshire.

A programme of workshops curated by poet Gabriella Gay ran alongside the exhibition.

Commissioner: B-arts

As part of the B-arts CARE: R&D Programme, Kwanzaa Collective UK explored the question: How do you do a job that involves caring for others, when you are working within a system that doesn't care about you?

The ONS have reported that over 60% of COVID-related deaths on the frontline have come from ethnic minority backgrounds, yet ethnic minorities only make up about 17% ofthe NHS - with black people being only 6.1% ofthat. This disproportion generates a lot of questions, that desperately need answers.

Working closely with 5 black frontline workers and NHS staff, we wanted to hear what they have experienced - during the pandemic, and over the course of their career - and to answer the question: who is caring for our carers?

Using their words and stories from several personal interviews, we compiled spoken word poetry, personalised ‘care packages’ for them, and captured a series of intimate, anonymised portraits.

As part of this project, we were invited to talk about care in a series with Nottingham Trent University Bonnington Gallery.

Watch the YouTube video below to learn more.