Harambee, Gate Theatre

In the last few weeks I got to do some work with the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill. Their Young Company has been working on a project called Harambee. They can probably describe the project best:

Working with members of the Notting Hill, Ladbroke Grove and surrounding community, [Harambee] will shine a light on the vital political history of the area which has often been of national importance.

From Notting Hill Carnival to the Mangrove 9 and Michael X, many significant moments in recent British history happened on the doorstep of the Gate Theatre.

This intergenerational exchange between our Young Company and older community members, will culminate in an archive that charts the story of the community.

My first involvement was to run a workshop on interview technique and audio editing. We had a really good session where everybody recorded a ten minute interview with someone else in the group, and then practiced editing using Audacity.

The Young Company had an event on August 18th, where they set up an indoor Portobello Market and invited people from the community to come and eat food, do crafts, hear stories and gather together. In the lead up to that, they connected with local people from the Notting Hill area and recorded interviews about their lives and experiences living in this part of London.

I worked with the group on creating seven listening stations, which were spread out around the room on the day of the event. They collected some really beautiful interviews with an amazing range of people. The members of the Young Company edited their interviews into five minute pieces, and we made them into subtitled videos for the listening stations.

This was such an awesome project to be part of. I love doing work that involves helping other people learn how to make their own audio pieces, and I also got the chance to hear some incredible stories from the Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove community.

I snapped these pics of a running list the group was keeping of interview and editing tips. I thought they were pretty on the money.