FOREST UPRISINGCultural Learning Resources: For those working with Young People

FOREST UPRISINGThis learning resource has been developed to encourage and facilitate your school’s participation in Forest Uprising.

Forest Uprising (Leyton Sports Ground, 13-15 December) is the finale event of Waltham Forest’s year as London’s first ever Borough of Culture 2019. A celebration of the things we have in common and our common differences; our cultures. Strength in our diversity, individuals and communities bound together through a shared geography, a sharing of different experiences and looking towards a shared future. That future will be shaped by collective individual actions. Local concerns are global; we are part of something bigger than ourselves. One voice can make a difference.

Earlier this year we asked the young people of Waltham Forest ‘what kind of world do you want to live in?’ The outcome of this borough-wide conversation became the starting point for artists Block9. With the London Borough of Culture team, they will transform Leyton Sports Ground through an immersive art installation piece, which draws on the voice, ideas, projecting the voice and thus the history of protest in the borough. This piece imagines positive change and utopian ideals as realistic goals.

We would like young people from across Waltham Forest to come to Leyton Sports Ground on Friday 13 December and share their voice, thoughts, and hopes for the future, bringing the banners, clothing, or more created through this pack.

WHAT IS POSITIVE SOCIAL ACTION?Social action is about people coming together to help improve their lives and solve the problems that are important in their communities.

It’s about making changes that will benefit everyone. Positive social action can raise awareness of anything, from the rights of people living with disabilities to literacy and politics.

There are lots of ways in which young people can take practical action to make a positive difference. Activities can be formal or informal, for example, volunteering, fundraising, raising awareness of an issue or supporting their peers. Even very small actions can have a big impact.

“ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”.

Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist 1901–1978

Your involvement in Forest Uprising could be just the start of an ongoing positive social action.

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ART AND ACTIONCan art make a difference? Is it possible to bring about positive social change through art? There are many examples of how the arts have changed society in some way.

In 2014, the honour killing of Pakistani teenager, Saba Qaiser was the subject of the documentary, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness. The prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif pledged to take a tougher line on honour killings and shortly afterwards parliament passed new laws which helped to ensure perpetrators were given custodial sentences. Here we see the art of storytelling influencing legislation.

“ As artists, politicians and business leaders, it is our responsibility to help the arts thrive – for a fairer, better and more creative world”.

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, 2017

Artists in social change movements do more than provide visual communications, they can influence the way that people think about the world.

The American-based performance artist Robert Karimi created an interactive installation of a dinner party, which addressed issues ranging from displacement, violence and food justice. The Peoples Cook Project uses participants’ stories, recipes and cultures to address local community issues.

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, @thebrownhijabi is a poet and spoken word artist, challenging Islamophobia, championing feminist issues and asking her audiences what does it mean to be British.

Watch her powerful poem here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Sz2BQdMF8

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local action

Period PovertyKelmscott School Youth Health Champions decided on period poverty as their subject for a campaign.

This would need to take the form of something that would work on social media to be far reaching and have the impact required to raise awareness. The students set up a petition online to have the subject of tampon tax discussed in Parliament but discovered that this was already underway by another group of people. They came up with the idea of having an installation that would represent a womb and create the same discomfort to view as it does to have a period. To raise awareness of this cause, they designed and made ‘tampon’ badges from acrylic which could be bought and worn and created the name Drip16 for the name of the project.

The project was funded by the Mayor’s Office, with £1,000 was provided to buy the necessary materials.

The Youth Health Champions had to pitch for this in front of the Deputy Mayor and other people from the Mayor’s Office at City Hall. They took sketches, budget requirements and a mood board and presented this successfully. The project was taken to the Royal Society of Public Health for an exhibition of Youth Health Champion projects, the viewers were able to experience the installation and give feedback and won the category for ‘Most Impactful’.

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Female Genital MutilationIn 2016 Walthamstow based artist Emma Scutt worked with students at Kelmscott School to create a mural to raise awareness of female genital mutilation (FGM). It is estimated there are 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales who have survived FGM. The practice has been illegal in the UK since 1985 but the introduction of mandatory reporting was only introduced in 2015.

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Swarm: A response to the pollinator crisisThe exhibition at Vestry House Museum runs until Sunday 26 January 2020. In Swarm artists Anna Alcock, Hannah Ford, Miyuki Kasahara, Alke Schmidt and Sandie Sutton respond to this crisis with new work that draws on the latest research into the causes of the alarming decline of pollinators.

Featuring painting, printmaking, textiles, sculpture and installation, the exhibition is both a call to arms and a celebration of these wondrous and hard-working insects that are so vital to our food security.

With Swarm, the artists share with us their enthusiasm for our pollinating insects and aim to inspire us to protect them.

LESSON ACTIVITIESTaking ActionDecide on an issue for a social action. Ask students what kind of world do you want to live in?

Ask them to think about themes that have global resonance (an issue of relevance to communities across the world).

For example:• Youth empowerment• Gender equality• Advocacy in education• Conflict prevention and peace-building• Environmental protection

Task: Four Corner DebateA good starting point for generating ideas and to provoke discussion is to use a debating style game, such as the Four Corner Debate. Explain that you are going to share a range of statements and they are going to be asked to give their opinion.

Rules: 1. Respect everyone’s right to their own opinion2. If you disagree, then politely challenge the statement, not the person3. Talk don’t shout4. REMEMBER: You’re free to change your mind

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Game set up1. Prepare the roomPut up opinion signs – Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree in the four corners of the room.

2. Share the statementRead out / display the first statement. Give students a few minutes to think about their own viewpoint. Explain that they will be expected to give reasons for their views.

3. Commit to a cornerAsk students to gather in the corner of the room that corresponds to their personal opinion. Encourage them to go with their view, rather than with their peers.

4. DiscussAsk students to talk to the other people who shared their opinion. Do they have similar reasons? Nominate a note taker for the group, if the group is very large then divide them into smaller subgroups and nominate more than one note taker. 5. Share resultsRead out the reasons given.

6. Variations Use sticky notes instead of a note taker – give each student a sticky note to write their reason on and then they stick it in the corner.

Develop the opinion signs to reflect the potential stakeholders. For example, in response to the statement “Everyone should switch to a plant-based diet” the opinion signs could be; a farmer who breeds beef cattle, a vegetarian, a celebrity chef who has just published a book of vegan recipes and a doctor. Students should be encouraged to think about the different perspectives and speculate what the viewpoint might be.

Statement IdeasAll school children should do PE every day.Human cloning should be banned.The age limit for social media apps should be increased to 16.All single use plastics should be banned. The police should be allowed to stop and search anyone at any time.

Structured ChoiceIt is important to involve the students in their choice of issue as this will give the action more meaning. However unlimited choices can cause problems – for you and for them. It is more manageable to offer them structured choice I.e. choice with some fixed boundaries.

Task: Causes BallotStudents can choose their social action in the following interactive way:• Write out a range of options on A3 paper and lay them out on the floor. • Organise the students so that they are sitting in a circle around the options. • Ask students to discuss their three favourite options with a partner for a minute

and then try to persuade others that their options are the best choice. • Ask students individually and privately to complete a ballot form indicating their

first and second choices.

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MakingSignsA sign allows you to be creative and can be used in a wide range of scenarios. They can be cost efficient to produce and are capable of attracting attention. Here are some tips to creating a great protest sign.

Have a clear message Ask yourself: what exactly are you trying to say with your protest sign? Keep it to one message not 17. There are all sorts of ways to do that, so be creative!

Use humour and witCreate a funny sign which has something serious to say.

Keep it simpleOnce you’ve figured out your key message, don’t go too far. Simple words are all you need.

Double sidedA double-sided sign is a much more effective way to convey your message, as it will be seen from as many angles as possible and increase message visibility.

Be passionatePerhaps most importantly, let your passion (or frustration or anger or disappointment) bleed onto your sign. Give your sign real, genuine “heart” and people have to take notice.

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linksThe activities in this booklet can be used in conjunction with the following resources.

A campaign toolkit to help you to develop an effective campaign for a cause of your choice: wfculture19.co.uk/sites/default/files/2019-05/CulturalLearningResources-StandUpStandForToolKit.pdf

To further develop ideas and responses to the question “What kind of world do you want to live in?”: wfculture19.co.uk/sites/default/files/2019-07/What%20Kind%20of%20World%20Learning%20Resource.pdf

Art and social changewww.tate.org.uk/art/tate-exchange/can-art-change-societywww.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/how-can-artists-lead-dramatic-social-change/

www.smithsoniansecondopinion.org/arts/how-do-arts-promote-social-change-180969649/

www.afsc.org/friends/art-and-social-change-five-artists-cultural-strategy-change

https://thepeoplescook.com/

www.instagram.com/thebrownhijabi/

Local actionwww.we.org/en-CA/we-stories/local-impact/secondary-school-students-fight-to-remove-cultural-stigma-around-womens-periodswww.kelmscottschool.co.uk/discussion-events

www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/14983121.fgm-survivor-unveils-students-mural-at-kelmscott-school-in-walthamstow/

vestryhousemuseum.org.uk/whats-on/swarm-artists-respond-pollinator-crisis/

Fashion activismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_activism

www.threadforthought.net/poverty-power-secondhand-clothes-protest/