The East End is an experience
Walking around the streets and markets of the East End, can be an experience. You are bound to meet interesting people from different cultures, also see markets stalls filled with any thing you want, and some things you didn’t know you wanted until you walked past them. Also not forgetting the cluttered walls of colour and strange shapes that we call street Art. Trying to contain our excitement of only weeks to go, we felt that we wanted to take part in the action! Me (Jonathan), Shanice and Diego with the help of Amit set to the streets of Brick Lane, Shoreditch and Whitechapel to decorate the surroundings with our Cutting East stickers. We handed out EEFF programmes folded at page 33 as we went along.
From the chaos of the Sunday market, we met a few interesting people who had interesting points to make. Roger Molloy, a photographer, who has lived and worked in the local area for many years, told us that East London is always changing. With the increase of young creatives and art popping up, making the areas more exciting. We also talked to Zeydra and Daphne, two girls from West London. They felt that young people’s voice are not heard enough and that their views and opinions, not taken seriously. This seems to be recurring theme when talking to young people, not just in East London, but throughout the UK.
Like I said, walking around East End is an experience, you never know what you are going to find or learn. From the day, I can said that we learnt that as young people, we should take a more proactive stance in making ourselves heard. Like Roger said, “the most exciting thing about East London, is that it is always changing”. I feel that we should not let the illusion of negativity that has been put upon us, shadow our ability to express and create.
I feel that Cutting East can help give young people, like myself a voice and a platform to share our views. I feel privileged to part of a group of passionate young people, who are ready to challenge the label of negativity that we have been given.
Keep a look out for the stickers and thanks for reading
Jonathan.
