Following on from the two day training with Daren from Musicians Without Borders we ran 4 workshops across Newham Libraries and Community Groups. Chante Faucher led an all comers workshop at Stratford Library, assisted by 2 young artists. Brendon led a breathing and stretching warm up to help participants to come into the space and prepare their bodies for some gentle singing. Charlie supported the lead artist, Chante by accompanying some of the activity on guitar. The feedback was highly positive and participants were asking if this could be a regular workshop! We will have to see where the funding for this might come from!
Mohan Dhar led a workshop at Stratford Youth Zone for young people facing challenging circumstances. The young People were cautious at first, but gradually joined in more and more and some even took the lead in the activities before the end of the workshop. The Youth Workers also joined in with this and asked if we could run such workshops for adults too!
Nathan Davonte led a workshop for Powerhouse Women, a group who face challenges through disabilities. He was ably assisted by Young Artists Pricilla and Faith. The participants said they had a lovely time, felt safe to use their voices and would like more sessions like these. Byron Gold also ran a workshop at Canning Town Library, with Young Artist Faith supporting. This was a smaller group and we were delighted to Angela from Powerhouse Women group, who managed to organise herself to attend this workshop. She said she enjoyed it as much as singing with Nathan. All round a successful project that we hope to repeat and build on, providing safe spaces for community participation and cohesion and fostering mental health and well being through singing.