In Public Space - Parts 2 @ East Street Arts

In Public Space Part 2 - Transcription

SUMMARY KEYWORDS children, area, live, nice, trampoline park, god, baby, green spaces, challenging situations, push, problems, kids, life, hope, building, council, bird, top, song, sing

00:12 So when I lived in the Burmantofts area, I lived in a little maisonette down there in the 90s. And I liked the maisonette, but the area that it was top end of Torrie road. It was a bit rough if I'm honest and I was on the top floor there's only two floors, and I was on the top floor, but people used to come in and urinate in the entrance and that wasn't very nice when you've got a young kid and taking them up and down the stairs in the front. So that was a downside, but the maisonette itself was very clean and tidy and it was very spacious. So I lived there for a few years. And my children, both my son and my daughter went to St. Peter's c of E school and that was an excellent school. They had a good ethos of we care and they did instill that into the children and academically it was a good school as well because the teachers were very focused on children excelling and doing their best and they had things like black history after school studies and things like that, which was good because not many schools did that. And they you know, they, the children had to have a uniform so they I was looking very smart. And if you had any problems, you could go and approach the head teacher and so on and so forth. So I was really happy that both of my children went there. Now. Surround some surrounding areas of Lincoln green were a little bit more often a bit rundown. I would have stayed if there was better if the council have paid more attention to the housing

02:01 I just think this area gets people forget about it the council don't put any money into this area whatsoever. Now I've been here seven years, and there's nothing in this area for children. I don't feel like the council do enough for the kids around here or fighting the problems, severe problems and there's a lot of problems - drugs is a massive problem.

If you start putting money into kids within like six seven years years old, You can push them in a different direction because they're gonna want to they're gonna want to learn they're gonna want to progress have a better life. My kids started dancing when they were five or six year old and now my daughter's dancing at school and she's gonna be a dance teacher because it's her passion. That’s what you got to do. You have to force them to get into these classes. Get them all dancing!

04:46 Welcome to Roxby Close Community Gardens! [A collection of children shout amongst themselves interviewing]

05:08 [Jaya sings a song in Bengali] I picked this because it reminds me of growing up it reminds me of my mum and my aunt other you know nice people that sang this song or you know said this. Sometimes they don't sing it they just say in words and it's just about a little baby bird. There's nothing complicated. There's nothing amazing about it. It's the baby bird and what it likes to eat. But I remember the hopeful eyes and the faces and the smiles as they are saying that the poem. When I'm doing it and I'm singing it to the children, especially particularly to young children, babies you're singing it with hope - you think oh gosh I hope you live a healthy life and grow and I hope your 10 fingers stay 10 And I hope you all have all the good things, and blah blah whatever it is that you're hoping, you know as just as you think in the silly little words about a little tiny bird wanting to eat a teeny tiny fish. You just do it with so much hope and smiles and the look in your eyes and things and it's like that's why I picked it.

06:19 I was part of the family. Most of them didn't call me a midwife they called me Gloria and I treated as though they were part of me. So every baby that I cared for, every mom became a friend and every baby weas effectively mine

06:47

There’s words from a song that say all my life you have been faithful. You have been so good, so good with every breathe I take I will sing with the goodness of God. And we have been a family through quite a lot of quite challenging situations. And that has been my experience when I trust in the God I know who is a faithful God, then I could cope with any sort of situation because we have to understand that not everything is under our control. And it's often about the way we respond to things rather than actually what is going on in our lives. So that has been a mainstay of my life for many years now.

07:41 So when I go through hard times, I'll always kind of say to myself like you can get through this, but it relates to there's like a saying in the Bible, which is God will never give you more than you can bear. And so when I do go through certain things, and I just think that was the end on top of me. I refer back to that and obviously know what God has given me something that I can go through. So I'll come through this no matter what.

08:10 when you read my book, I think - I'm not so sure if it's the opening in the introduction, Psalms 121 - I will lift up my eyes onto the hill from whence cometh my help. I that everyday and it got me through when I had difficult situations – like a delivery in the dead of night, or at midnight and going out in the community all by myself. I would read that because without that I could not function

09:19 Out in oxton field I would go from a daily walk there and would appreciate the green space. Being around trees- being around nature because I live in a block of flats that is very, very important to able to have some green spaces as well as they should encourage more urban gardens, urban spaces because it's good for your health and well being also good for the environment which obviously environment is very very important to take notice off to address those issues, which keep coming up in our community.I think those green spaces are able to support the quest to the area becoming a great place to live as well as environmentally compliant.

10:12 So, I've been trying to put across to the manager about maybe doing like a garden service for people who you know, don't do it or can't get around to doing it and it'd be nice just to have a couple of guys just go out. Build the grass driven down, you know, things like that he just gets because we only really have one job that gets us out of the building, because we live in work in the same building. So apart from going out to the shop or wherever we're in here like pretty much 24 hours a day. So it'd be nice to sort of be able to get out a little bit more. Give other people a bit of opportunity too.

10:56 We have to share, through art, or tutelage, or whether it's through food, with a person living in the area. And also, you know, if youre not happy about something, just do something about it. Don't complain about it. Do something positive, something positive

If you could have any new building in the area, what would that building have in it? Adult Trampoline Park!