Miriam Balanescu meets some of the creatives taking part in a major celebration of local art and culture

While many schools and community groups gather to celebrate the traditional harvest season, coming together to show off their urban-grown produce or donating bundles of food to local shelters and foodbanks, creatives in Haringey have been involved in a more unusual initiative to celebrate the arrival of autumn.

‘Haringey Feast’ is a showcase of creativity in the borough, bringing 250 artists and performers together around both a physical – and a metaphorical – banquet table, along with a glut of great local art. Meanwhile, 25 Haringey creatives have been commissioned by Haringey Council following an open call, to create work in collaboration with the local community which will become part of the banquet installation.

A smorgasbord of projects are set to go on show, from brand-new raps from Tottenham artist Wizzy Wow, to flower bouquets fashioned from recycled plastic bottles. Paulette Kindah Robinson, founder of Paulsimna Creatives (which she runs while also working as a fine art teacher with Haringey Learning Partnership), is one of the artists taking part.

“There was a lack in the market for Afro-Caribbean representation in terms of imagery, particularly greeting cards,” she says of how she came to start her business 17 years ago. “When my daughters were growing up, I wanted them to see imagery that represented them and their culture.”

Paulette has been creating drinks coasters with upcycled African fabrics and recycled bottle tops to feature on the banquet table. “I love African cloth,” she enthuses. “I have so [much] of it in my home. I upcycle clothing, where I actually sew parts of African cloth onto items of clothing, so I’m always using African cloth in a way to uplift something. I was actually at home a few months ago, and I was just experimenting with some, covering the cloth with bottle tops. And then when I saw this project regarding Haringey Feast, I thought about creating table coasters for the table – and that’s how it came about.

“I’ve been going around to local pubs in Wood Green and Tottenham collecting all the bottle tops. They’ve been saving them up for me.”

Paulette has run a series of six workshops so far with the local community, to create the coasters. “I really was touched by delivering a workshop at Marcus Garvey Library on Sunday,” she says. “What I found was the different social needs that are in the borough, because sadly in the library there were individuals just hanging out there. […] I don’t know whether they were coming in from the cold.

“I actually asked some of them if they just wanted to come and join in the workshop, and I was able to talk to them, so what I found from delivering some of the workshops is that there are quite a lot of needs in the borough. And it’s a great way also to bring different cultures together to learn about another culture through talking about African history and the fabric used for the coasters. So on so many levels it has been really profitable.”

Paulette says being able to share this traditional art with others has been one of the highlights: “The importance of doing this is for me to show the beauty of African fabric. Not only was I making and demonstrating, I was also talking about the history of African fabrics, whether it’s north, south, east or west Africa, there is this beautiful cloth that the Africans adorn themselves with. And it was great to actually pass on that knowledge and share with the participants from all different cultures.”

Harringay-based artist Teelo Vasiliou discovered the fashion world while studying building surveying and project management at university. He went on to found Frame Perfect, The Collective, an agency creating fashion visual content working with the likes of Zara, Uniqlo and Adidas.

“The fashion and media industry was something I unexpectedly fell in love with,” Teelo says. “Since then, I’ve been on a journey of self-teaching and taking risks to learn an industry I initially had little knowledge of.”

For Haringey Feast, his team is putting together a portrait photography exhibition together with Agenda Brown,
director of Visual Marvelry, and an art graffiti exhibition, through a workshop facilitated by Germaine Jay, director of GeeJay Arts. “Events like this are important as they are the foundation of bringing the community together, giving purpose for us to connect and meet,” Teelo adds. “These projects give the community something to celebrate, something to do, something to look forward to and also a platform for local creatives, artists, entrepreneurs, community leaders as well as residents a safe space to express and enjoy, laugh and be together.”

Luciano Rocha is the local artist behind House of Frisson, which was created in lockdown 2020. “I was feeling drained by seeing the sad news everyday on TV and online,” he says. “That’s when I started to look for something to distract me and found a decoupage book on my shelf and decided to redecorate a coffee table in my living room using collage techniques. The work came out well and so I decided to apply the same technique on other objects I had available around the house, including some discarded dinner plates.”

The creative has taken this approach in his contribution to the banquet table: “I’m upcycling plates, trays, bowls, and vessels, which will hold bread and pastries on the tables during the Haringey Feast event,” he says. “I recently ran a workshop of collage onto ceramics where the local community helped me choosing and applying collage designs to these objects which will then be protected with food-safe sealer. The objects have been painted with vibrant colours and LGBTQ+ reaffirmation quotes and slogans have been applied to them, as well as colourful flowers to embellish the overall colourful designs. The inspirations come from reaffirmation of being who you truly are without fear of being suppressed by prejudice. As a society we need to move forward in human rights and stop those who neglect our existence.”

Haringey Feast is set to put the range of artistic disciplines in the borough centre-stage this month, which is what makes the area so great for culture, Luciano says: “Diversity is what makes Haringey a creative place. Where there is cultural diversity it’s more likely to boom with creativity. Haringey has so much to offer, and it is continually growing. I have met many Haringey based creatives in the last year by taking part in community events.”

Like many of the other artists involved, Luciano reiterates the importance of cultural community events like this. “It gives opportunities for local creatives to get involved in community events and consequently get exposed to a wider audience,” he explains. “And it brings the community together to enjoy and be part of something that celebrates the area where they live. It brings a sense of belonging.”

As well as smaller organisations, long-established creative hubs like Bernie Grant Arts Centre (BGAC) are taking part. “At BGAC we believe in the power of the arts as transformative space, with artists at the heart, playing a pivotal role in strengthening, uniting, and enriching communities,” comments Darnell Shakespeare, senior producer. “Our immersive performance at the Haringey Feast, featuring award-winning street dance troupe Steppaz, the soulful Reggae Choir and acclaimed local poet Tim Forde, will be exciting fresh and a brilliant celebration of the incredible creative talent that Tottenham has to offer.”

While the Haringey Feast initiative aims to foster creativity in the borough, some artists express reservations about the future of the cultural scene in the borough. The council’s newly launched culture strategy has placed emphasis
on events such as this, along with music, activities and festivals. Paulette, however, notes the importance of financial support and spaces for working-class creatives. “I can see how creativity is just exploding in Haringey right now,” she says. “What is slightly unfair is sometimes I feel that it’s not always available to certain groups of people. And what I can see happening in Haringey is there is a movement of people coming into the borough that have the wealth to create projects or set up businesses, when there’re creatives like myself in the borough who do not have the financial resources to do that. […] There needs to be more opportunities for Haringey residents, creatives like myself, not just to have commissions, but to be given spaces.”

Haringey Feast takes place at Alexandra Palace on Sunday, 19th November.

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