Windrush Generation (W/T)

This audio piece will be constructed of three main abstract ideas. There won’t be a presenter, the piece will be led by the interviewees and their voices telling their stories. I will be asking them about their expectations before they left the Caribbean of what they thought moving to the UK was going to be like. I will ask them what life was like for them back home before they moved. Then the central third will be about how they travelled to the UK and what the reality was for them when they got here. How much of a culture shock was it for them? Then lastly, I will ask them how the find living here now and what they hope will change for future generations. 

At the moment I am structuring this piece as a straight forward documentary, layering sounds of the Caribbean, cultural music as well as archived interviews to accompany the primary research and interviews conducted myself. I hope to get this piece commissioned by the Black Cultural Archives as it is topical yet doesn’t delve into the current political climate that surrounds the Windrush Generation lately, but looks directly at their experiences. 

In terms of who to interview, I would like one of the interviewees to be my Nan as she has over 7 children living in different parts of the globe and I feel that she would have a real authentic story to tell. 

The other interviewees I hope to contact will likely be friends or relatives but I would like to have each speaker be from a different island in the Caribbean in order to explore the different perspectives and experiences. 

Hillsong Podcasts

This project would consist of 2 separate podcast episodes. I would want to make them feel like entire church services condensed into 07’30” minute episodes. Maybe a member of the church is on their way to work and would like to hear the word of God but doesn’t have an hour to do so. It would include Hillsong worship music and a short service by a pastor from the church. 

I’d really like to experiment with the binaural microphones we have at the university to record what it sounds like to go into the church and the actuality of the location. I would play this at the beginning of the podcast so that it sounds like the listener is actually going into church and experiencing a service. 

I have researched the Hillsong website and listened to the podcast episodes already on their site. They do have services on there already, however these are usually 43 minutes long and don’t include the worship music that is so popular both in and outside the church. The other podcast episodes on the site are sit down chat-show type episodes, therefore also different to what I would be aiming to create. 

I’d ideally like to have a different pastor for each of these podcast episodes, however if I cannot get a pastor to read a service, I have contacts within the church who are youth and team leaders who may be able to give testimonies in turn of a service.  

Black Owned Businesses

My third idea would follow 3 black business owners and look at the journey they each took to get to where they are. I’d like to know whether these entrepreneurs see themselves as Black business owners, or simply just business owners. Or whether there is a correlation between the two things. I’d like to explore any and all adversities each business owner may have had to face in their journey to making their business as successful as it is today. I’d also like to know what advice they would give to young black people who may be looking to become entrepreneurs but may not know how or where to start. It would be great to shadow each of them to see what their day to day consists of, perhaps they are leading up to a big event or release date. 

I think this piece would also work best without a presenter leading it, as I’d like the business owners to tell their stories themselves and I don’t think a presenter would add much to the discussion or help it to develop in anyway. 

If I were to include any music in this piece, it would simply be instrumental music underneath speech to advance it or between speakers as a marker that the speaker has changed or perhaps the topic of conversation has changed.  

The business owners I’d like to talk to include;

• William Adosai – William is the founder & designer of Vitae London watches. His aim and company mission statement is to make an impact through his platform. With each purchase made from his website, a donation is made to less fortunate children in Africa. He has also done a TEDtalk on finding purpose through pain. 
• Parys Gardener – Parys is a contemporary digital illustrator. 
• Charmaine Hayden – Founder of Good Soil Venture Capital & Director of Face4Music Model Agency

Overall, in order of what I’m most interested in making it’s Hillsong, Black Owned Businesses and then Windrush. Whilst I’m interested in all three ideas, I like the idea of making something other than a straight forward documentary, even though I know I can carry out each of the ideas well.