SLINGSHOT MAGAZINE

SPRING ISSUE FROM SMALLER TO GREATER £3.99
CULTURE ART ACTIVISM
Ellie Bleach on creating
Helping Grenfell’s
The regeneration of
musical luxury
community heal waste into resources
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On the Cover: Ellie Bleach shot for the inaugural issue of
Slingshot. Photography by Verity Smiley-Jones.
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SUSANNA JOSEPH
Editor-in-chief
MOLLY LONG
Sub-editor
KLARA BLAZEJOVSKA
Digital editor
JEKTAERINA DROZDOVICA
Social editor
TORBJOERN JOERSTAD
Picture editor
Welcome.
Slingshot was birthed in a set of ideals born from a broken media landscape. Sometimes being a journalist
starting out can feel a bit like facing Goliath armed with a few bits of wood. But with only idealism to lose,
here is the best manifesto for the vision in our heads of what journalism should look like. In response to an industry
that is struggling to sustain itself in a tangled web of advertising, SEOs and Silicon Valley millionaires,
we wanted to make something that was simple in its message and execution. Stories we cared about, covered
responsibly, and delivered to the best of our capabilities.
We’re so grateful to everyone who has helped this issue come to fruition. While our objective was always clear,
the formation of this magazine has been a long process and involved too many collaborators to list here (they
are all credited in the overlying pages). It’s been emboldening to see what can come of shared values, talent,
graft and passion. Thank you for being here and supporting Slingshot. We hope you are as inspired by the
fruits of our labour as we are by the network of people prepared to support an honest, ardent and potent
future for creative sectors.
Susanna Joseph
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What are you
looking for?
FGM on
Film
6
Art and
Motherhood
16
Revitalising
Food Waste
30
Earthling
Ed’s Unity
Diner
24
Feminism
Revisited
38
Bringing
Kindness to
Comedy
10
Optics of Women
Who Love
Women
18
Lovely Pair:
Pubs and
Inclusivity
40
The Great
Wellness Con
44
Surviving Online:
A Creative
Struggle
Brexit
Protests in
Pictures
60
Making
Compassion
Go Further
14
Drag, Now
Drag, Now
56
34
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5
Ellie Bleach
Ellie Bleach
26
Coping with
Grenfell
48
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STOLEN SEXUALITY
Images: Jocelyne Saab
Nadim Deaibes
Jekaterina Drozdovica
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7
Jekaterina Drozdovica looks back at a film that
translates the horrors of female genital mutilation
into a feature-length insight. Jocelyne Saab’s Dunia
(Kiss Me Not On The Eyes) follows a young victim of
FGM on a journey to explore her sexuality
“Come on, my pretty, what are you afraid
of?” a grandmother asks an eight-year-old
Yasmine curled up by the wall in their
living room in Cairo. “We’ll remove a
small piece of your skin. It will only do
you good.” She puts a green blanket on
the floor and a white tissue above. As the
nurse comes in, the grandmother forces
Yasmine on to the tissue. They open the
girl’s legs and a double-edged razor blade
shines in the nurse’s hands. Yasmine
resists, but her grandmother is holding her
legs and the upper body. The girl screams
breathlessly. The razor makes a sharp noise
and the tissue is filled with red.
Yasmine is a secondary character in the
2005 film “Dunia” directed by Lebanese
journalist Jocelyne Saab. The scene
described shows female genital mutilation
(FGM) – ritual cutting of a clitoris and
labia to prevent sexual desire and ensure
women’s loyalty. The movie’s protagonist,
Dunia (Hanan Turk), is a belly dancer
and a literature undergraduate in Cairo.
She writes her thesis on the expressions of
sexual pleasure in Arab poetry.
But it’s hard to study something you
don’t understand. Her boyfriend, Mamdouh,
accuses Dunia of physical coldness.
From her secret poems, we discover her
mutilation and lack of sexual desire. “I
want it, but my body resists,” she says.
Instead, Dunia translates her caged sexuality
into a passionate belly dance lasting
one third of the two-hour-long film. Saab
maintains aesthetic harmony and shows
body curves without being vulgar. The upbeat
Arabic songs entertain and soften the
drama. The tension peaks as little Yasmine
opens her legs in front of the razor blade.
At least 200 million girls today have
survived FGM, often in much worse conditions
than Yasmine. Some real-life victims
recall lying in a tent with tens other girls
all cut by one knife. Some saw their own
flesh on the ground. Somalian-born top
model, Waris Dirie, was three years old
when she was mutilated. In the biographical
2009 film “Desert Flower” birds ate her
sliced clitoris and labia.
Opposite page and
below: Stills of
Hanna Tork in the
2005 film playing
Dunia, a belly dancer
and victim of FGM.
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Although Saab’s account of mutilation
takes a lighter form, she was among
the first to address the taboo subject in
cinema. Punished for her bravery, Saab
received numerous threats for opposing
the practice. The state-sponsored Egyptian
production company cut funding ten
days before shooting. Authorities tried
to censor the movie as pornographic and
ruined the distribution. “But there is not
a [single] Egyptian family that doesn’t
have it on a pirated DVD,” Saab said
proudly at the Vesoul International Film
Festival of Asian Cinema in 2009. Today
the DVD is sold on Amazon for 25$.
“Dunia” is a movie about women’s social
liberation and we see positive female
characters there, such as her two progressive
friends – Inayate and Arwe. Inayate
is a taxi driver who openly shows sexual
appetite, teasing her husband throughout
the film. She acts as Yasmine’s mother
and opposes mutilation for the girl, yet
fails to protect her. Arwe is a university
professor, free-spirited and financially
independent. The women meet in the
evenings, smoke shisha and share personal
struggles.
They are supportive friends, but
hardly mentors. Instead, Dunia looks
up to blind professor Beshir, her thesis
supervisor, oppositional intellectual and
handsome brunette. In multiple scenes,
the two discuss poetry, love and desire,
but it’s mostly Beshir speaking. Saab
fails to realise that his paternalistic figure
overshadows her main protagonist. Ironically,
it seems that Dunia would always be
frigid if not for Beshir’s guidance.
He ignorantly describes sexual pleasure
as “the summit of a peak that you only
reach with pain and patience.” Well,
certainly not the extent of pain Dunia
suffered when first having sex. In severe
types of mutilation, the whole genitalia
are cut and the wound is sewed closed
leaving a small hole for urination and
periods. Victims suffer from birth complications,
chronic infections, urinating
problems and excessive bleeding. Saab
ignores such details, which might be a
plus for those who faint easily.
But what is the explanation for such
cruelty? Mutilation is not a religious
requirement. The practise dates back at
least 2000 years and there is no single
location of origin. Instead, FGM is
rooted in gender inequality. Women
are men’s property; they must be loyal
and obedient, while sexual pleasure is a
privilege they are not afforded. The power
of social norms is best shown in the 2004
Senegalese movie “Mooladé” set in a
remote village in the west-African country
Burkina Faso. An open-minded Collé
refuses mutilation for her daughter and
helps four girls to escape the ritual. The
villagers condemn Collé; her husband
whips her publicly to the cheers of the
crowd.
“Come on
my pretty,
what are
you afraid
of?”
Left: The late director Jocelyne
Saab was a journalist prior to
making the film, and had seen
the rippling effects FGM has on
on communities.
Opposite page: Graphic by
Jekaterina Drozdovica
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9
In “Dunia”, the story is black and
white. Saab fails to portray the stigma
leading Yasmine’s grandmother to believe
mutilation is beneficial. The same
stigma influences diaspora communities
in Europe to cut their daughters. In the
award-winning 2013 documentary “Bref”
Christina Pitouli interviews Spanish
immigrants from Africa who voluntarily
chose mutilation to secure social status
and chances to marry. For them, cutting
is a social expectation, like shaving legs or
tweezing eyebrows.
In England alone there were 1030 newly
reported cases from January to March
2018. During school summer holidays
thousands of migrant families travel to
their native countries where mutilation is
easier and cheaper. The practise is illegal in
the UK, but the lack of evidence makes it
hard to prosecute. The girls rarely report
their parents and the best way to save them
seems to be shifting the social norm.
We need films like “Dunia” to bring
awareness and foster change. Saab produced
a light movie for those who want
to dive into the topic, but are afraid of
sickening details. Although the plot has
some contextual gaps, the movie pleases
with symmetry, harmonic colour-range
and high-quality aesthetics. Dunia is an essential
watch to reflect on the importance
of female autonomy in building gender
equality.
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Images: Courtesy of
Barry Ferns
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11
THE SERIOUS
JOKESTER
After more than 25 years in the industry, comedian Barry Ferns
realized his true mission; to create a community for independent
comedians to thrive, while staying true to the philosophy of
people’s time being more precious than their money. Torboern
Joerstad speaks to the man who opened a free comedy club
Laugher fills the room. It’s a Tuesday night, yet the tiny
upstairs area of the Victorian-era The Camden Head in
Angel is crammed to the brim with people, their eyes
fixed forwards. On stage, one man tightly grips the microphone
stand while barely containing his own laughter. His rough and
unpolished looks, complete with thick, curly shoulder-length
hair and an unshaven face may distract, but behind the façade,
Barry Ferns has full control of the crowd. After all, he is right
where he belongs.
Shortly after the gig, as the crowd of 50 or so scrambles down
to the bar, the man himself appears much calmer. The comedy-entrepreneur
behind the award-winning Angel Comedy Club,
a collective hub for independent stand-up comedians to share
their work, is clearly not just a silly jokester.
On June 6th 2010, in the very same upstairs area of The
Camden Head, Ferns, together with three fellow comedians,
founded Angel Comedy Club, with the intention of “making
comedy more accessible for audiences and comedians”. The club
provides a platform for up-and-coming acts to perform, and for
established acts to test out new material.
“The philosophy behind it is that people’s time is more precious
than their money. At the end they can give what they think
it’s worth, and if you’re a millionaire you may think it’s worth
£10,000 because that’s as much to you as someone with no
money giving £10,” he says. “That has never happened though,”
he adds. Eight years later, the club is regularly rated as a top-ten
attraction for a night out in London by TripAdvisor and has
been branded a “comedy institution” by Time Out.
Since stepping into the UK comedy industry some 26 years
ago, the scene has changed massively Ferns says. He credits perseverance
as the reason he is able to keep going, but admits the
comedy life is not all just laughs and fun.
“When stand-up comedy started 25-30 years ago, there weren’t
as many agencies and there was definitely not this whole
money-making machine surrounding comedy. As this changed,
agencies sought a supply of theatres and clubs for their acts to
perform in, and of course you wouldn’t be able to perform if you
weren’t on that agency’s roster. What essentially happened is the
industry became more about making money than being funny,
and if you were not with an agency you had nowhere to perform.
And that’s where the idea for Angel Comedy Club came from,”
he says.
In 2016 the club expanded after a crowdfunding campaign
raised £46,000 and the crew were able to take out a lease on a
pub they named The Bill Murray (after the Scottish nobleman,
not the comedian) on Queen’s Head Street, only a stone’s throw
away from The Camden Head. Today, Angel Comedy Club
weekly hosts around 57 shows shared between the two venues.
Several high-profile comedians have visited the club, like Dara Ó
Briain, Russell Howard, Eddie Izzard and Louis CK (“before that
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was a bad thing,” Ferns laughs).
In addition, the club regularly hosts workshops, comedy
courses and community projects. A sitcom about Bill Murray is
also in the works, he reveals.
“I don’t believe that life has any actual narrative. Things happen,
and you make sense of it after the fact. The idea of a career
is me choosing edited highlights of my narrative, in order to
present myself in a certain way. In a sense, a career is really ‘what
do I find significant about the things I’ve done?’”
“I convinced myself when I was around 21 that I didn’t want
to do stand-up; I didn’t think the lifestyle suited me. But after
an eight-year break I eventually relented and figured ‘I guess this
is who I am,’” he says. It hasn’t always been easy though – Ferns
recalls his experience of going bankrupt as a result of his repeated
attempts at making it big at the Edinburgh Fringe, the UKs
biggest comedy festival.
“When I first started out it felt like I had no choice – If I
wanted to be a comedian, I had to take a show to Edinburgh.
But the cost of renting a performance space, a flat, producing
flyers, the travel and taking time off work eventually left me
with a debt of £35,000 in 2007. At that point I’d already worked
whatever extra jobs I could get and squatted for eight months.
I ended up having to declare bankruptcy,” he says. Despite this,
the comedy life was still in his mind, and it had been for a long
time. As a young boy with a working-class background from
Dorset, Ferns knew early on what he wanted to do.
“I was reading jokes into a microphone under a duvet when I
was seven years old. My very first gig was essentially an underage,
15-year-old me in a crowded bar in Dorset swearing and saying
inappropriate stuff on stage. It was great,” he laughs. Only a year
later, he performed in the comedy tent at Glastonbury festival.
Since then, he has won multiple comedy awards, filed for
bankruptcy on more than one occasion and performed on stages
around the country roughly 5,000 times. Apart from stand-up
comedy, Ferns has written and directed sketch comedy for BBC,
ITV and Radio 4 to mention a few.
“I also spent six months as a monk in South East Asia when I
was 28,” he adds, with a big, fat grin on his face.
“Most comedy is just noticing things around you,” he says in
conclusion. “I tend to explore my own sense of self, or my experience
of the world. Before going on stage, I get into a mindset
where everyone in the room is my friend, which removes the
pressure to be funny. It’s like you’re just hanging out with your
friends.”
Despite the financial troubles once caused by it, an annual
highlight for Ferns is still the Edinburgh Fringe. He now performs
on top of Arthur’s Seat every year, but a stunt he pulled 11
years ago tops even performing atop the extinct volcano.
“I legally changed my name to Lionel Richie by deed poll, as
decided by the audience. I kept it for seven years, and it was that
name I filed bankruptcy under. I had to go to the Royal Court
of Justice and put my hand on the Bible and say ‘I, Lionel Richie
do solemnly swear’… and the guy holding the Bible openly
laughed in my face,” he grins.
“I don’t believe that
life has any actual
narrative. Things
happen, and you
make sense of it
after the fact.”
This and previous page:
Barry Ferns has found
his mission in delivering
comedy that feels
inclusive and accessible
to everyone.
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24
13
“MOST COMEDY
IS JUST NOTICING
THINGS AROUND
YOU.”
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Images: Thilde Jensen
Molly Long
MAKING
CONTRIBUTIONS
MATTER
Slingshot’s Molly Long explores what can be done to
help combat homelessness, in any (and every) season
All images: Danishborn
photographer
Thilde Jensen
spent over a year
documenting the
lives of people who
live on the streets
of Syracruse, New
York. Her project
‘The Unwanted’ is
featured here.
Opposite page
graphic: Molly Long.
For many of us, Christmas and new year are already distant
memories. But the deficit in volunteer help that follows the
festive season is hard to forget for local homeless charities across
the country. Helping out in soup kitchens and donating festive
food is romanticised throughout popular culture. From January
to November, the subject drops off the public radar.
“People are homeless all year round,” says Alan Simpson, a
support worker for the homeless at Ealing Soup Kitchen. “It’s
so easy to find people to help through Christmas, but next to
impossible for any other time in the year.”
Applications for volunteering roles can easily more than
quadruple in the weeks before Christmas, leaving shelters and
kitchens oversubscribed. “The problem is, Christmas is only part
way through the winter,” Alan explains. Now past the festive
season, Alan and his team are dealing with increasingly colder
temperatures without the help that Christmas brought.
Support workers like Alan are urging people to revisit their
seasonal well-wishing as the spring approaches. “The thing is,
if any of the people we end up turning away at Christmas came
back to help out in the New Year, we would be under far less
pressure,” he says.
Instead, it is advised that people wanting to help do so
throughout the year. This can be done through donations of
goods or time. By doing so, we can make sure festive goodwill
makes a difference all year round.
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“If any of the
people we end up
turning away at
Christmas came
back to help out
in the New Year,
we would be
under far less
pressure”
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BOLD
Text: Jekaterina Drozovica
Images: Catherine Opie
Hein Koh
Renee Cox
AND
DIVERSE
Motherhood has long served as a fertile
ground of inspiration. From the early
stages of pregnancy, to the unique and
long-lasting mother-child connection, artists
around the world celebrate maternity.
In 1976, American conceptual artist
Mary Kelly showcased an installation of
her personal diaries, stained nappy liners
and slates engraved with her child’s first
words. “Post-Partum Document” is the
artist’s reflection on the complex relationship
with her six-year-old son. Using
psychoanalysis to make sense of it all,
Kelly welcomed the public onto her own
journey.
Although universal, motherhood is a
multi-faceted experience. Renee Cox is a
Jamaican-American artist and photographer.
In her 1993 “Yo Mama” self-portrait,
Cox breaks the stereotype of a
mother being soft and tender. The naked
artist holds her two-year old son while
standing in high heels, being at once both
feminine with her fine body curves, and
tough in her ready-to-fight posture.
A similar photo piece, Catherine Opie’s
2004 “Self-Portrait/Nursing” has a very
different meaning. Opie is breastfeeding
her son in a traditionally maternal pose
while a faintly apparent scar reads “Pervert”
on her chest. The fresh wound featured
in her earlier work - 1994 “Self-Portrait/Pervert”
which explored leather
subculture present in LA in the nineties.
In “Self-Portrait/Nurturing” Opie shows
her role as a mother blending in with her
past identities.
Feminine, tough, analytical, leather or
high-heels lovers – mothers around the
world are unique and different. There
should be no boundaries to how they
express it.
CONTEMPORARY ART INSPIRED
BY MOTHERHOOD
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17
M
O
T
H
E
R
//
A
R
T
I
S
T
How artists like
Hein Koh are
finding strength in
motherhood
Opposite page: ‘Self-Portrait/Nursing, Catherine
Opie (2004).
This page, top: Hein Koh multitasking in 2015.
Below: ‘Yo Mama’, Renee Cox (1993).
In the UK, March 31st is Mother’s Day.
But whilst we will celebrate our mothers
then, the fact remains that in many professions,
including the art world, having
children is stigmatised. “I think most
female artists are worried about the idea
that one would have to divide attention
between making art which is all-consuming,
and caring for a child, which is also
all-consuming,” says New York-based artist
and sculptor Hein Koh.
In 2015, Koh’s photo of her simultaneously
breastfeeding her five-month-old
twins while working on a laptop went
viral on social media. The picture was a
response to Marina Abramovil’s comments
that children hold female artists
back. “Motherhood has made me stronger,
more motivated and more focussed in
my practice. I have no time to waste or
to think about the bullshit that I used to
ruminate on,” Koh tells Slingshot.
She says overcoming stigma is the key
in liberating female artists to make an informed
choice. “We need to understand
that it is possible to be both a good artist
and a good mother, and we need to dispel
the stereotype that those two things are
diametrically opposed.”
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Images: Holly de Looze
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TALKING
ABOUT
MY GIRL
The optics of women who love women are changing.
But there is still a way to go before the reality is in
the lens of the mainstream. Alongside photograher
Holly de Looze’s project ‘Touch’, Susanna Joseph
explores the enduring issues of representation and
visibilty, from gay marriage to cinema
In March 2019, it will be five years since
same sex marriage was legalised in the
United Kingdom. The ruling came for
many as a colossal moment, a signal that
the Gay Rights Movement had broken
through the mainstream once and for all
and settled into a comfortable place in
society’s consciousness.
However, that assurance may have been
premature. Hate crimes against LGBTQ+
people have been rising steadily over those
5 years, and still the community is yet to
overcome relatively basic challenges like
being recognised in the national sex education
curriculum. If anything, the marriage
ruling has stagnated the push for equality
the last half century has seen. Activists and
commentators like journalist Gina Tonic
believe that far from accepting the battle
is won, society should not be turning away
from the very real issues still affecting
LGBTQ+ people everywhere, especially
those who do not fit into the ‘Love is Love’
marriage narrative.
“Gay marriage has always been about
fitting the queer experience into the norm
and while that makes a majority of mainstream
LGBTQ+ people ecstatic, it makes
those that don’t want it feel even more
outcast than accepted. Pursuing queerness
outside of following a heterosexual life
plan is still frowned upon but those who
fit into the nuclear family model are assimilated.
Wanting this is not a negative but
a society that only accepts a cleansed and
palatable LGBT+ experience is.”
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21
Watching women: why
lesbian cinema is still
lacking
Left: Gemma Arterton and
Elizabeth Debinski star as
two of the 20th century’s most
important authors in Vita and
Virginia (2018).
All other images:
Photographer Holly de Looze
captures Lucy and Heledd in
‘Touch’ (2019).
Of all the infamous love affairs history has
afforded us, perhaps none were so seismic as
Virginia Woolf and Vita-Sackville-West. The
two’s sexual relationship spanned only a few
years, beginning in 1925, but the impact the
affair had on both women’s craft was significant.
Both writers forged art about the other,
for each other; Vita’s son, Nigel Nicholson,
once called Woolf’s 1927 novel Orlando
“the longest and most charming love letter in
literature.” Queer audiences were delighted
to hear that their romance would be coming
alive on screen in Vita and Virginia (2018).
It promises to be literary and romantic and
stimulating, as they were to each other. But
unfortunately, it’s nothing we haven’t seen
before.
Gay women can’t catch a break. Carol
(2015) is oft touted as a cinematic peak, and
the relative scarcity of genuinely outstanding
representation in film means that I can
believe simultaneously that it was robbed at
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the Oscars and also that we can hope for
better. There is something about period dramas
and LGBT+ characters. The allure of a
forbidden romance trapped in antiquated
rules and norms is irresistible to filmmakers.
Enter Lizzie and Vita and Virginia, two
films released this year that encapsulate the
spirit of lesbian cinema in 2018: buzzword
casting, costumes necessitating the undoing
of 500 tiny buttons to remove, and an ending
for the two women that will turn tragic.
Homosexual romance and relationships in
the media are longing glances, epic letters,
lingering touches. It can be utterly thrilling.
All that chemistry, hesitation, reservation
and wanting is lethal fodder. The biggest
LGBT+ pictures of the last year (The Miseducation
of Cameron Post, Call Me By Your
Name, Disobedience) harnessed this in a
way that did not feel exploitative, and have
set a new precedent. Still, there’s sadness,
but the passion is unlike that of Blue Is The
Warmest Colour (2013); gone, hopefully,
are the days of such blatant performative
male-gaze lesbianism. The most tender,
intimate moments of these later films occur
in clothes, fetishised no longer. It feels like
gay people are starting to get the stories
they want told. Vita and Virginia’s tale, two
infamous, empowered women in a time that
was far behind them, will be like blood in
the water to LGBT+ audiences. Compelling,
yes. But still so tortured.
Suspension of disbelief and a license to
dramatise aside, the treatment of gay relationships
in the mainstream media has serious
effects, particularly on the impressionable
young audiences who cling to any scrap
of LGBT+ media as a lifeline. In reality, they
may not have any gay role models to look
up to. They may have never met another
lesbian in their life. And to instill the idea
that same-sex relationships are all fraught
exchanges and hopeless dead ends until one
party settles down to straight marriage and
children and the other commits suicide is
contributing little to a conversation that
still needs enriching. There has never been
a more promising time for LGBT+ cinema.
There are thousands of amazing stories that
need to be told, and plenty of diverse cast
and crew ready to tell them. If we can’t find
fulfilment in the past, maybe it’s time to
look forward.
“Homosexual
romance and
relationships in
the media are
longing glances,
epic letters,
lingering touches”
Left and below: Images from
‘Touch’ (2019) by Holly de Looze.
An intimate revalation between
two lovers that parallels with
the tragic or performative
mainstream narratives of women
who love women.
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23

Illustrations: Gracie Ashton
Eating like an
Earthling
For plant-based diners, it’s not always easy to satisfy
cravings for delicious convinience. London’s new Unity
Diner in Hoxton is here to serve. Founded by vegan activist
Earthling Ed, the non-profit diner directs all funds raised
back into animal welfare. But with a mission so righteous,
Molly Long invesitgates whether the food measures up
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25
Ask any London-based vegan and they’ll tell you: good junk
food lies to the east. There are ample places elsewhere in the city
to get Instagram-worthy plant-based eats, but it is east London
that provides vegans with a healthy dose of the unhealthy. From
the vegan doner kebabs of What the Pitta, to the fried chick’n of
Temple of Seitan, the east pretty much has it covered.
In the last six months, there has been a new addition to the
scene. Located in Hoxton, Unity Diner has all the trappings
of a successful vegan restaurant. It is the brainchild of popular
vegan YouTuber and animal rights activist Earthling Ed and as
he himself claims, aims to help people “to become an active part
of creating a world where compassion towards all non-human
animals is the norm.”
The diner runs as a non-profit, donating its earnings to grassroots
animal rights movement SURGE. Proceeds help support
large-scale vegan advertising campaigns and outreach programmes
across the country and are also funding the construction
of the Surge Sanctuary - an ex-farm animal respite home set
to open in late 2019. Between its practically-vegan-royalty owner,
its location at the centre of the vegan junk food world and its
non-profit mission, Unity talks a good game - but just how does
the restaurant experience itself shape up?
The menu offers a lot of food that vegans have likely seen
before. Tofish bites (tofu ‘fish’), ‘cheeze’ burgers and seitan
‘chickken’ are not new by any means, but that we’ve seen them
before isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Admittedly, some of the food
isn’t great. Like so many ambitious vegans before them, Unity’s
attempt at a mac and cheese is unexciting, bordering on bland.
But then again, most vegans have at least one story about a disappointing
mac and cheese.
Aside from some disappointing pasta, the rest of the menu is
largely a success. Diners can choose from a number of burgers,
toasted sandwiches, salads and sharing platters. Most non-meat
eaters will be well-versed in the mediocre veggie burgers of the
world, but Unity’s managed to escape this fate. The clear winner
is the ‘Moving Mountains Burger’; a juicy meat-free patty loaded
with ‘cheeze,’ fried onions, grilled peppers and a sun-dried
tomato pesto. For an extra £1, you can add into the mix some
‘bakon,’ - which comes highly recommended by this reviewer.
The star of the menu and most original item by far is the
chickpea and seitan ‘steakk’. Beyond the odd spelling, Unity’s
‘steakk’ manages to ‘tickk’ all the boxes. It is served with wedges,
garlic curly kale, cherry tomatoes and a red wine gravy and whilst
it isn’t going to fool meat eaters any time soon, it remains a great
example of the ingenuity and creativity that modern vegan food
can give rise to. From 12 until four o’clock on weekdays it also
makes an appearance as a toastie filling, along with mustard
mayonnaise and roasted mushrooms - good news for any vegans
still desperately searching for a decent sandwich.
The speed of the service is somewhat of a let down. The staff,
whilst undeniably enthusiastic about the establishment, can’t
wholly compensate for food taking 45 minutes from order to
table. Hungry and out of conversation, customers are frequently
left tapping tables, eyes eagerly watching the kitchen.
But there is little doubt that slow service will put customers
off, especially when weighed against the restaurant’s charitable
mission. Even for those uninterested in SURGE, the restaurant
provides enjoyable plant-based food at a good price. Veganism
is often chastised as being a lifestyle only really accessible for the
middle and upper classes, and Unity seems to be gladly trying to
overturn that. All in, vegans on a budget could easily get lunch
for less than £7 and a two-course dinner for less than £15.
It is easy, sometimes, for us vegans to get behind a person, a
product or a restaurant just because of its being vegan, with little
consideration for anything else. Case in point: the vegans who
still buy supermarket vegan cheese, insisting it is just a good as
the real stuff. With its non-profit mission, Unity could have fallen
into this trap, serving below average food to crowds of vegans
blinded by love and a good cause. Fortunately, the restaurant
largely has the flavours and dishes to back it up. Whilst service
needs work, the entire Unity experience is good one.
Being surrounded by competition throughout Shoreditch and
elsewhere in east London, Earthling Ed’s non-profit does well to
set itself apart from the crowd. Being city-based, it is often hard
for a lot of vegans to feel like they are actively fighting against the
oppression of animals. For one reason or another, we can’t all be
breaking into farms on rescue missions or sabotaging fox hunts.
Unity Diner therefore provides a step beyond traditional dinner;
combining great food with an accessible form of activism.
Top: Charlotte Ager’s mural in Unity
Diner captured by Molly Long.
Opposite page and above:
Illustrations by Gracie Ashton of the
diner front and a happy patron.
MockupSlingshot.indd 25 11/03/2019 12:54

MockupSlingshot.indd 26 11/03/2019 12:54

27
The many
faces of
Ellie
Bleach
A versatile and metamorphic star-in-waiting
has appeared. Susanna Joseph lays out why
we think you’ll take a shine to her
Images: Verity Smiley-Jones
Patrick Gunning
Even on a cold night like tonight,
Ellie Bleach doesn’t fidget. While
the heater beside us keeps flicking
on and off, and people at the tables
around are pulling at their sleeves and
fiddling in their pockets for warmth. She
sits still, and when she does move it’s with
purpose. Bleach is in high demand of late,
travelling across the UK to support bands
like Juniore and Infinite Bisous, appearing
in the line-up at the latest issue launch
of Femme Collective zine, headlining the
first shows with her freshly-formed band.
For an artist staring down the barrel of a
promising future, taking some time to be
calm must be important.
On stage, Bleach crackles with energy.
As her voice drawls witticisms over
the 70s lo-fi nostalgia generated by her
band, the four of them laugh together,
relishing every solo, pulling silly faces
to mark their pleasure or disgust with
their performance. “We’ve been playing
as a four piece since July,” she tells me,
smiling slightly. “They make shows fun. I
can’t believe, looking back, I used to go to
shows on my own. If I’d stayed like that,
it would’ve got so boring.” A few months
is not a long time, but all four members
of the Ellie Bleach band are accomplished
musicians with years of experience to
their names, and together they seem
intrinsic.
Born in Southend-On-Sea, Bleach
has spent the last three years in Norwich
studying English Literature at the
University of East Anglia. It’s during this
period that she began to attend open mic
nights, relying on her voice, a guitar and
an amp, gradually adding other elements
like a drummer and guitarist, incorporating
synths and so forth until she found
the sound her moniker produces today.
“I was working out my strengths, and
[decided] the voice and the lyrics have to
be at the forefront.” When she talks, it’s
not very remiss of the young musician’s
stage presence, where her swagger is often
amplified by a bright red suit and tie. But
you can hear some of the care that makes
her lyrics such a delight. There’s a craftsmanship
to her syntax, soft and precise,
like apple-picking in an orchard.
Storytelling is something that has
always come quite easily. “I’m not a
brilliant guitarist, not a brilliant keyboardist.
Songwriting is definitely the bit that
feels just natural. If I struggled with that
I’d be a bit like ‘why am I doing this?’”
she chuckles. Her eclectic music taste, to
MockupSlingshot.indd 27 11/03/2019 12:54

This page, above: Ellie performing
in January 2019 as part of DIY’s
‘Hello 2019’ lineup at Old Blue
Last.
Below: Ellie shot for Slingshot.
Photography by Verity Smiley-
Jones; syling by Ailsa Chaplin;
makeup by Alice Dodds; Hair by
Sam Roman; Videography by
Poppy Ashton; Assisted by Atikah
Zaidini
“If you are a fan
of an art form,
I can never
understand how
someone isn’t
compelled to
make that for
themselves”
which she credits her moderately unproductive
second year of university for getting
“really good”, coupled with her literary
knowledge means her pool of inspiration
is deep enough to drown in. “I feel like
once you go down the road of wanting to
write from a character’s perspective, it’s
quite hard to go back. There are infinite
lives that are more interesting than mine.”
A new song, ‘Jackie Kennedy’, written in
this vein, could be the next single released
at a headline show this Spring. It’s a fast
dance number, she explains, quite unlike
anything Bleach has released previously,
but exploring a new direction is a cause for
excitement, not worry. “I’m so impatient! I
really want new songs to be done.”
The success of her summer 2018 track
‘Leave Me Alone’ has been galvanizing for
the 21-year-old artist. The song is acerbic,
melodic and dry. It’s the perfect revenge
song for a time-waster; rhythmic and
chastising, you can imagine the boy it’s
written about cringing while his friends
bop their heads around him. “I’m proud
of ‘Leave Me Alone’. I listen to that and
I’m like, yeah, that’s my style.” It’s unclear
whether this energy will last. Bleach seems
unresisting to adaptions in her music.
‘Duvet Day’, a 2017 release, gained unpredented
popularity after being featured on a
Spotify Fresh Finds playlist, but this hasn’t
stopped Bleach from looking back and
questioning the song. “I hate it, it’s lame.
The recording is basic-ass lyrics and guitar.
It’s got quite a lot of plays [on Spotify] because
of that playlist, but I do wish one of
my good songs could have gone on there.
It’s because I didn’t know what I was doing
then!” she exclaims with mock-annoyance.
It’s not the end of the world to change
your mind, after all. And if the change
comes from growth, well, even better.
It’s not as if this day and age is bereft of
opportunities to creatively explore. “Every-
MockupSlingshot.indd 28 11/03/2019 12:54

29
Above: Ellie for Slingshot by Verity
Smiley-Jones.
All other images: Stills of the shoot
from videographer Poppy Ashton.
one’s a renaissance man,” she says, tapering
off slightly as she digests this thought.
“I I really like that. That’s the plus side to
the gig economy.” For an emerging artist,
the music landscape currently can be a
little bleak. Money is not easy to come by,
and the industry can easily instill cynicism.
But Bleach never really saw an option of
just… Not bothering. “If you are a fan of
an art form, I can never understand how
someone isn’t compelled to make that for
themselves.” Global domination isn’t really
on the agenda, just to labour for love.
“I’d love to be the kind of artist that has
a small but dedicated following, like I just
put an album out once every three years
and it’ll be well received, maybe I’d tour it,
then get back to writing the next one.”
Sadly, artists do not always get to
craft everyone else’s perception of them.
Sometimes the public or a label will fling
an identity over like a robe, regardless of
whether it fits. For Bleach, who was born
without the lower part of her right arm,
this is more of a consideration than it is
for most. “I don’t know any other artists
with a limb deficiency. We talked about
it when we were bringing out ‘LMA’, that
people would be interested. I would be.
But I forget that is the first thing people
notice just because it’s never been a thing
for me.” Her parents made sure that she
never felt restricted, encouraging her in piano
lessons and learning to play guitar. It’s
difficult to imagine what it’s like having
something that is just a part of your reality
become an issue to be navigated. “It’s
strange to be an object of intrigue. The
worst question is in the vein of, ‘where do
you get your confidence?’ because it’s kind
of implying that I shouldn’t be confident.”
Disabled musicians are extremely thin on
the ground, but hopefully the bullshit she
deals with as traction is gained by playing
the music that she loves is minimal. “I’m
fine talking about it if people want to.
As long as Facebook mums don’t call me
inspirational. That’s my worst fear.”
MockupSlingshot.indd 29 11/03/2019 12:54

A
Food waste in the UK is on the rise. Despite the
implications for the environment, the economy,
and an ever-growing homeless population, enough
is never enough for diners and restauranters alike.
Slingshot’s Jekaterina Drozdovica investigates
whether we’ve finally had our fill
Stinking
Problem
Illustrations: Gracie Ashton
MockupSlingshot.indd 30 11/03/2019 12:54

It’s especially busy in a restaurant kitchen
at the end of a service. Dozens of waiters
gather around black food waste bins
scraping leftovers off plates. Juicy roast
beef smacks onto ice-cream topped cakes,
salads and grilled vegetables mix with
chocolate mousse, salmon steaks blend
into tiramisu, everything is seasoned with
gravy. Once expensive high-end meals,
now they turn into a stinking mass of
waste, which makes everyone scrunch up
their faces.
An estimated three million tons of
food is thrown away every year in the
UK hospitality industry, but customer
leftovers amount to only a half of all waste
produced. A study by the Sustainable
Restaurant Association revealed that 65%
of food waste occurred during cooking.
This is particularly relevant to fine-dining,
where portions are small and chefs cut
carrots in half to make them look fancy.
Another factor is the obsession with
customer satisfaction that dominates in
luxury restaurants. Breakfast buffets are
“Malnutritioncaused
death
has doubled in
England between
2001 and 2017,
with 8.4 million
people in the
UK struggling to
afford food”
packed with tons of sausages, eggs and
bacon even with only two guests in the
room. The truth is that a half-empty display
doesn’t look expensive and it’s always
better to be safe in case a client wants
more. Sometimes managers deliberately
prepare extra plates for a banquet to avoid
the worst-case scenarios. The excess food
ends up in a bin decomposing into the
31
food-waste mash. Meanwhile, malnutrition-caused
death has doubled in England
between 2001 and 2017, with 8.4 million
people in the UK struggling to afford
food.
But the food can’t be donated due to
strict corporate policies. “We can’t donate
to food charities as our departments
were previously accused of food poisoning,
which created too many problems,”
says Jurca Tamas, manager of Alexander
House Hotel. As explained by Dr Viachaslau
Filimonau, a principal academic of
hospitality management at Bournemouth
University: “If a restaurant gives food leftovers
away and someone gets food poisoning,
they can sue the restaurant and get
compensation. This is called the liability
risk. If it’s a famous chain, the case would
be all over the press, which will result in
both financial and reputational losses.”
The European Food Hygiene legislation
lacks guidelines on how to donate food,
and some of its rules can be interpreted
rigidly. In Europe, only Italy has clear
Opposite page: For those without a steady food
supply, Britain’s waste issue is even more urgent.
Below: “It’s like Tinder for food” - the app Olio is
making it easier to offer unwanted food, including
fresh produce, to those who need it.
MockupSlingshot.indd 31 11/03/2019 12:54

“There must be
a cultural shift
to change our
consumption
habits. The
resources we
throw away might
be vital in saving
somebody’s life”
legislation that limits donor’s liability and
makes it easier to donate. The hospitality
managers must abide by certain
food-safety standards, which complicates
the process of food donation. “Even if
the food was cooked, there’s always the
risk of post-contamination,” says Rob
Koojimans, the co-founder of Food Safety
Experts. “You can find harmful bacteria
everywhere: in the air or even on people’s
skin. If the food was out for at least one
hour, we already consider it risky. In ideal
temperature conditions, the number of
bacteria that food contains would grow
by eight in one hour. Therefore, a charity
would have very little time for redistribution.”
Yet on the food-sharing platform Olio,
three-quarters of all food is donated
within an hour. Olio is a free mobile application,
where users can post a picture
of an unwanted food item while other
users can request it for free. Scrolling
down the app you can find anything from
ready salted crisps to Planet Organic deli
pots. “It’s like Tinder for food,” says Liam
Jones, Olio’s business manager in the UK.
The social enterprise has a volunteering
scheme, which works with restaurants,
cafes and groceries. Trained volunteers
pick up unwanted food items and store
them in their own fridges until someone
requests the items on the app.
For Jones, the main challenge is convincing
businesses to donate. “Everyone
is terrified that if something goes wrong
they’ll be in trouble.” To tackle the liability
fears, Olio provides donors with a legal
document, which sets out responsibilities
of both sides. The only requirement for
businesses is to make sure the food is
safe when it gets to the volunteers. “The
problem here is the overall apathy,” Jones
says. “The liability risk and food safety
concerns are easy to overcome if people
care enough.”
Introducing tax deductions can be a
way of encouraging businesses to waste
less and help those in need. In Spain,
35% of the value of donated food can be
claimed back as a corporate tax credit. In
France, this number increases to 60%.
Dr Filimonau thinks that the government
must take an action to guide the hospi-
MockupSlingshot.indd 32 11/03/2019 12:54

33
tality industry out of the food-wasting
catastrophe. Sadly, in a profit-driven
environment, financial rewards or punishments
work better than the voice of
conscience.
What if with every gram of wasted beef
the hospitality managers could see its
cost and its carbon footprint? Would this
awareness appeal to their moral sense?
Winnow is a UK-based food waste initiative
that does exactly that. The company
installs digital weights under the food
waste bins in professional kitchens. There
is a tablet that staff members must use to
identify an item and the reason for waste.
The system then calculates the amount of
money and carbon emissions wasted.
“Obviously, each of us has a different
motivation to save food, whether we’re
environmentally conscious, or whether
we think that it’s socially unacceptable
to waste food while so many people are
hungry,” says Erna Klupacs, the marketing
manager at Winnow. The company
has collected data from over 450 sites in
25 countries to analyse the food wasting
trends. “What we saw is that the most
food waste in hospitality happens when
the food is prepared in advance because
it’s often hard to estimate the demand.”
Yet some businesses are abandoning
“the more, the better” policy and are
striving for quality over quantity. Sonya
Meagor is the founder of Eco-Cuisine, a
sustainable and organic catering company
based in London. “One and a half rounds
of sandwich, plus some cake and a piece
of fruit, in my opinion, is plenty to make
a good lunch. When I see other caterers
bringing plates and plates of hot food
for a lunch of 12 people, I think it’s too
much.”
In a recent survey by Slingshot,
over 65% of respondents said that the
standard restaurant portions are too big
to finish. More than a half of respondents
leave 5-15% of the food on a plate. To
tackle the issue, the Portuguese waste
management company LIPOR created
the “Menu Dose Certa” campaign, which
means “the menu of the right size”. The
company works with restaurants and cafes
creating a special menu that contains sizes
proportionate to what clients can eat.
The guests can then decide which menu
they want to order from. The menu with
balanced portions is usually cheaper.
There must be a cultural shift to change
our consumption habits. The resources
we throw away might be vital in saving
somebody’s life. By ordering more than
what we can finish, we waste carbon emissions
resulted from food production. A
small act of thinking before ordering can
change the world if everyone sticks to it.
Opposite page: In fine dining, where portion sizes are
generally small, the most wastage occurs during preparation.
Above: The liability risk and food safety concerns of donating
are easy to overcome if people care enough.
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MockupSlingshot.indd 34 11/03/2019 12:54

35
COMES TO
Images: Eileen Bothways
Wesley Dykes
Jack Brennan
Phoenix-Chase-Meares
Getty
THE ISLE
OF DRAG
The British drag scene is raw, diverse and about to be hit
with the biggest drag show in history. As reported by Klara
Blazejovska, RuPaul’s Drag Race brings money, fame and
controversies; but will he include the queer and filthy English
drag performers as well, and will they want to be included?
The double-edged mic of RuPaul
Charles will soon be swinging
again, this time in the UK. It will
make history as the first non-American
Race the drag legend has ever hosted. In
his work as a drag queen, actor, model,
singer, songwriter, producer and host, it’s
obvious that whatever RuPaul touches
turns to gold. He is firmly in the history
books of drag. With his show, the
lovechild of America’s Next Top Model
and Project Runaway, he brought about
revolution, commercialised entertainment
for marginalised groups and enabled
many drag queens to profit. But his
words have an impact that causes division
among communities that for so long, have
stuck together.
So, what can we learn from the original
Drag Race and where does it go from
here?
Local British queens make anywhere
from £40 to £200 a night after their first
year of regular performing. The average
ticket to a drag queen show costs around
£8 and usually includes a line-up of numerous
queens. But people don’t do drag
for the money. “To put it this way – you
can bring in enough money to be scraping
by just as so many Londoners are scraping
by doing temp jobs, office jobs, café
jobs. You will be tired as fuck but you can
do it,” says London’s drag king Wesley
Dykes.
Thanks to RuGirls’ immensely successful
global tours like Werq the World,
launched in 2017, many queens, including
some from the UK, have been paid in
“exposure”. Ellie Clark, a female queen
from Glasgow says: “They say: ‘You’ll get
to open for them so why should we pay
you, you’re gonna be on Facebook,’ but
that’s not a payment at the end of the day.
That’s not gonna pay bills, for makeup,
some wigs, some travel, that’s not even
gonna pay for a bus to the bloody venue.”
Since RuPaul’s Race started, drag has
become increasingly commercialised and
many queens have learned that doing drag
can become “an avenue for other things”,
says Wesley Dykes. Queens and kings
showcase other skills during their performances.
“Once you’re doing drag on the
stage you don’t know who is coming to
your show because weird people like drag
– say people who are in theatre, in music
and other artists. Somebody realises you
could be in my music video, you could be
on the panel or be around this workshop
or ‘we are doing a play – can you audition?’”
For Phoenix Chase-Meares, RuPaul has
changed his career “massively”. Phoenix
is a director of TobylikesMILK, the queer
dance company. Because RuPaul has to
“some extent commercialized drag and
slightly queerness”, the public is now
more open to Chase’s choreography and
he even went on the European tour with
RuGirls. “That was a massive bump in
my career. I mean we weren’t doing drag,
we were men in heels with face paint on,
but it changed my career. And I think it
has changed a lot of drag queens’ careers
because it has attracted people who
wouldn’t have usually sought out to see a
drag show,” says Chase.
Drag Race has impacted the British
MockupSlingshot.indd 35 11/03/2019 12:54

drag scene already, but the question that
remains is what happens after the UK Race
is won? In America, many local LGBTQ
bars and queens have taken to the internet
to describe what they perceived as a negative
impact on the drag business after the show
grew to today’s proportions.
After season 8, the Drag Race moved
from Logo, the largest gay network on US
TV, to VH1, a reality TV network, and
from Monday to Friday. This seemed like
a minor change at first, but it meant the
world to the LGBTQ community. With this
move, RuPaul had taken LGBTQ culture
to mainstream TV. But what appeared on
the surface to be a leap forward for a niche
business and marginalised group, actually
hurt the little people in it. Many LGBTQ
clubs in New York City, where the show is
shot, have reported a financial loss. Less busy
Monday nights at the clubs were a time for
community gatherings to watch and a chance
for local queens to perform for significant
audiences. The move, therefore, transformed
it completely and finalised the creation of
a whole new – wider – audience outside of
the LGBTQ community. The participating
queens became even larger, sought-after celebrities,
often at the expense of local queens
and their clubs.
Recently, RuPaul landed in hot water after
defending why the trans community is so
absent from his Races. Arguably, the show
is relatable to the wider public because of
the simple portrayal of what it means to be
a drag performer. Drag queens on the show
are cis-gender men dressed in ‘femme’ costumes
– the wigs, the corsets, the heels are
all central. This is now an issue for the UK
scene. “British drag is so much more queer,
dirty and filthy and fun and ridiculous. It’s
not about money or wigs or gowns. It’s really
way more performative,” says Chase, who
is a nonbinary drag performer dressing as a
Club Kid.
People like Chase or Eileen Bothways, a
nonbinary transmasculine queen also performing
in London, are underrepresented
in RuPaul’s Drag Race. For many of them,
doing drag is less about the performance
and more about “being their authentic
selves”, according to Chase. “We’ve seen
how it’s created a standard for drag in the
US and those of us who have performed
in the US know the scene is actually just as
rich, alternative, and nuanced as it is in the
UK. If the producers try to cookie cutter
drag over here and they put on a show that
has no AFAB [Assigned Female At Birth]
artists, genderfuck performers, no bearded
queens, there’s going to be an uproar,”
adds Eileen Bothways.
Previous spread: Like many trans people,
Eileen Bothways is constantly fighting for
the right to exist.
This page: Drag King Wesley Dykes believes
the commercialisation of drag has made it
‘an avenue for other things. RuPaul Charles,
bottom, has had a hand in that.
MockupSlingshot.indd 36 11/03/2019 12:54

37
The British drag scene is arguably one
of the most diverse in the world, and for
many it is a safe space to express themselves.
The transgender and non-binary
communities of the UK are still feeling
the aftershocks of the TERF scandal at
2018 Women’s March and for many, the
drag community has become even more
crucial. It’s hard to judge whether the
public exposure of performers actually
puts the community at a greater risk but
Chase says that doing drag, regardless of
gender, is always “going to subject you to
more aggression.”
It’s justifiable to be afraid. According
to the Office for National Statistics,
sexual orientation and transgender
identity hate crime is on the rise. There
were 1,651 trans-identity hate crimes and
11,638 sexual orientation hate crimes
registered between 2017/2018, both a
30% rise on the previous year. The office
began research on gender identity in 2017
and continues to work on finding the best
way to acknowledge the gender fluidity
in administrative systems as well as public
spaces.
Eileen Bothways says: “After the
transition to my ideal body I will be left
incredibly vulnerable and open to verbal/
physical attack, potentially even murder,
just for me trying to be me. In drag, if
you’re AFAB, no matter how you identify,
then you generally have to work twice as
hard to get half the credit.”
Psychologists Moncrieff and Lienard
in their study A Natural History of the
Drag Queen Phenomenon write that
the gay communities in which drag was
born serve as a backdrop because they
were once excluded from the culture and
served as their survival tool. Research
says that performers incur costs to gain
the praise of the community. Even today
This page: Ellie Clark,
top, and Phoenix Chase-
Meares, bottom, are part of
a new generation of queer
performers Drag Race UK
could include.
“After the
transition to my
ideal body I will
be left incredibly
vulnerable and
open to verbal and
physical attacks,
even murder, just
for trying to be me”
performers identify the community as an
inclusive and safe space. This makes it
pivotal that RuPaul measures his British
Drag Race to different standards.
Ellie Clarke believes that RuPaul
represents the older generation of drag.
“He’s a smart person and he has done a
lot for drag but I just don’t think he is the
voice of this generation. He is stuck in
the eighties. He needs to educate himself
more.” In recent years, the UK scene has
registered changes within its community
as the drag kings and female drag queen
performers occupy the stage more and
more. “It is getting bigger. But there are
still people who don’t accept us, especially
gay men, especially older queens who have
been doing drag for like thirty years – cismale.
I think it is getting better but there
is a long way to go,” says Clarke.
For Wesley Dykes, RuPaul would gain
points for creating a more diverse show,
but they say they’re not sure it would hurt
that much if he carried on with the old
formula. “For me it’s just a TV show. If
you get on, because they’re feeling friendly
then cool, and if not, I don’t think you
should be using RuPaul’s Drag Race as
any kind of a bar of your competence or
capability.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race will be aired in 8
episodes on BBC Three during 2019 with
the exact dates yet to be confirmed.
MockupSlingshot.indd 37 11/03/2019 12:54

Images: Confetti Club
Klara Blazejovska
THE F* WORD
Klara Blazejovska reflects on the importance of linguistics in
a worldwide movement that is as inspiring as it is infuriating
“Feminism has, in recent years, become a hot topic again. It
stood resolute at the centre of the #MeToo movement, but also
faced a backlash after TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist)
protests were conducted during last year’s Women’s March
and London’s Gay Pride event. It lead many to wonder whether
the term ‘feminism’ had become outdated, or too wrapped up in
the discriminatory connotations of the past.
March 8th is rooted in feminism and its ability to balance
women’s achievements with gender equality; as the International
Women’s Day always has been or should have been.
“Feminism is about fighting for those who don’t have a voice,
for standing up for matters that affect the minorities,” says
Confetti Crowd, a group of four female activists who created
an online community to inspire girls and women to support
each other. They plan to continue to grow the community and
connect even more female entrepreneurs.
It’s called feminism because “Equalism or Humanism is just
not enough,” says Confetti Crowd. Feminism concentrates on
the issues of all women because this is what needs to be elevated.
As a social movement, it has a duty to move with and react to
the changing obstacles that all femme-presenting people face
across the world.
It means a campaign, a struggle, a goal, a pursuit, a need - and
so much more - for fair and equal chances for everyone and in
all aspects of life.
It’s far from perfect, but it’s alive.”
Left: ‘ALL THE RAZORS I’VE USED BECAUSE
SOCIETY SAID I SHOULD’ By Confetti Crowd’s
Heidi Petite.
Above: Heidi on the South Bank by Lizzie Rose.
MockupSlingshot.indd 38 11/03/2019 12:54

39
Klara Blazejovska’s
recommendations to
help you get inspired
and stay motivated
FURTHER
READING
Redefining Realness
Janet Mock
“I’ve heard parents say all they want
is ‘the best’ for their children, but
the best is subjective and anchored
by how they know and learned the
world.” She also fought no one’s
problemative fave Piers Morgan - on
Twitter and TV.
I Am Malala
Malala Yousafzai
A memoir of a Pakistani girl
who fought for education, got
shot in the head by Taliban
and ended up in UN halls
in the USA. “If one man can
destroy everything, why can’t
one girl change it?”
Bitch Doctrine
Laurie Penny
Do all men deserve these comments?
“Of course, of course, not
all men. But enough of them.”
The not-so-nice-but-honest British
writer and activist’s essay collections
covering it all.
Bad Feminist
Roxane Gay
A critically acclaimed bisexual author
who writes about feminism for everyone.
Gay wrote that feminism is flawed
because people are, not because the
ideology of feminism is.
Forgotten Women
Zing Tsjeng
Editor of Broadly and the book series: The
Leaders, The Scientists, The Writers and The
Artists, Tsjeng fills in the holes in our education
system with the women left out of the
history books.
MockupSlingshot.indd 39 11/03/2019 12:54

TAKING ON SOCIAL
ISOLATION...
ONE PINT AT
A TIME
Images: Klara Blazejovska
Gipsy Hill Taproom
MockupSlingshot.indd 40 11/03/2019 12:54

41
From reckless teenager to social worker, Mike Huddart is
fighting for British hospitality to start catering for people
with disabilities. Slingshot’s Klara Blazejovska caught up
with the man on a mission to make pubs accessible
“I went to the festival called the Big
Chill in Herefordshire. I was really
hungover lying in a field feeling sorry
for myself. In the middle of this huge forest,
really hard to get into, I saw a guy in a
wheelchair with cerebral palsy going past
the stage with some guy with him and I
thought: How did he get here? How is he
here? And then I just saw him looking out
and I was like, oh shit, that’s something I
have never thought about.”
This was Mike Huddart’s epiphany, and
the reason that he works with people with
disabilities today. One that happened only
a few years after he was partnered up with
a cross-project kid at Waitrose when he
was 18. “We worked together and really I
didn’t see any difference, maybe I should,
maybe I should have been properly
trained.”
“I realised that every day, you can share
it. If you can just make one life a little different
in a positive way than you can walk
away happy. For me it was that person
supporting that person that wanted to be
somewhere where it was hard, it was like
a thing.”
Nineteen bus stops and a ten-minute
walk from Brixton station, you will find
Gipsy Hill and a craft brewery of the same
name. This is where Huddart spends most
of his time, working under his official title
of the brewery’s “Marketing and Events
Guy”.
Unofficially, he has known the owners
since they were rolling kegs in the same
bar many years prior, a job he did to
supplement the little pay-checks from the
charities he worked for at the same time.
They asked him to join them full-time
twice before he actually said yes. It took “a
platform with no ceilings” offer for him
to come around and he has transformed
the brewery into a community outreach
business.
Since Huddart’s joining, Gypsy Hill
have opened a socially inclusive taproom
and brewed beer with and for people with
disabilities. But Huddart says that he has
never thought about it like that. “I think
the mindset was always there, they just
didn’t really know what it was.”
When he says that, one can’t help but
believe him. We are half-way through a
pint, at the entrance of his taproom, right
after a warm hug, when I realise that this
is Huddart at his most authentic. A guy
with a hippy hair bun, stubble and nothing
but uncontrolled honesty when he
speaks about empathy and understanding
- the two things, he says, we really need
to learn about and apply to be socially
inclusive.
For five years he worked for charities
aiding people with disabilities, taking
them out, helping them to have fun. He
frequently apologises that his research is
limited and all he knows is from firsthand
experience. One quickly comes to
This page:
Mike Huddart
captured by Klara
Blazejovska.
Next page:
Image courtesy
of the Gipsy Hill
Taproom.
MockupSlingshot.indd 41 11/03/2019 12:54

understand that Huddart doesn’t realise
his stories speak for themselves, saying
more than any research ever could.
He says that there is not a space for
spontaneity in this life for people with
disabilities. “It was tough. It is very hard
to be inspired when you are limited.”
“We always ended up booking the train
and I just got tired and tired of doing
that, so I would not book the train and
I just said we need a ramp. I’d hold the
train doors until the ramp came and just
told the station staff to think about it a
little. It was quite aggressive.”
He phoned train companies urging
them to hire more staff, he would face
inadequate facilities in cafes, bars and
pubs. “All this structure, people didn’t
understand, the communication was not
there. I just ended up having to split my
group up, and those were supposed to be
social trips.”
Now working for Gipsy Hill brewery
Huddart continues to champion social
inclusivity. The new Gypsy Hill taproom
was built using crowdfunding. The space
is open to everyone. It has easy-to-move
chairs, tables of appropriate height to suit
wheelchairs, a lowered bar, accessible toilets
and everything organised in straight
lines. At the taproom, all staff are trained
to accommodate individuals with and
without disabilities.
When you walk in, you’re more likely
to notice the industrial modernity with a
Scandinavian style influence than the subtle
changes that make the place socially
inclusive. It raises a question: why aren’t
there more such places?
Huddart says that the space and staff
are very expensive, but the lack of knowledge
plays an important role. A lot of people
think that having a disabled toilet and
a ramp is enough, but when they don’t
get many people with disabilities they just
use the toilet as a storage space and clear
it when it’s needed.
Huddart plans to build a free online
training program for hospitality businesses
across the UK. It will be a safe and
accessible place where the industry can
learn about social inclusivity and make
their business friendlier to the people
with disabilities.
Despite having many reasons to
be upset and frustrated with society,
“If you can just
make one life
a little different
in a positive
way then you
can walk away
happy”
Huddart’s faith in people is unshakable.
He is a father, and his mum worked as
a nurse. He used to spend a lot of time
around the elderly in particular. “I think
that’s where a lot of this stuff started
originally. I have always felt comfortable
around people. That was before I became
a teenage piece of shit, partying,” says
Huddart speaking fondly of others rather
than himself one last time.
MockupSlingshot.indd 42 11/03/2019 12:54

MockupSlingshot.indd 43 11/03/2019 12:54

The Great
Lifestyle Con:
Images: Natalie Byrne
Laura Dennison
Imogen Forte
Phoebe Ackers
How ‘wellness’
makes us unwell
As dieting trends shift away from their rigid ancestors, Molly
Long asks whether a lifestyle-not-a-diet is any better for us, and
if we aren’t just falling for the same old tricks
In the 1830s, Presbyterian minister
Sylvester Graham set to work reforming
the lives and diets of Americans.
Through a lifestyle of vegetarianism,
sobriety and whole-grains, Graham told
his followers they could, and would, lead
purer lives. The reverend’s lifestyle advocacy
would go on to inspire the invention
of foods like graham flour and graham
crackers, both of which are still used and
enjoyed today the world over.
However, it’s not the foods created in
his honour that are his longest-serving
legacy, but the effect that his preaching
had on the early stages of the diet industry.
Graham is largely credited as being
one of the first creators of a ‘fad’ diet. In
the almost 200 years since ‘Grahamism’,
countless diets have followed. Atkins,
Dukan, Paleo, Ketogenic, Last Chance
and Lemonade - to name just a few diets
- have all made their way into the public
consciousness, down a path he helped to
forge.
But to keep up with the ever-changing
way we consume media, dieting companies
have had to change tactics. In the
past, diet plans were plugged on teleshopping
segments, in page adverts in glossy
magazines or through high-stake celebrity
sponsorships. Now, the advertising of
weight loss products are done almost ex-
MockupSlingshot.indd 44 11/03/2019 12:54

45
Previous page: Illustrator
Natalie Byrne encourages
wariness of online
‘influencers’.
Above: Laura Dennison was one
of the first to wise up to the idea
that ‘wellness’ just might not be
as healthy as it appeared.
clusively through the work of social media
‘influencers’ and increasingly, they aren’t
being sold as diets at all.
Arguably the most successful method of
covert diet advertising of the past few year
has been ‘wellness’. Far from its rigid,
meal plan-focused, exercise regime-following
ancestors, ‘wellness’ is a lifestyle, not
a diet. Characterised by ultra-aesthetically
pleasing pictures - think houseplants, yoga
and beaches - and trendy, ‘clean’ foods -
think chia seeds, coconut oil and quinoa
- ‘wellness’ is a nebulous and inexact label
that has pretty much become synonymous
with everything we have come to expect
from photo-sharing apps. According to
the Guardian, this lifestyle-not-a-diet industry
has amassed a worth of more than
£500 billion worldwide.
“It’s hard to decipher what is aspirational,
and what is just an advertisement
on your [social media] feed,” says Laura
Dennison, one half of blogging duo Not
Plant Based who have just released the
book Eat it Anyway. For Laura, ‘wellness’
is another kind of diet, except this one
is packaged as a vaguely coherent set of
ideals and goals that are, for most, completely
unachievable without a drastic,
expensive transformation of lifestyle.
“What I think makes the trend so scary,
more so than anything we’ve seen before,
is that it isn’t labelled as a diet. It’s a
‘lifestyle’ - it says it will make you feel
better but when you strip it all back, it’s
just a harmful money making scheme,”
Above: Becky Young set about
challenging her own diet-cultureinduced
negative feelings, and she
welcomed others on her journey.
Laura continues. “These influencers get
people to adopt ‘wellness’ in a completely
unhealthy way and then when it doesn’t
work out for you or it doesn’t produce the
results you were after, it’s your fault. You
didn’t do it right.”
The lack of nutritional education
amongst the online ‘wellness’ community
is as common as it is worrying. At
the peak of her Blonde Vegan fame,
then-‘wellness’ blogger Jordan Younger
was able to sell more than 40,000 copies
of her five-day raw-vegan ‘cleansing’ programme
at $25 a go - without the help of
any nutritional qualifications whatsoever.
At the highest end of the scale, actress
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop brand is valued
at $250 million. This comes despite her
having no professional qualifications and
an ever-expanding list of controversies,
the latest and most expensive of which
being a $145,000 lawsuit disputing the
health benefits of her rose quartz and jade
vaginal eggs.
For the 39 million social media users
in the UK, scrolling isn’t just a mindless
pastime. It’s a shopping experience, and a
dubious one at that. In a survey conducted
by Slingshot, 70% of social media
users were aware of ‘wellness’ and ‘clean
eating’ trends. Reflecting on their own social
media use, over half said they believed
the trend was, or had the potential to
become, dangerous to both physical and
mental health.
Urging people to think twice is exactly
what a small-but-growing sect of activists
and social media users are doing. “This
trend just has such a limited scope of
what ‘wellness’ means,” says Becky Young,
activist and founder of the Anti Diet Riot
Club, “Of course we should all be looking
after ourselves, but we do not need to buy
into the brand of ‘wellness’ to do this.” As
an organisation, Becky’s Riot Club hosts
events and workshops designed to help
people reject dieting culture as a whole.
As a self-confessed former chronic
dieter, Becky explains: “Outwardly, I was
confident but inside I had what many of
us live with under toxic dieting culture:
a dark friend saying ‘You’re too big, too
fat. None of your success means anything
if you can’t keep the weight off’.” Whilst
Becky has largely rejected diet culture now
and tries to help others do the same, she
MockupSlingshot.indd 45 11/03/2019 12:54

admits: “There are days when I realise I’m
still grieving the thin ideal.”
This is true of many people. Pervasive
narratives throughout western culture
equate weight loss and thinness with
success, whilst enjoying typically ‘bad’ or
‘unhealthy’ food is seen as something to
be ashamed of. As a Slingshot interview
study revealed, the pressure to conform
starts at an early age, particularly for women.
“Even though I wasn’t a ‘big’ teen, I
still remember going to WeightWatchers
with my mum and I couldn’t have been
more than 13,” said one woman we talked
to. Incidentally, a free teenage membership
programme earned WeightWatchers
extensive criticism last year. The British
Dietetic Association condemned the
company, saying that preying on the
already well-established insecurities of
young people would make them ‘fixated’
on dieting, ready to come back to the programme
later in life as fully-paying adults.
“When it comes
to eating, we are
told not to trust
our bodies, for
fear of ‘falling off
the wagon’”
Another woman Slingshot spoke to told
of her obsession with exercise and detox
teas - drinks often promoted by stars as
prolific as Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner
- at just 14 years old. “I ran my young
body into the ground because I thought
being fat was the worse thing that could
possibly happen to me,” she said, “And
even though my mindset was ridiculously
unhealthy, all I got was compliments
from friends and family about how great
I looked.”
In online diet culture, aesthetics often
rank higher than health or sanity. The
‘wellness’ world doesn’t mind all that
much that doctors have continuously
debunked the effectiveness of detox teas
(little more than just laxatives), or that
there are next to no additional health
benefits to be found from substituting
coconut oil into your diet. These things
photograph well, sound vaguely healthy
and in turn, are easy to sell to the masses.
With such an airtight formula, it is no
surprise then that well over half of respondents
to Slingshot’s survey said they
had or had considered changing at least
one thing about their life because of negative
pressure from influencers promoting
‘wellness’ or weight loss.
Diet culture tells us to override our
body’s natural hunger cues in order to
lose weight. “We aren’t taught to ignore
any other biological needs; when we
are tired we sleep; when we are thirsty
MockupSlingshot.indd 46 11/03/2019 12:54

47
All images: Sculptor Phoebe
Acker’s project ‘How To Look Like
A Kardashian in 30 Days’, 2019. A
sharp and humerous rejection of
the Instagram diet culture.
we drink,” says Dr Georgina Heath, a
specialist eating disorder clinical psychologist,
“but when it comes to eating, we are
told not to trust our bodies, for fear of
‘falling off the wagon’”. By suggesting that
remaining ‘on-plan’ is a sign of strength,
the opposite becomes true too. Moralising
food - dividing people into those strong
enough to diet and those too weak to
resist indulging - is prevalent throughout
the ‘wellness’ movement, which consistently
urges followers to stay away from
processed, fast or typically unhealthy food
entirely.
This presents quite a challenge for
doctors like Georgina trying to unpick
the work of an industry with increasingly
pervasive and covert tactics. More and
more, the Health at Every Size (HAES)
philosophy is being used. Georgina provides
her patients with scientific evidence
of the fact there is more than one size at
which to be healthy, with the intention
of countering the misinformation often
spread by diet companies and influencers.
“Dieting is a multi-billion dollar industry
and companies want to sell their products,”
she says, “Often the percentages or
testimonials they offer prospective buyers
aren’t gathered from evidence-based
research. They’re either skewed or they
weren’t tested properly in the first place.”
If traditional dieting programmes and
modern ‘lifestyle’ regimes both rely on
dishonest practices, it begs the question,
is there any responsible way to mass-market
weight loss? According to Georgina,
activists and a growing number the
public, the answer is a firm no. Dieting
companies and influencers promote a
one-size-fits-all regime for weight loss, but
when biology is taken into account, this
simply isn’t doable for most. To suggest
narratives about health and beauty that
have permeated society for years could be
reversed overnight is arguably as misinformed
as much of ‘wellness’ and dieting
itself. But there’s no question the work of
people like Georgina, Laura and Becky,
and philosophies like HAES, are a start.
MockupSlingshot.indd 47 11/03/2019 12:54

Images: Paint The Change
Torbjoern Joerstad
Satish Punji
MockupSlingshot.indd 48 11/03/2019 12:54

49
People perished, homes disappeared, and a community was changed forever.
The Grenfell Tower fire shook the world and inflicted lasting wounds on an
West-London neighbourhood. As told by Torbjoern Joerstad, some survivors
and the community have found alternative ways of coping with their trauma
HOW THE
GRENFELL
COMMUNITY
IS COPING
THROUGH ART
The images are hard to forget: A
towering apartment complex
engulfed in flames, blackening
and scorching floor by floor. The crying
families desperately seeking signs of
their loved ones, the thick, black smoke
drifting for miles over the west-London
skyline, and the emergency services
working tirelessly for over 60 hours until
a charred, black skeleton was all that was
left standing of Grenfell Tower.
72 people lost their lives in the UK’s
worst residential fire since the Second
World War. It prompted national outrage
over fire safety standards, the local authorities
facing accusations of negligence and
corporal manslaughter. A year and a half
on, little appears resolved. An ongoing
public inquiry is slowly itching towards
answers, as gruesome accounts from that
devastating day are told in public hearings
at Holborn Bars.
A monthly silent march in the shadow
of the tower’s ominous remnants has
attracted thousands of people since its
inception immediately after the fire. It’s
starting point, the Notting Hill Baptist
Church, is decked out in art installations
in honour of the community – from rich
flower decorations, to children’s drawings
and supportive messages, as more and
more people gather for an appeal, holding
signs and candles. Despite the serious
overtones, the atmosphere is peculiarly
light. The march has for many become a
monthly tradition to remember and show
support to the deceased and bereaved.
A man proudly sporting a sweatshirt
naming himself “the Man on the
Ground” approaches. Max Livingstone,
a local resident and artist, has attended
every single silent march. He says the fire
brought the community together.
“We’re all here working towards the
same goal. We need to do this for those
who died,” he says.
Shortly following the fire, an array of
community support groups and grassroots
organizations emerged. Groups such
as Justice4Grenfell, Grenfell United,
Grenfell Speaks and Grenfell News and
Action all work towards the same goals:
to heal the community and ensure justice
is done.
Melissa Kizildemir Brigante remembers
seeing the fire in the media and thinking
of the trauma those involved must be
experiencing. Originally from Turkey,
the certified psychologist decided to ask
around online if there were any volunteers
willing to provide mental first aid
to survivors, and after an overwhelming
response, she founded the Grenfell Hope
Project.
“I knew the first days would be quite
chaotic and that there would be lots of
MockupSlingshot.indd 49 11/03/2019 12:54

people needing social support,” says Brigante,
who’s received formal training from
the International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies.
“I organized all the volunteers and
for the first six weeks we provided basic
psychosocial first aid, working closely with
the NHS, the British Red Cross and all
the other relief organizations. Since then
we’ve been trying to fill the gaps where
needed,” she says. Art therapy also proved
a valuable tool as they assisted survivors
and others affected.
“In the first few weeks we provided an
art therapist. This was especially with the
children in mind, because even during a
traumatic event, children need to be children.
What we did was give the children
a safe space where they could disconnect
and just be children again. We’d have
them just sit around drawing, and it was
almost like a normalization process. It
also gave relief to the parents,” she says.
With no real connection to the Grenfell
area, Brigante has kept the Grenfell
Hope Project going since, as she knows
the importance of what they’re doing.
“It’s really crucial to be there, even just
to hold someone’s hand when they’re
crying. When they go forward they’ll
remember there was someone there for
them, and that’s very important for prevention
of anxiety and other disorders in
later stages,” she says.
A few weeks after the fire, a poem by
Nigerian writer Ben Okri made national
headlines. Grenfell, June, 2017 featured
powerful lines such as “It was like a burnt
matchbox in the sky” and “If you want to
see how the poor die, come see Grenfell
Tower”.
The poem inspired Paint The Change,
a street art collective promoting social
justice, to create a mural in honour of the
tragedy and its victims. The collective has
organized murals worldwide since formation
in 2015, all promoting social justice
and human rights. Project manager for
the Grenfell mural, Saleem Vaillancourt,
says a mural in honour of Grenfell was a
natural choice.
“This didn’t need to happen, had
things been managed differently. Paint
The Change has always been about using
art as a creative, positive response to
either discrimination, injustice or tragedy,
and so we wanted to go that way rather
than just being angry and criticising for
the sake of criticism. Ben Okri’s poem
was a perfect fit,” Vaillancourt says.
A month later the mural was completed
at Village Underground in Shoreditch,
with the line “you saw it in the tears of
those who survived” from Okri’s poem
painted in bright, contrasting colours by
renowned London street art veteran Ben
Eine.
The artist himself says the type of colours
and lettering was a conscious choice,
with red, yellow and orange infills, and
blues and green outlines to symbolize the
flames versus the tears. In the corner of
the wall is the full poem.
“As I was reading the thing, I was standing
there crying,” says Eine. He believes
street art has a positive effect on whoever
sees it, whether its conscious or not.
“The kind of street art I do; generally
uplifting, positive words and messages
written with lots of colours in neighbourhoods
that are often poor and run down–
even if you can’t read, even if you don’t
appreciate art, even if you can’t stand
street art – you walk down the road and
Previous spread: Photo by Satish Punji
Left: One of monthly ‘Justice for
Grenfell’ silent marches photographed
by Tobjoern Joestad.
Below and opposite page: Grenfell
mural by street artist Ben Eine,
featuring the line ‘you saw it in the eyes
of those who survived’ from Ben Okri’s
poem ‘Grenfell Tower, June 2017’
“It’s really crucial
to be there,
even just to hold
someone’s hand
when they’re
crying. They’ll
remember there
was someone
there for them”
MockupSlingshot.indd 50 11/03/2019 12:54

51
you see one, it’s gonna inject a little bit
of happiness. I passionately believe that
street art makes people a little happier,”
he says.
Kensington and Chelsea council were
heavily criticised for their response in the
aftermath of the fire, particularly after
reports emerged that a resident’s group
had warned of fire safety issues in the
block years earlier, only to be threatened
with legal action by the council.
After the fire, a number of emergency
programs were initiated by the council,
which in November of 2018 had spent a
total of £23.6 million on social care and
wellbeing services for those affected.
“Approximately £900,000 of funding
was awarded to groups specifically offering
relief through arts and culture,” a Freedom
of Information request filed by Slingshot
revealed. In the summer of 2018, a
study conducted by the council concluded
that 67 per cent of adults affected by the
fire would require treatment for post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD). Up to half
of those living nearby who witnessed the
fire were also estimated to be suffering
from PTSD.
“Local community organisations and
volunteers had quickly mobilised a variety
of support but there was an urgent need
for funding to expand the response further.
In order to support the relief efforts
happening on the ground the council set
up an Emergency Funding Programme.
This was a cross-departmental emergency
“There is much
evidence that
community
artmaking helps
people process
through grief and
loss as well as
other forms or
trauma”
grants programme established to help
provide immediate financial support to
organisations involved in the response
efforts,” a council spokesperson says.
Of the organisations funded, nine of
them offer trauma relief through arts and
cultural activities, including therapeutic
art therapy, arts and crafts workshops, drama
and music workshops, textiles-based
workshops, cultural (carnival-related)
activities, and circus and dance activities.
Erica Curtis, a certified art therapist
and leading expert in the field, says art
therapy can help reduce stress, overall
sense of well-being, and improve vital
signs.
“There is much evidence that community
art-making helps people process
through grief and loss as well as other
forms or trauma. People have long incorporated
art and music into rituals that
address the passage of time or problems
within a community. It reinforces social
bonds and permits self-expression, both
hallmarks of health and well-being. There
is also evidence that being surrounded
by art (and plants) can having a soothing
effect,” she says.
The California-based therapist emphasizes
that different activities or materials
produce specific responses, all depending
on an individual. Especially repetitive
or rhythmic activities like drumming,
knitting, and crocheting have been shown
to be particularly soothing.
“When people consider the emotional
benefits of art making, stress-reduction often
comes to mind. You may recall a time
that you experienced a sense of pleasure,
freedom, or relaxation while singing, playing
an instrument, painting, doodling, or
dancing. Indeed, the potential uses for art
to help us de-stress are numerous,” she
says.
Back at Notting Hill Baptist Church, its
nearing the time of the march. The appeal
has ended, the crowd has thickened, and
people are slowly moving into formation.
“The Man on the Ground” catches me
looking at one of the many children’s
drawings decorating the outside wall of
the church. He’s made some smaller murals
in the area himself, he tells me.
“We have to finish what we started.
We can’t go without a fight, we demand
answers and the truth. We are the community,”
he says, before joining the now
moving crowd.
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PHOTOGRAPHING
GRENFELL
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When graphic
designer and hobby
photographer Satish
Pujji discovered a
building block five
minutes from his home
was ablaze, the 32-
year old grabbed his
camera and jumped on
his bike to document
the devastating fire.
Speaking to Torbjoern
Joerstad, he explains
how that terrible day
unfolded, and its
lasting effects
Above: A policeman at Latimer Road
Station the morning after the fire.
Below: The western side of Grenfell
Tower.
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55
Above: Camera operator
observes the Grenfell fire
from Avondale Park Gardens
June 13th, 2017 ended like any other day that summer. In
his flat in High Street Kensington, graphic design freelancer
Satish Pujji (32) is having a late-night gaming session. At
around 4 in the morning, he checks the news, only to be met
by flashing headlines and pictures showing an apartment block
only minutes from his home in flames.
The London-native picked up photography as a hobby seven
years ago, and decides to act.
“I’ve done a few photography gigs, but never anything newsworthy.
I thought to myself ‘I have to document this, this is a
major event’,” he says. Pujji, who has lived in the area for most
of his life, quickly recognized the burning building as Grenfell
tower.
He grabs his Nikon D7000 and jumps on his bike and rushes
to the scene, as the first light of day on June 14th breaks.
“The first thing I noticed when I got to Ladbroke Grove
was the smell. There was this scent of ash in the air which you
noticed right away. I think the wind drifted west, so people from
Paddington could sense it in the air too,” he recalls, arriving
around 5 in the morning.
“I rounded a corner and that was the first time I saw the burning
building. There were fire engines left and right, and whole
families came out of their houses to talk to their neighbors see
the building. At first, I only thought of it as this massive burning
spectacle, I assumed everyone had been evacuated. I doubted
anyone got hurt, I mean it’s West London, everyone gets evacuated,
right?” he says.
Then he overhears part of a nearby conversation.
“People were saying they could hear screams from the tower,
and that residents were using flashlights from the windows to signal
for help. That’s when I realized it was a lot worse than I first
thought,” he says. With his Nikon D7000 and an 18-200-millimeter
lens, he spends the next two and a half hours photographing
what was unfolding.
“When I take pictures I’m always looking for contrast. I
wanted to contextualize it, and so for me it was important to
contextualize it and show this rich/poor contrast of burning
devastation in a rich suburbia. This is my community,” he says,
before continuing:
“I’d been pretty detached for a while since going away for
school, but this was the first time I felt a remembrance of that
community that I used to be a part of.”
Pujji knows several people affected by the fire. One friend
lost his uncle and went to become an outspoken member of the
Grenfell Action Group. Another from his class moved out of the
block shortly before the fire, and his parents who still live there
luckily got out in time. A friend of his sister was evacuated and
are still looking for accommodation.
Upon returning home and reading the news, he starts realizing
the severity of the situation.
“I felt a bit detached, and the whole time I was taking pictures,
the atmosphere was pretty calm. At times it just seemed like I
was taking pictures of a massive bonfire, but of course it was
much more than just that.”
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Surviving
Online
Susanna Joseph reports how young creatives
are navigating the mental health minefield of
Social Media to make it work for them
Illustrations: Chloé Kerton
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57
Before notoriety was synonymous
with going viral, young creatives
faced a very different landscape
when it came to achieving success in their
field. Comedians may land themselves a
job on one of America’s biggest late night
talk shows from their Twitter calibre;
while being picked up by a major music
publication was a foot in the door for
bands, now, their biggest hit could ensue
from being played in the background of
an internet celebrity’s Instagram story.
It’s a strange new world. And statistically,
quite a brave one for all those choosing
to exist online. Studies released last year
have offered incriminating details on the
long-term effects of Facebook and Instagram
on users’ mental health. But despite
feelings of depression and inadequacy
being known side effects of frequent use,
more young people than ever are logging
on. For instance, according to statistics
released in June 2018, of Instagram’s 1
billion monthly users, 41 per cent are 24
years of age or younger. Young creatives
of all disciplines are finding that whatever
their field, there’s a social medium that
will boost their profiles, if they’re willing
to put in the time and effort. Writers and
comedians head to Twitter, while those
interested in visual arts post on Instagram.
“If you’re an artist or musician, if you’re
not online it’s almost like you don’t
exist.” Jonquil Lawrence is a 24-year-old
musician in London. “People are going to
[ask] where they can follow you. What’s
your @, where’s your Soundcloud, where
can I find your music? How else are you
going to expand your audience? Other
than doing shows. But even if you did a
tour across England, afterwards people
are going to want to follow it up. If they
can’t find you, then your audience isn’t
going to grow very much. You have to,
almost.” It can be a damaging space, but
many feel it necessary. “As much as we’re
all struggling with mental health issues,
you also have to be online for all of the
jobs we want to do.”
Unlike its peers, Instagram could be described
as the ‘aspirational’ social media
site. Users seem to be aware that a lot of
the content they’re seeing is engineered
and fabricated, but that doesn’t stop them
being affected. In a survey undertaken by
Slingshot, respondents aiming to work in
a creative field claimed they knew about
the synthetic element of the lives they
saw communicated in posts online, but it
didn’t stop them from feeling bad about
their own in comparison. Words like
‘inspiration’ and ‘drive’ were frequently
touted in explanation of why they found
themselves religiously checking the site,
but a spark of creativity can quickly lead
to a fire of self-doubt and inadequacy. A
study published last year in the journal
Psychology of Popular Media Culture
found that the comparisons inspired by
Instagram between ourselves and everyone
else made the site more taxing on our
brains than other social media sites like
Facebook and Twitter. While it seemed
that many of those accessing Instagram
for professional reasons as well as personal
were aware of the toll it can take mentally,
they also said they would have an extremely
hard time changing their behavioural
patterns. 82 per cent of respondents
answered affirmatively when asked if they
would spend less time on social media
without it impacting their career or goals.
“I just can’t see a viable alternative”,
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said Fashion Communication student
and stylist Ailsa Chaplin. “Even if my
mental health got really bad and I wanted
to delete my Instagram, all of that. It is
my portfolio, and I don’t think I’d ever
get the job I want without it.” These
sentiments are supported by institutions
teaching the creative arts. “I get told quite
a lot at university how important building
an online presence is,” says Chaplin.
“And they’re probably right, it does help
enormously to have name or brand recognition
before you even leave school. But
sometimes it can be so stressful. It’s basically
a full-time job. Especially in London,
when you’re following people online you
know vaguely in real life and they seem
to be much more successful than you and
still going out every night of the week.
You think, it’s not that hard, if these people
can manage all this then why can’t I?
But it’s all fake. A few of my friends have
just burnt out from Instagram. You feel
like you’re getting somewhere but it’s all
smoke and mirrors.”
Since smartphones are estimated to
land in the hands of almost 200 million
more users in 2019, there will be more
users accessing social media than ever
“As much
as we’re all
struggling with
mental health
issues, you also
have to be online
for all of the jobs
we want to do”
before, and scrutiny of these sites and
their societal ramifications has never been
higher. There is a lot of talk of ‘safeguarding’
users, and ways that can exist. The
removal of the ‘infinite scroll’ feature
most sites incorporate is one suggestion
being made to help users stay in control.
In a survey for Slingshot, 84% of respondents
said that they felt the feature led
to unhealthy usage patterns. But some
young creatives who have been battling
mental health problems for years remember
struggling long before they selected a
username. “If you have preexisting mental
health conditions they can be amplified
by social media, but I don’t think they’re
the root cause. Like, if you have anxiety
or insecurities you’re going to see it
everywhere anyway. You’re just also going
to see it online,” says Harry Godfrey, an
artist and performer studying Sculpture
at Camberwell College of Arts. He does
not think that social media is to blame for
the increasingly high instances of mental
illness in his peer group. “When you’re in
a creative rut, it doesn’t help to see people
being creative all the time, I definitely
understand that, but I wouldn’t say my
mental health issues are because of social
media. I’d say they’re pre-existing and can
sometimes be amplified. I think it just
adds on to what’s already there. I think
it might seem like [things are worse off
now for creative people] because there’s
much more of a discussion around mental
health as well. It’s become so much more
of a prominent thing in recent years. Maybe
it’s because there’s a wider discussion
people are realizing they might have more
issues than before.”
It’s true that the discourse around
mental health has changed massively
over the last decade, and a lot of that is
due to the internet and the sharing of
All images: Illustrator Chloé
Kerton often addresses the
struggles that accompany
mental illness in her work.
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59
knowledge through it. But it’s no secret
that social media is made to be addictive,
through everything from colour scheme
to the sound of a homepage refreshing.
Without it, for better or worse, life is very
quiet. Freya Ziemska, an aspiring stylist
and casting director in Brighton, took a
year off from social media through the
ingenious method of breaking her smartphone.
Her replacement device had the
capacity to call, text, and work as an alarm
clock. That was it. It lasted for a year
before last summer as she approached her
final year of university, the career anxiety
became too much. “I started working as
a stylist, and I was on a job in London
and everyone else had smartphones we
were all talking about how they were all
saying how important it was for them
to have social media and Instagram to
promote themselves. I had a moment
where I thought, I’m never going to get in
the loop for work if I always had a brick
phone. I also felt like I missed it. I wanted
to be involved.” But the time Freya spent
away from the constantly posting, constantly
watching world most of us inhabit
through devices in our pockets afforded a
little bit of clarity. “Because I had the time
off, I see it for what it is, it doesn’t get me
down. I see it gets my friends down a lot.
I do worry that the longer I spend on Instagram
the more it would impact me, but
I feel quite grateful that at the moment,
because of the time I had off, it doesn’t
get to me too much.”
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LET’S GET PAWLITICAL
PROTESTING BREXIT ON FOUR LEGS
We all know Brexit’s a bit of a dog’s dinner, and not exactly a walk
in the park either. Slingshot’s Torbjoern Joerstad takes a look at
probably one othe most peculariar protest movement so far: meet
the four-legged protesters barking out against Brexit
Bottom, second left:
Daniel Elkan, founder
of Wooferendum. All
other images: the
march captured by
Phil Watson.
“Let’s make the biggest bark in history,” reads
the mission statement.
Of all the grassroots movements spawned
in the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum,
the Wooferendum campaign is easily among
the cutest additions. The concept? Man’s best
friend barking out against Britain leaving the
European Union, which is due to formally
happen at the end of this month.
The campaign was launched by freelance
journalist Daniel Elkan, ironically not a dog
owner himself, who started it all as a “secret
protest”, taking photographs of dogs with
signs protesting Brexit.
“The Wooferendum campaign was a way
to give more people - and dogs - a voice on a
tough topic: Brexit,” he says.
“Sometimes campaigns are like fireworks,
you build up the excitement and expectation,
light the firework, it goes up and creates a
great explosion,” continues Elkan, who hopes
the campaign helped inspire people who
might not otherwise have spoken out publicly
or marched against Brexit.
The widely covered Wooferendum march
in Central London on October 7th last year
was attended by hundreds of dogs and their
owners. The ‘biggest pawlitical march in
history’ spawned pictures of hilariously cute
four-legged protesters and featured ‘pee stations’
with pictures of Nigel Farage and Boris
Johnson, as well as slogans such as “Brexit’s
barking mad!” and “Brexit is not a walk in the
park”.
With the success of the first march fresh
in mind, Elkan says that the Wooferendum
campaign isn’t laid to rest just yet, promising
more disgruntled barks to come.
“Article 50 may be extended, a People’s
Vote is becoming more likely, and there’s
a good chance the dogs will be coming out
again - en masse - to campaign for us to stay in
the EU,” he adds.
Whether loud barks against Brexit will have
made a change, remains to be seen.
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61

NEVER GONNA GIVE EU UP:
THE BEST OF
BREXIT PROTEST ART
Boris is targeted outside the 2017 Conservative conference in Manchester.
PHOTO: ILOVETHEEU / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The UK’s divorce from the European
Union is at last right around the corner,
but the journey has been anything
but smooth. From the 700,000 strong
People’s Vote march, to the near daily
protests from both sides outside Westminster
and Number 10, there’s no denying
that the 2016 referendum caused
nationwide polarization.
However, one thing has united the
fronts throughout the last two and half
years – a creative outpour of protest
art, conveying both pro- and anti-Brexit
messages in the most hilarious ways;
be it by puns, memes, costumes or
satirical artwork.
Here are our favourites, as
selected by Torbjoern Joerstad
Michael Gove, David Davis, Boris Johnson and Theresa May - Whoever merged them together
into this monstrosity sure knows how to scar. From a protest march in Manchester.
PHOTO: ROBERT MANDEL
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“Everything’s going according to my plan... kinda.” Street art in Swansea.
PHOTO: REDDIT / THEDUDEABIDES80
PHOTO: REDDIT / PSGENIUS
PHOTO: AP / MATT DUNHAM
Are you tempted by some of Ms. May’s Brexit fudge cake? Or a Brexit is just
bananas-loaf?
PHOTO: ROBERT MANDEL
PHOTO: AP / RUI VIEIRA
007 prefers his Brexit shaken, not stirred, obviously. Spotted in
Shoreditch.
A new kind of referendum found in a
London pub.
PHOTO: REDDIT / OHWHATNOWOSCAR
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