Village Raw - ISSUE 1
Village Raw is a magazine that explores cultural stories from Crouch End, East Finchley, Highgate, Muswell Hill and the surrounding areas. The magazine is created by the community, for the community. If you like this issue you can support the project through a subscription or donation. See the links below. The first issue of Village Raw magazine includes: WOMEN ONLY - Female artists explore the role women have played in Highgate’s history. CRAFTING THE FUTURE - Local crafters championing handmade products. VILLAGE SOUNDS - Q&A with local musicians Gabriella Swallow and Luke Eira. CREATIVITY IS POWER: Rickardo Stewart discusses youth provision and outreach. IN LIMBO: Photographer Dan Bridges captures the essence of Hornsey Town Hall. AN UNDERTONE OF HARMONY - Chriskitch’s Chris Honor discusses harmony. WALK AND TALK (AND EAT) – The Walk and Talk Club. THE HERBAL HOME - The herbal essentials that every home’s medicine chest should have. THE LAST STRAW - N8’s war on single-use plastic. NOT YOUR USUAL SALAD - A recipe from the Sustainable Supper Club. VILLAGE ESSAY - Mina Aidoo writes On Being Human: Learning to Feel Again. AND MORE…
Village Raw is a magazine that explores cultural stories from Crouch End, East Finchley, Highgate, Muswell Hill and the surrounding areas. The magazine is created by the community, for the community. If you like this issue you can support the project through a subscription or donation. See the links below. The first issue of Village Raw magazine includes:
WOMEN ONLY - Female artists explore the role women have played in Highgate’s history.
CRAFTING THE FUTURE - Local crafters championing handmade products.
VILLAGE SOUNDS - Q&A with local musicians Gabriella Swallow and Luke Eira.
CREATIVITY IS POWER: Rickardo Stewart discusses youth provision and outreach.
IN LIMBO: Photographer Dan Bridges captures the essence of Hornsey Town Hall.
AN UNDERTONE OF HARMONY - Chriskitch’s Chris Honor discusses harmony.
WALK AND TALK (AND EAT) – The Walk and Talk Club.
THE HERBAL HOME - The herbal essentials that every home’s medicine chest should have.
THE LAST STRAW - N8’s war on single-use plastic.
NOT YOUR USUAL SALAD - A recipe from the Sustainable Supper Club.
VILLAGE ESSAY - Mina Aidoo writes On Being Human: Learning to Feel Again.
AND MORE…
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PROFILE<br />
CREATIVITY<br />
“I feel that the boys on the block, in the hood, could<br />
facilitate their conversations better... My job on planet earth<br />
is to create spaces that enable people to think.”<br />
IS<br />
Words and photo by David Reeve<br />
POWER<br />
It’s taken us two weeks to get this interview with Rickardo Stewart<br />
and he arrives at Hornsey Town Hall on time, which is great<br />
because every minute of his day is scheduled. His phone hasn’t<br />
stopped ringing since March, when he won Youth Professional<br />
of the Year at the London Youth Awards. “It’s not so much about<br />
me,” he says. “It’s about the work that’s being recognised.”<br />
Rickardo is the Serious Youth Violence lead for Art Against<br />
Knives, a charity set up in 2008 after the unprovoked stabbing<br />
of Central Saint Martins student Oliver Hemsley. Since its inception,<br />
the charity has helped over 1,000 people through a series<br />
of creative personal development programmes. Rickardo’s past<br />
means he understands the needs and the gaps in youth provision.<br />
“I grew up on the Grange Estate in East Finchley,” he says.<br />
“Unfortunately, 11 years ago my friends murdered somebody.<br />
Around the same time I got diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. The<br />
day my friend killed this guy I was in hospital getting the first<br />
medication for my Crohn’s.”<br />
Rickardo’s time in hospital allowed him to reflect on his situation,<br />
and he made a decision “to provide positive opportunities<br />
for children and young people that came from the same environments<br />
that I came from. I wanted to see good.”<br />
It was after he started volunteering in an East Finchley youth<br />
club and began training in youth provision that he was introduced<br />
to Katy Dawe, who co-founded Art Against Knives. “She’s<br />
a powerhouse,” he says. “We just put our heads together and<br />
co-designed, with the community, a nail bar called Dollis Dolls<br />
that engages with local female participants. I think females<br />
make the world go round.”<br />
Since 2012 they’ve supported the personal and professional<br />
development of over 580 young women through the scheme,<br />
while other projects and collaborations have included pop-up<br />
music studio The Lab, Design+Make with London College of<br />
Fashion, and a weekly martial arts and fitness training session<br />
called Studio N2.<br />
As a part of his outreach Rickardo is always looking out for<br />
the right “tools, props, people and places” to allow participants<br />
to self-direct their own learning. “I feel that the boys on the<br />
block, in the hood, need to facilitate their conversations a lot<br />
better,” he says. “My job on planet earth is to create spaces that<br />
enable people to think.”<br />
It’s all about making the projects appropriate and accessible<br />
and Rickardo’s background gives him the understanding to do<br />
that. “Let’s be creative and let’s see a way where we can reach<br />
these people,” he says. “We built it with these people so they<br />
have ownership of it. And they have the opportunity to steer it<br />
in the right direction. And if you give people the right platform to<br />
design their own thing it’s going to come out great.”<br />
He cites himself as an example: “I have no GCSEs you know,<br />
and I get to sit with people from government thinktanks and influential<br />
leaders in London, and be included in some amazing exchanges.<br />
And I’m not academic. All from self-education. Picking<br />
up the right books and having the right conversations.”<br />
Rickardo founded the social enterprise Community Souls<br />
Cleaning Company as a further platform for people from disadvantaged<br />
areas to get on to the employment ladder. “We deliver<br />
commercial cleaning,” he says. “Our staff all have a personal development<br />
plan. It’s about supporting our staff - setting goals.”<br />
In an era of continued austerity and cuts he is looking to develop<br />
self-reliant and self-sustainable models and while Community<br />
Souls is not-for-profit, it’s generating just enough money<br />
to stay afloat. To date the company has employed 18 people and<br />
just two minutes after our interview ends Rickardo is already in<br />
a meeting around the corner discussing a further contract. •<br />
To find out more about the work of Community Souls and Art Against Knives visit:<br />
www.communitysouls.co.uk<br />
www.artagainstknives.com<br />
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