Come along to The Signal Pub to enjoy an evening of the unexpected with a rich mix of personal stories shared in 15 minutes. Our evening starts at 7pm. Tickets are £10, available in advance via email featuredfifteen@gmail.com or on the night.
South London born, John Yabrifa has always had a strong affinity for the local area; growing up as a child in Peckham’s once notorious North Peckham estate through the 1980s, he has seen the area change dramatically in the past 30 years.
In mid 2012, John decided to start documenting the area of Peckham through photographs. Initially the architecture and the environment around the area, some images were dramatic landscape shots, others abstract with the intention of showing parts of the area that people overlook in their everyday lives. These images were not enough to get a true representation of what made Peckham ‘Peckham’ so in 2013, John decided to start speaking to people and asking them what made Peckham a special place for them. Looking at all walks of life; young, old, every ethnicity, gender and nationality. Regardless if they lived, worked or owned a business in the, John began to start getting a better picture of what people’s views and opinions and aspirations were. John collaborated with a local painter, Chanelle Ogbogbo in 2013 and exhibited a number of these works in the now closed Cool Cats Café.
The project has now grown, and is including Camberwell as the two areas are very closely linked in terms of people and history.
Check out John's work at: https://www.johnyabrifa.com
Jaega Wise used her chemical engineering background to help start one of London’s most exciting new microbreweries - Wild Card Brewery. A far cry from her first graduate job as a chemical trader in the City, which she took after completing a chemical engineering degree at Loughborough and a placement year with GE’s water division.
“I considered industry very heavily but I really, really wanted to be in London and it was really difficult to find a chemical engineering job here, hence why I went into a commercial role,” says Jaega. “I did that for about three years and figured it wasn’t for me. It was all in an office, it wasn’t very hands-on.”
Hailing from Nottingham in the ale-drinking Midlands, Jaega says she was often around people experimenting with home-brew when she was growing up. So when two of her old hometown friends said they wanted to start their own brewery she jumped at the chance to get involved. She learnt the craft by helping out at other breweries and then began selling their beer around London, at first bringing in extra money by working in a bar and at recording studios.
Find out more at: www.wildcardbrewery.co.uk
Annie trained in graphic design at LCC. These days, her artistry is about creating platforms for open conversations about difficult and complex subject matters. Her work took this direction following the loss of almost all of her family in 2011, changing her perspective on everything Annie had known to date. In 2015, she made a documentary with filmmaker and photographer, Tara Darby, about her experience, looking more broadly at death and trauma and how we approach it in western society, and why we often are unable to talk about such a vital subject matter, one that affects all of us. Since then, Annie has made a number of narrative driven installations ranging from stories about mental health, the importance of removing traditional and restrictive gender constructs, many tales of love and loss and thoughts on what it is to be a human being in our complex world. She also works with young people in Hackney and set up an art department in a new school in the neighbourhood four years ago with a progressive art therapy focus, the aim being to encourage young people to understand themselves better through creativity. Annie's most recent powerful and thought provoking work has been a 16 metre visual narrative about strength and challenging gender stereotyping for the Turner Prize series of events in Hull City Of Culture 2017.
To find out more about Annie's work: www.fandangoekid.com
London-based Marna was born into an artistic family - her father an actor and mother a dancer - and from a very early age let her creative streak overflow into sketches, watercolour works and folders full of poetry and lyrics.
Somewhere between secondary school art scholarships and the university drop out, Marna experimented with self-produced projects that drew influence from the likes of Birdy and James Blake. At eighteen years old, not sure where to take her music or even whether to continue writing, she took a three year hiatus to spend her days working in shops - and not being fulfilled by retail, soon moved on to coordinating social strategies for other artists.
“Crossfire” was the first product of a collaboration between Marna and producer JKP who met in the office of their nine-to-five day jobs, released in June 2017 to high praises from a wide array of online blogs and fans across Spotify. Their collaboration continues with the forthcoming releases planned throughout the end of 2017 and into the new year.