Pip and Destiny explore the ups and downs of the London creative arts scene, and introduce Creating Dangerously. Joined by multidisciplinary artist Mandisa Apena.

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Please note this episode contains discussions of misgendering, ableism, trauma, homophobia, transphobia, and racial profiling.

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Host Bios:

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Destiny Adeyemi (they/them) is a poet. They are a Slambassadors 2018 Winner, a member of The Octavia Poetry Collective and was in the 18/19 Barbican Young Poets programme. They live in London performing at local open mics and poetry events. Instagram/Twitter: @poetryndestiny

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Pip Fenton-Cripps (they/them) is a non-binary creative specialising in the field of East Asian and Japanese Studies. They were awarded the Frederick Richter Memorial Prize for Meritorious Work in the field of East Asian Arts, Music and Literature in 2019. Pip is also a digital artist, exploring synthesis of classic shōjo with darker elements. Instagram: @hello_cactus_flower 

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Guest Bio:

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Mandisa Apena is a part-time vegan from South London. They work in poetry, sound and visuals. They are founder are host of poetry: hot 4 u. Their poetry collection ‘and twice as bitter’ was published in 2016. Instagram: @trashhhhash, Twitter: @archaicisms

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Rosie Mills Eckmire is an artist and curator from South London. She is interested in the therapeutic properties of creativity and enabling art to be accessible for all. Instagram: @rosieldn, Twitter:@teenagegma

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Produced by Arden Fitzroy (they/them) @ArdenFitzroy

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The RISE Collective 

Website: www.therisecollective.org.uk

Twitter: @RiseAmplify 

Instagram: @therisecollectiveuk

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Music: Pembroke

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Links and references:

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London Plant Exchange for Black Solidarity on Facebook

DJ Freedem: @FREEDDDEM on Twitter and @djfreedem  on Instagram

Turf Projects Croydon: https://turf-projects.com/

Subject to Change: New Horizons: https://sites.barbican.org.uk/newhorizons/#section-IyNblDZKnO

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Transcript:

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Arden: Everybody welcome! You’re listening to the AMPLIFY podcast, brought to you by The RISE Collective. We champion creatives and build collectives at the forefront of social change.

I’m Arden Fitzroy, Lead Producer, and this is Queer Joy, the second series of AMPLIFY. This series was created by the next generation of creative leaders and changemakers. These are our own stories, on our own terms.

Pip: Hello, everybody. On this episode of amplify, we're bringing you Creating Dangerously with me, Pip.

Destiny: And me, Destiny. This is a podcast where we platform emerging artists talk about the art we're loving, and discuss the difficulties of creating art in these hostile times.

Pip: And hostile times they are indeed. But given this is our first episode, we wanted to take just a little bit of time to introduce ourselves and really set the foundations that this project is going to grow from. So this episode will be interviewing an emerging artist asking them about their work and their connection to different creative and cultural spaces in London. Hopefully, we'll be getting a little snippet of their work as well. So watch out for that.

Destiny: We've got a lot in store for you, me and Pip: will be hosting artistic check-ins each episode, where we'll discuss topics relating to what it's like living the arts in London, and maybe even discuss some of the art we've been consuming at the moment. It's going to be our own cosy creative corner.

Pip: I'm very excited about the artist check-ins. But in light of that, D, you want to start us off with a little self introduction?

Destiny: More than happy to I'm Destiny, they/them. I'm a fat black queer poet. I'm currently studying and grinding in this London. I'm really interested in political poetry, social change, sci-fi, cartoons and baking to just throw it all in there. And I guess I'm just excited to like, discuss all the art we've consumed during the pandemic.

Pip: Yes, living in London surely is a grind. But I know Destiny. And I know that they're very humble and aren't plugging themselves as much as they should be. But that's what I'm here for. 

Destiny: No, I'm not.

Pip: Never are, never are. Everyone check out Fat, Black and Sad on the Barbican website right now or after you finish listening. Our friend Sumayyah did all the filming and editing and it really showcases some of D's incredible poetry. But hello, I’m Pip my pronouns are they/them. I'm a non-binary queer tucked away in a little corner of London. At the moment, I'm just trying to get through my final year at uni during the absolute wildness that is the COVID pandemic. I studied Japanese language and culture. But I do some digital art on the side which I will be plugging later. So watch out. Even though my main life focus is language and cultures, the London art scene really does just have a special place in my heart. In my experience, it's been a really welcoming and dynamic community for me, and I've made some incredible friends and connections just showing up to events.

Destiny: Yeah, you're right. The London art scene can be really exciting. And it has some amazingly talented people. And I think that's what makes it more sad, like the lack of support for the artistic community. It's unfortunate because it's a space for growth and exploration. I remember in the middle of lockdown seeing the government's reskilling campaign, and it had this ballerina and it said, Fatima's next job could be in cyber. Just seeing how blatantly undervalued the arts are is just like really sad. And I think that heavily related to the inspiration of this podcast.

Pip: Yeah, trust. It was such a blatant push towards tech overall. And yeah, I hate it made my skin crawl. But yes, we did actually struggle for quite a while deciding what to call this podcast, especially for me, like, I'm not really great at naming things. But I was super happy with the name that we landed on. I do have to give credit to my older sister because she introduced us to this essay by Camus that just like, perfectly hit on what we were both feeling about the arts at that time. Like, deep in the middle of lockdown. Watching the government just tear into the arts and seeing all of our plans and all of our social lives just melting.

Destiny: Honestly, that's like really true. The name of the podcast comes from Camus’s essay called Create Dangerously, where he's lamenting how society was receiving art in his day. And a quote that really stood out to us was the outflanked by artists of today concerns the necessity of their art, hence their very existence. It's this idea of society completely undervaluing art. And that causes artists self-doubt, doubting if art really matters when it's necessary to question, teach, disrupt and reflect.

Pip: Yeah, 100% like, yeah, I mean, how many times in your life have you heard that art isn't a real career? 

Destiny: Oh, so many times, so many times 

Pip: So many times, despite the fact that every human made thing that we interact with has been designed by an artist or a team of artists at some point. And this instability and undervaluin...