It hurts now, and it will then
(how can we use art as a tool for our healing/grief and all of this (waves above head))

Social Practice Social is a monthly peer support group for artists, programmers, community organisers, activists, and others working with participation, collaboration, public space, or social change.

In our session this month, we'll be joined by: artist and mental health activist the vacuum cleaner (James Leadbitter); curator, anti-racist activist and educator Dr Cecilia Wee; and activist and researcher Becky Sumerling. We’ll reflect on the past year, talk about collective grief, and ask what role art and artists could have in healing - and how we can ‘do the work'.

This event will take place online via Zoom, and live captioning is available. Please register here to receive the meeting information and get in touch with rebecca@weareprimary.org if you have any questions or access needs. We also ask that you please read and respect this safer spaces guidance (scroll down to the bottom) if you would like to join this event.

Image: EXPOSURE, the vacuum cleaner. Photo: Richard Pelham

Over the summer of 2020, James and Becky, with critical support from Cecilia, made film portraits of 47 health workers in Newham for a project called EXPOSURE, and they are currently working out how to work with this material. You can hear James share a very moving story and discuss the challenges and ethics of working with these recordings by listening to this podcast.

This event, and the podcast linked above, will include content that some people may find upsetting. We’ll discuss COVID-19, death, grief, and the social and health inequalities that have shaped the impact of the pandemic in the UK. The session will be relaxed and informal, theoretical and practical, and anyone who joins us will be able to take a break at any time or express how they’re feeling. We will all take a break in the middle, and there'll be an option for a follow up chat if anyone would like that.