Support Hackney Art Activism Festival and it's legacy...
We need your help to raise £5,000 so that If Mi Nuh Laugh Mi Cry!: Hackney Art Activism festival can cover festival costs and take it's art-heritage projects forward.
Your donation will not only support the festival's 10 day sound and visual art festival, which opened in Gillett Square on 27th April but also allow us to continue working with Hackney's Black and Global Majority communities.
By supporting this Crowdfunder you'll help us to:
1. Remember the work of Hackney Community Defence Association and share information about current campaigns tackling police brutality such as Hackney Account, Cop Watch, Inquest and United Families and Friends Campaign.
2. Platform the amazing artists who produced the festival's outdoor Community Resistance Exhibition in Gillett Square and participated in our R+D programme.
3. Continue our free, intergenerational community arts workshops: including Hackney Wall of Friendship, Hackney Family Tree and Anansi story-boarding.
4. Publish a live in-print and digital zine, which documents the process of putting the festival together and shares educational and wellbeing resources.
Who's behind the festival?:
Reel Rebels Radio (RRR) and Shelby x Studios (SxS) share rebel roots. Both founders have deep connections to Hackney Community Defence Association (HCDA), a group of local people who stood up against police injustice in the 80s/90s. After almost 30 years, the group recently came back together to hand over their artefacts to Bishopsgate Institute and Hackney Archives. RRR and SxS thought it important to share the group's legacy with local people, highlight organisations and campaigns working against state violence and celebrate our community's resilience in the face of adversity.
As artists, we thought about the role of art in HCDA and in our own activism. We were drawn to the work of the late Hackney cartoonist Tony Hall, photographer David Hoffman and artist Martin Walker. Together they produced iconic artwork that informed the whole community about cases, campaigns, meeting and demos through posters, flyers, zines and alternative press - the social media of their times! Tony's work, in particular, used satire and humour to make serious points about serious issues.
Why we need your help:
We've been working for over a year to put this festival together and are proud of the exciting programme of events. Like many community arts and social justice projects we are working on a tight budget and need your help to ensure we cover the festival's running costs. We're also really keen to carry on our projects past the festival to continue making change in our community and sharing knowledge about Hackney art activism. Help us make this possible by donating whatever you can and get some amazing exclusive rewards in return!
A sneak peak of our festival badges, t-shirts, comic books and more: