uncarved.org blog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/19/tim-wells-kaiser-chiefs-poet

Denizen of Stoke Newington, reggae obsessive, former Anti-Social Worker , great poet.

Solution Sounds Benefit Session
15 November 2008

Silent Whispers
21-23 Sedgwick Street
Homerton E9
11pm - 6am
£8.00

An update on the case, via Hackney Solidarity Group

Bailiffs abandoned plans to take possession of Spirits shop on Monday (03/11/08) after a rally of local supporters collected on Broadway Market to show their support for one of the street’s best loved characters.
The eviction was due to take place at 9:20 but, after discussions with police, bailiffs left and Spirit’s supporters are now expecting them to rearrange the appointment to collect the keys for another time.
Spirit (Lowell Grant) was not at his home of the past 14 years and issued the following statement:

Although there is still an enduring determination in me to continue my fight for justice, it has become aware to me that my physical and financial strength will no longer allow me to actively participate in this final act of defiance to keep my beloved property.

From the time I acquired this property back in 1993, it has been a long, hard struggle.

The first six years were extremely difficult, mostly physically, building this home of mine. The succeeding seven years, I was subjected to what amounts to all of the experiences that life could ever confront a human being with. At times I have felt completely discriminated against, robbed of my self-worth and dignity and feel as though I am being whipped!

I would like to let you all know that if it was not for the support and strength of the people like yourselves, who have actually given me the determination to physically last until now, particularly the people of Hackney, especially the people of the Broadway Market community who I know are the true defenders of humanity. To you all I give much thanks.

We have tried to keep my home and my shop, however corrupted forces have prevailed by way of taking it from us for now. My situation at this moment in time is that I have no home and my possessions are scattered all over the city but I still have life and where there is life there is hope. I am very sorry that I am not able to be with you today in person to join in this last act of defiance against this eviction. I feel that this is just too much emotionally for me to witness. I am continually thankful for the support during this distressing time but I ask that your support should only be of peace, love and unity and not to be of any form of violence or intimidation toward the authority….

“the same tongue that says no, is the same tongue that says yes!”

I have asked that the keys are to be handed to the bailiffs on my behalf, to prevent any unnecessary damage to the property because I believe that one day to come, the same keys may be handed back to me, for I am confident in my convictions. It is not over until it is over, don’t think that I am running, if you believe I am running, hear this…..

“A man that fights and runs away at most times he will live to fight another day”

I am still fighting the Battle of Broadway along with your continual and much needed support and together we can show the whole of London that we care about our communities and each other and it is what makes us unique and real.

JAH RASTAFARI, ONE LOVE

Spirit of Broadway.

http://www.hackneysolidarity.info

Background to the case is covered in this Guardian article by Hari Kunzru.

Hackney Council displaying their characteristic control-freakery and incompetence:

“It seemed a diktat had come down from above that I was a non-person and should be barred from the library for the crime of writing an off-message piece on the Olympics. This essay, published in the London Review of Books, responded to aspects of the creation of the Olympic Park in the Lower Lea Valley: the destruction of the Manor Garden allotments, the eviction of travellers, and the famous ‘legacy’ revealed as nothing more than a gigantic shopping mall in Stratford.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/22/hackney-library-book-ban

http://opendalston.blogspot.com/2008/10/dalston-author-iain-sinclair-banned.html

LUX presents - HACKNEY PREMIERE of Anja Kirschner and David Panos’, ‘TRAIL OF THE SPIDER’
…filmed on location in Hackney Marshes & Essex

Trail of the Spider is a Western shot in Hackney and Essex, with a cast of actors and non-actors including many residents of East London.

The film recreates the epic panoramas of the Wild West using landfill sites in the Thames Gateway, gravel pits serving the Olympic Park, and Hackney Marshes - an area affected by the land grab accompanying the 2012 Olympics.

Trail of the Spider takes elements from the history of the Western (the stylized violence of Spaghetti Westerns and the melodrama of golden era ‘Horse Operas’) and combines them with the suppressed history of the multi-racial American West, where many cowboys were black, and alliances that crossed racial boundaries were common.

The film also addresses class conflict and displacement in East London today. By using standard Western plot devices of the ‘arrival of the railroad’ and the ‘end of an era’, Trail of the Spider explores the compromises and struggles of a population facing a new order of property speculation and gentrification.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the makers of the film + bar and DJs MIZ CB2000 & guests.

Thursday 24 July 2008.
7.30pm doors |8pm screening | party ’til late at Chats Palace Arts Centre, 42-44 Brooksbys Walk, Homerton, Hackney, London E9 6DF

Entrance FREE

This is London article about the film.