Haringey school pupils take on the haters

Collage Arts will be working with Haringey school pupils to explore how music can help tackle hate crimes. This has been made possible as a result of funding from Amplify London, a partnership between the London Music Fund and YouTube Music.

Voices Against Hate is a collaboration between Collage Arts and schools in Wood Green. Over the next 6-months young people (aged 11 to 14) impacted by hate speech, will come together with their friends to find ways to combat this form of bullying. They will be creating memes, sketches and songs that promote diversity and undermine the basis of the hate speech. This will build up into a tool kit. Pupils in the local schools will be trained to interrupt any hate speech and try to turn the conversations around to become more inclusive and kinder.

Voices against hate will start in September 2020 and run for around 8 months.  The approach has been informed by the Hate Interrupter Teams (HIT) project, funded by EU Rights Equalities and Citizenship programme that Collage Arts have been delivering the past 18 months.

Steve Medlin, artistic director of Collage Voices said: “Over the past two years we have grown our youth provision in Haringey. We have partnerships in place with 7 schools and work with them on increasing attainment and social and civic agendas. Whilst community relations in Haringey are generally good, hate crime is on the rise fuelled by Brexit and a rebuttal of Black Lives Matter. We are planning to create songs that tackle these issues and celebrate diversity with pupils in the schools working to stamp out hate speech and on-line bullying.”

Councillor Mark Blake, Haringey Council cabinet member for communities, safety and engagement, said: “I am pleased to see the way that Collage Arts is working in local schools. I think creating music, as a way of confronting the issue of hate crime, will create a valuable legacy and contribute to improved community cohesion. This is one of the antisocial behaviours I am keen to stamp-out, because hate can blight young lives.”

Chrissy Kinsella, CEO of the London Music Fund, said: “These five projects will reach young people who will be most adversely affected by the current crisis over the next 12 months.”  Other projects funded by the programme are addressing diversity through an exploration of Windrush and working with cis and trans girls.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Music has the power to transform lives and these grants will inspire the next generation of musicians and support our vital grassroots organisations at a time when they need it the most.”

Christina Matteotti, Head of Music, EMEA Partnerships at Google, said: “Everyone at YouTube Music is passionate about seeing the next generation of talent thrive…YouTube Music is committed to doing whatever we can we can to help young creatives share their music with the world.” YouTube Music will offer 1:1 training with the organisations and young people in the projects enabling them to use the platform and shine a light on their talents. YouTube Music will also bring in some of their key partners and artists from the industry for masterclasses with the young people.”

About Collage Arts

Collage Arts has been the beating heart of the Haringey Cultural Quarter for over 35 years. It lets out over 80,000 square feet of studio space to creative businesses, artists and maker. Collage Arts has links with the music industry at all levels. It leases studios to music producers and videographers; runs a live music venue; and delivers training in many aspects of the music industry.

Collage Voices works across the performing arts disciplines and help give young people a voice to talk about issues that interest or excite them. The work is fully inclusive, and costs are kept to a minimum to remove economic barriers to involvement. Collage Voices in schools is an active partnership with 6 schools and the virtual school. Programmes are developed and delivered in partnership with the schools. These can be working to supporting improved attainment in the schools. In other cases we work to deliver programmes that address social issues and citizenship.

About Amplify London

Amplify London is the London Music Fund’s newest programme, launched in February 2020, in collaboration with YouTube Music and Sound Connections. It supports grassroots organisations that are providing musical activities for young people in London, by funding specific local projects and helping the organisations to forge links with the music industry and the music education sector.

Through Amplify, the London Music Fund aims to support organisations that offer music and/or music technology activity in London for young people aged 11-21, and aren’t being funded by Music Services or schools. Successful organisations are awarded a grant of up to £6000 towards the proposed project. Another five projects will be funded in 2021.  #AmplifyLDN

About the London Music Fund

The London Music Fund (formerly the Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians) was founded in May 2011. It is a registered charity (1141216) – independent of the Greater London Authority – established to support and benefit young musicians across the capital, especially those from economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds. The Mayor of London is its patron.

The Fund works with every London borough to provide outstanding progression and development opportunities to children and young people who demonstrate musical potential and a commitment to learning an instrument. Since 2011 the Fund has awarded more than 520 instrumental scholarships to children from low income families and funded 41 wider collaborations with professional arts organisations and music hubs, reaching more than 10,000 young musicians and contributing more than £2.7m in funding to music education in London.  More info

To get involved in Voices against hate, contact Andry on voices@collage-arts.org