While writing job applications with my neighbour we got stuck when it came to defining her ethnic origin/nationality...non of the available options was accurate and ticking "other" felt like admitting to be "the other" which didn't necessarily feel good.

...art as the means by which a community develops for itself a medium for self-expression and interpretation

Girl explaining the position of the film frame to younger kids in both Bengali and English.

A way from Paris to Bow Road. Salman was inspired by the story he heard from his friend who had been to Paris.

our first puppets and our own hands

I just read few of my previous posts and realised that a lot has changed since then. Making plans doesn't make sense as every time I plan for something to happen it doesn't work that way, and sometimes things happen in most unpredictable moments. Like today, children knocked to my door with a box of pencils in their hands saying that there mum was tiding up, so they decided to draw at my place.

We have been working quite a lot last week, recording stories, conversations and making puppets. We also started filming them and now it's time for first edits. I'm still quite careful with using cameras, but it seems like none of the adults around has a problem with it. We had a chat about different equipment with one of the dads. Boys filmed an elderly man passing by and he just smiled saying "hello".

We worked a lot outside, on our walkway. It's important for me to make parents feel that they can be a part of it, and working outside makes what we are doing easier to follow by everyone around. Yesterday two mums joined us on the walkway. It seems like some of the parents approve our art workshops more then others, but it's definitely getting better. Kids are getting more and more focused and some of them are experimenting a lot with various forms of creating. They usually come with few ideas of what they want to make and I noticed that they are getting more and more confident in making decisions. I try to not to give them too many ideas, but rather to encourage them to develop their own.

Ashraf asked me yesterday if they were part of my project.