Recharge: A day to breathe out on 07 April
Museum of Homelessness is hosting day of solidarity on 07 April to give people a chance to breathe out. We are delighted to be working with campaigner and MoH trustee Aderonke Apata and artist Jacob V. Joyce to host the day. It’ll be a day where we can share, be creative, make things – it won’t be a day where you are expected to do any work or organising. This event is for anyone who could do with some breathing space from the fight against the hostile environment..
Recharge will take place at the Whitechapel Gallery, on 07 April between 10.30am and 3.30pm. We’ll be hosting another version of this event later on in the year in Glasgow.
After two years of the pandemic there seems to be little opportunity to draw breath. Another war has been added to the list of global conflicts, and here in the UK the punitive Nationality and Borders Bill has just had its first reading. There is plenty of reasons to feel despairing, but also a chance for communities to come together to look after each other in uncertain times.
Recharge has been made person with generous support from the Whitechapel Gallery, Isla Foundation and the School of Museums Studies Leicester.
How to book and other essential info
07 April, 10.30am – 3.30pm
The Whitechapel Gallery, Creative Clore Studio, 77- 82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX
Lunch and treats will be provided and the event is free. Capacity is very limited so please do book early.
What to expect
This is not an event about organising or exchanging tactics. It won’t include presentations or talks.
Instead, we will have informal activities, workshops and other things to do which are intended to be nourishing and healing.
Aderonke Apata, will kick off our event and introduce the day. Aderonke is a Human Rights Activist, legal professional and the founder of African Rainbow Family. Aderonke’s incredible victory after a 13-year battle with the Home Office is the stuff of legend. She will share tips around creativity, resistance and joy in the face of adversity.
Throughout the day there will be creative activities, sharing food and relaxation. The event will be facilitated by Museum of Homelessness crew members Benji Lain, Jess Turtle and Matt Turtle.
MoH collaborator Jacob V. Joyce will share their spaceship workshop. The spaceship is a huge mobile fabric mural which is activated through games, grounding rituals and the embodied gestures of systemically marginalised activists. The spaceship was created by many voices and invites people to consider the ways we can resist alienation together and create new ways of moving forward together: cruising beyond the isolating grip of oppressive state violence.
About the contributors
Aderonke Apata
Aderonke is a human rights activist and feminist who has a BSc in Microbiology, a Master of Public Health and a Postgraduate Degree in Law. She studied the Bar Professional Training Course and currently studying Master of Laws. She is a campaigner for people seeking asylum to stay in the UK, of which she gained asylum after a 13-year battle. Aderonke was named ‘Activist of the Year’ at the Sexual Freedom Awards (2018) and the winner of the Ron Todd Foundation Equality Awards (2018). Aderonke was also the proud winner at the Attitude Pride Awards'(2017) and the winner of the ‘Positive Role Model for LGBT’ at the National Diversity Awards (2014), where she was described as “an unstoppable force in fighting for justice.” Aderonke is the founder of Manchester Migrant Solidarity and African Rainbow Family, an LGBT group that supports people seeking asylum in UK and campaigning for the repeal of the toxic Nigerian Anti-LGBTIQ Law. In 2021 Aderonke joined the Museum of Homelessness board of trustees.
Jacob V. Joyce
Jacob V Joyce’s work ranges from afro-futurist world building workshops to mural painting, comic books, performance art and punk music with their band Screaming Toenail. Best known for their illustrations, Joyce has self-published a number of books and illustrated international human rights campaigns for Amnesty International, Global Justice Now and had their comics in national newspapers. Recent TFL Arts Grant awardee, artist in residence at Gasworks and the Tate Galleries Education department Joyce is a non-binary artist amplifying historical and nourishing new queer and decolonial narratives. In 2021 Jacob began working collaboratively with MoH and our community to respond to our experiences of the pandemic.
MoH team – Jess Turtle, Benji Lain & Matt Turtle
The MoH team are part of the Museum’s core group, who work together to decide on the creative activities and campaigns that the museum undertakes. The three of them have worked together for several years to undertake campaigning, direct work with people affected by homelessness and the creation of several museum exhibitions.
Access & COVID-19 Protocol
Recharge has been designed to ensure that groups can stay distanced from each other in the space. The Clore Creative Studio is a bright space, with floor-to-ceiling windows that allows for excellent ventilation. Hand sanitiser stations are in place throughout the venue and effective cleaning is in place from the venue team.
Tickets are free so can be cancelled right up until the time of the day, to ensure flexibility should you not be able to attend. We ask you not to attend if you are experiencing COVID symptoms or have been asked to self-isolate. If you develop symptoms or test positive for COVID, please contact us. matt@museumofhomelessness.org and we will let people who attended at the same time know as per our community track and trace protocol.
The venue is fully wheelchair accessible.
If travel costs would stop you from coming please email jess@museumofhomelessness.org for support.
If you have any access requirements or would like some more information on the day and what to expect please contact Jess. We will take care of anything that is needed to make the event more accessible for you.
Background
In 2020 Museum of Homelessness campaigned for hotel rooms to be made available for people who are homeless to self-isolate during lockdown. Roll on a few months and in August 2020 we were angry to find that far right groups were targeting the hotels as migrants who were homeless were staying there. We set up an installation outside the UK govt Home Office in response, challenging UK government for their racist policies which affect our community.
Throughout 2021, thanks to a grant from the Isla Foundation, we have carried out anti racist work including research into racism, xenophobia and homelessness and how misinformation about homelessness, migrants and veterans circulates online. We set up a street clinic to support homeless EU citizens, in particular the rough sleeping Roma community, with applications for Settled Status post Brexit. We work with grassroots colleagues to fight all kinds of racism and xenophobia within homelessness. We challenge the hostile environment and we stand in solidarity with all affected by it.
In December 2021 we were awarded the Activist Museum Award from the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries in Leicester and we are spending the award money on these solidarity days.