Festival of Home 2021: all about belonging

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our first ever Festival of Home.

From panels and workshops, to drag and poetry, the whole Museum site came alive with an array of activities all exploring what belonging looks like at home, who's granted belonging and where people belong.

The Festival of Home supported our annual Campaign for Change with dedicated programming. This year's campaign Behind the Door, centres on the homelessness that is happening every day in London, often behind closed doors, and often for women and families. 

Speakers, panelists and chairs

The Hidden Challenges of Women in the Home

• Onjali Q. Raúf @OnjaliRauf
  • Making HerStory
  • Buy The Night Bus Hero from the Museum Shop
• Marissa Begonia @thevoiceofdomesticworkers
  • The Voice of Domestic Workers
• Victoria Poku-Amanfo @VPokuAmanfo
  • The Passage London
• Dr Júlia Tomás @DrJuliaTomas
  • Rights of Women

What White Institutions Can Do Next

• Emma Dabiri @EmmaDabiri
• Moya Lothian-McLean @mlothianmclean

What's Home When You're Homeless?

• Paul Atherton FRSA @londonerslondon

Combining activism with storytelling

• Onjali Q. Raúf @OnjaliRauf
• Carolyn Asome @CarolynAsome

The Changing Landscape of Hackney

• Izzy Lewis from Friends of the Joiners Arms
• Saif Osmani from #SaveBrickLane
• Tamara Stoll from Save Ridley Road
• Siraaj Mitha Open City's head of Accelerate

Writing to Belong

• Nikesh Shukla @nikeshshuklawriter
• Hafsa Zayyan @haffy_22
  • Buy We Are All Birds of Uganda 

Is there a future where everyone has a home?

• Polly Neate @pollyn1 @pollyatshelter

You can sign Shelter's letter to Michael Gove: https://campaigns.shelter.org.uk/michael-gove-new-housing-secretary-state-sign-our-letter

And watch Shelter's campaign video Fight for Home by @Wretch32  - https://youtu.be/iHRLOtFfNQ8

• Sonia Solicari @SoniaSolicari

The Future of Home

• Ruby Lott-Lavigna @RubyJLL
• Heather Macey from John McAslan + Partners and Architects Aware
• Seyi Adelekun from @HouseOfAnnetta
• Razia Khanom from London Community Land Trust

Music and live performance

Numbi Arts @numbiarts

• DJ Raks2Riches @wewillrakiya
• DJ Santana
• Bebe Luna @itsbebeluna

In Her Strength @inherstrength

The Bitten Peach @BittenPeachUK

• Jason Kwan @JasonKwanMusic
• Shiva Raichandani @ShivaRaichandani
• GrapeGuitarBox aka Teenasai Balamu @GrapeGuitarBox

The Words We Carry

Change the Word Poetry Fellows

• Diyo Mulopo Bopengo @I_am_Diyo
• Sarah Orola @ItsSarahLouuise
  • Find out more about Change the Word and buy the anthology

• Mohamed Sarrar @Mo_Sarrar
  • Buy the album or stream on Spotify Sounds of Refuge

Film and podcasts

Londown podcast by Open City @OpenCityLondon

• Thomas Aquilina @thomasaquilina
• Catherine Slessor @cath_slessor
• Merlin Fulcher @merlinfulcher
  • Find all episodes here: https://open-city.org.uk/podcast

London On Lockdown

• Cardboard Citizens @cardboardcitz
  • Watch London On Lockdown 

Belonging on Film

• Lesa Dang @l88exa
• mandla rae @mandla_rae

Belonging Through Objects

• Mina Salimi @MeenaSalimi
  • Watch Mina's Shelf Life film, also screening in the Museum's Home Galleries
• Madeleine Waller https://www.madeleinewaller.com/
  • Watch Madeleine's Mantelpiece Stories film

Workshops

Photography with Aisha Olamide Seriki @OccupiedbytheLense

Figurative sculpture with @BLKBRDcollective

Print is Power posters with @AidaWilde

Embroidery with Angela Camacho @TheBonitaChola

Paper sculptures with @BenConnors

Lunch clubs

East End Bangla café @TATI.Canteen

Indonesian home cook Spoons @eatwithsp00ns

Storytelling

Olivia Armstrong @OliviaStories

Valerie Bloom https://valeriebloom.co.uk/about/

Food and drink

• Meet the Marylebone Project
• What's your cup of tea? tea wagon, with artists YARA + DAVINA
• Troy Deli 124 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8DP

For a reminder of the full schedule (pdf)