Balsall Heath Meeting and Screening – All Welcome!

‘A Touch of Eastern Promise’

Hillac Restaurant, Moseley Road, 4 June 6-8pm

Over recent months, as part of the project detailed on this site, a team of researchers from the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University have been exploring the cultural life of the residents of Balsall Heath.

One of the things that the project seeks to do is to recruit local people to form part of a panel to work with us in order to commission a funded project for Balsall Heath.

We are not looking for experts or people with experience and we’ll be offering support for the group: what we need are people who are interested and willing to get involved.

Thus, as a way of introducing this project and a means of inviting individuals to get involved, we’ll be holding a meeting on 4th June at the Hillac Restaurant, 568-570 Moseley Road, 4 June 6-8pm.

At the meeting we’ll also be screening a long lost gem from BBC television called ‘A Touch of Eastern Promise’ that will be of immense interest to many local residents, especially those with long memories! We hope that this will spark some discussion of ideas about what shape the cultural project might take and excite people about getting involved.

‘A Touch of Eastern Promise’ was broadcast on 8th February 1973 and was produced by the English Regions Drama Unit at BBC Pebble Mill. It was originating by Tara Prem, a young writer-producer of Anglo-Indian parentage who felt that migrant communities such as those in Balsall Heath were under-represented on TV.

The light-hearted drama concerns a young man (Dev Sagoo) who dreams about a Bollywood film star (Jamila Massey) who he seeks to meet when she pays a visit to the city. The programme was shot entirely on film and on location in Balsall Heath, amongst the local Asian community. In fact, the show drew much of its cast from amongst the same community. As Tara Prem recalls: the BBC had problems in casting dramas that dealt with people from migrant communities such as those from Pakistan as the pool of available professionals appeared quite small. As she says, she and the director Michael Lindsay Hogg toured around the streets of the Balsall Heath, ‘literally picking people off the street and saying – “do you want to be in a play?” and getting them in.’

The film is around 30 minutes in length and shows some aspects of Balsall Heath that have disappeared. It features a huge range of local people who some may recognise and in fact, some may recognise themselves! It is suitable for all the family so do come along and take a look and hear about our project and the opportunity to get involved.

You can find out more about the film and its producers online at the Pebble Mill Studios website.

If you have any further questions please get in touch. You can post a query below or email us at:

paul.long@bcu.ac.uk or saskia.warren@Bham.ac.uk

Call/text Paul Long on 07870507771.

Introduction to Jessica

Hello

I’ve just been appointed to the Cultural Intermediation project as a Research Fellow focused on cultural activities in Ordsall, Salford.

Here’s some background info on me

My interests lie in creativity, cultural meaning and urban sustainability.  I joined SURF in May 2014 and contribute as an anthropologist to the AHRC Connected Communities Programme. I am just finishing my PhD at the University of Manchester on idea generation and realisation in the making of a civic parade (due mid-2014).  I have an MA with Distinction from University of Manchester in Social Anthropology (2007) and a BA with First Class honours from University College London in Ancient World (1994)

I am focused on the generation of cultural meaning through creativity as an adaptive process and how organisations act as enablers and barriers.   Key areas of enquiry include:

•           Political influences on city making processes

•           The dynamics of collaborative creativity and co-production

•           The role of artists and other ‘creatives’ in working around organizational barriers

•           Alignment of anthropology and art

•           The potential for anthropology as a storytelling medium to engage in futures thinking

I also have a background in digital media, consultancy and social enterprise.  After graduating in 1994, I became an IT consultant focused on emerging technologies such as internet and interactive TV.  Mobilised by the dot-com crash, I moved into activism and social engagement, becoming Knowledge Manager at the Demos thinktank in London in 2002 and co-founder of the thinkingwomen network. 

In 2005, I founded social incubator, Krata developing a think-and-do-tank in Manchester with projects around environmental issues, community engagement and social enterprise.  Key outcomes included community engagement on the Regional Strategy for NWDA, analysis on barriers to healthy eating for Food Futures and raising funding for two projects: a café and market garden and a social enterprise running cooking workshops, the latter now independently run by the co-founders.  In 2003, I designed a foldaway bag as an alternative to plastic bags working with Oxfam to sell through independent retailers and online.  I am an active member of a female social entrepreneur network seeking to promote and support social enterprise.

I have ongoing enthusiasm for speculative fiction, short-filmmaking and community radio, broadcasting weekly on an ALL FM show with my kids.