Box Clever Workshop

On Monday 6^th of February, twelve highly creative Year 8 students went to the Whitechapel Ideas Store for a final performance of poetry, writing, raps and songs. They had been working on these pieces in three previous workshops with members of the Box Clever drama group, after Box Clever’s Hate Crime drama performance to all of Year 8. All the students were keen to see their final work, especially as Michael, Oneness and Jules of Box Clever had been adding beats, music and film to produce pieces that looked and sounded really professional. The fact that there would be students from Swanley School who were going to be showing their work and listening to ours added a few more nerves but as the group walked into the Ideas Store workshop we were welcomed by Oneness and Jules singing one of our songs and felt much more at home.

During the hour, our works were performed by Box Clever and we watched films of our creative writing process. The highlight of the performance had to be the ‘open mic’ section, which allowed Niaz, Jahedor and Hamsa, along with other students, to stand up and read or rap their own original works. It’s not easy reading your own words to an audience and the boys were not only brave but confident performers. Hopefully this confidence will grow to allow the boys’ impressive rapping on the coach back to move onto the open mic stage next time! The main message which came through the workshop was how through writing we could meet new people and learn about each other, without prejudice. This welcoming atmosphere was clear in how carefully and respectfully students from both schools listened to each others’ creations. I was really impressed and proud, not only of the twelve boys’ creativity, but also of what a thoughtful audience they were.

Michael from Box Clever has already been in touch saying it was a ‘great day’, which was repeated by one of the students asking why it only had to be one hour long! We are all keen to support and continue this creativity at Bow and I look forward to see more of our boys expressing themselves in this way.