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Final reflection and thank you!

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It’s Friday 30 April and I’m returning to Gravesend for a final debrief with Païvi from LV21 and Lucy from Quiet Down There to reflect on the Pull Up A Chair residency. I arrived early and before the meeting sat down to enjoy coffee and coffee cake outside Marie’s café. The first time I had been able to do this in Gravesham. As I sit and watch the town it’s lovely to say Hi to Graham, the town centre manager passing by, and overhear conversations between people bumping into each other for the first time. I had grand hopes of having all the blog posts written up and everything neatly tied up with a bow but well life, and other exciting projects happened, and I hadn’t quite finished everything. So I took this moment to read back through some notes I’d made after a mentoring session.             I was very grateful for the support of Tom, a coach and mentor who I had three sessions with over the course of the project. The last of these was two weeks after the residency had officially ende
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Final day Flotsam and Jetsam

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In 1886 a schooner, The Spring, sank and the sacks of cement were purchased to build a seas wall. They still form part of the sea wall on the prom but were covered over in the 1970s when the sea wall was strengthened. There used to be a tidal paddling pool. How lovely would that be? Or a tidal lido? The Thames Clipper might run a service from Gravesend to Central London. I think about what an exciting journey that would be, let alone a brilliant commute.   All the things I didn’t do. There are so, so many things but here are the ones that I really wanted to connect with and couldn’t find a way to make it happen.   I haven’t met anyone in a group, or community setting enjoyed a pint or a gig.   Really explore the Marshes Meet with G Town crew – though I enjoyed some of their Insta live broadcasts Have a walk round Higham with Sarah Spend more time in the villages of Gravesham Connect with The Table project Chat to some elders in the community Eat at the Gurdwara Learn to tie a knot Meet
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Final residency day - The Chantry, a river walk, the Gurdwara and a ferry ride

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It’s my last day in Gravesend and I’m meeting Lyndsey Thompson in the New Tavern Fort park. Lydney is the   Arts and Heritage Officer for Gravesend Borough Council. It’s a job she’s had for 13 years and she loves it. In more normal years she supports arts events in the town and is responsible for the care of the historic assets, in particular The Chantry. I used to be a local government arts officer for a county, that also had district level local government. This is often a complex arrangement, with lots of overlap and challenges – but also lots of potential. I worked in local government before the economic crash of 2008, and subsequent austerity. It was a very different world in terms of funding, and support for local authorities.   I’m interested in what is happening now, and how Lyndsey works.   We talk about partnerships with other local authorities, in particular some brilliant projects that happened in the past. Lyndsey recalls a really well received one with artists creating sc
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Facebook adventures

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As I wasn't able to spend much time physically in Gravesham I decided to explore as many virtual ways to visit as I could. I was a bit worried about being so open on Facebook - the internet is a very easy place for people to forget their manners and their humanity. I decided to set up a Facebook profile for this project, to safeguard family and friends of mine who could be accessed through my personal account and so that I could be more intentional about who I was, and why I was posting. It was odd working out how much personal information to share. I decided a potted history, and a couple of photos of myself and one with my husband, felt like an honest way to connect. It turned out to be utterly brilliant. I received a very warm welcome, made lots of lovely connections and had more recommendations of places to visit and things to do than I could fit into 6 months. I wanted to showcase a couple of the amazing photographs that got shared on my posts - to tempt me to visit these plac
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Penultimate (jam packed) day!

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It’s my penultimate day in Gravesham and my last day on LV21. Except I really hope that it isn’t my last day on LV21, and I might just decide to stowaway at the end of the day and not go home.  It’s another sunny day and I’m sitting on a bench finishing off The Infinite by Patience Agbabi. This is a book for children aged 10ish and up, Païvi loaned it to me and I’m racing to finish it before I get to meet the author. I love it, the hero of the story Elle Bíbi-Imbelé Ifíè is a voice I’ve never heard in a book before, though through my community arts work I’ve met lots of young people she reminds me of. She’s a courageous, kind and curious Leapling – born on 29 February. The story is a really good mystery adventure that centres and celebrates lots of neurodiverse voices we don’t often get to hear. I don’t quite finish it before I see the author approach and we have a smiley, socially distant hello. We go up and sit on deck of LV21 and Patience kindly lets me grill her about her writing
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