Pull Up A Chair Gravesham - Anne Langford

I wanted to make this a thoughtful, reflective blog. But to be honest I came up with the title on the 16 March, half way through the residency and a year after my first visit and then I ran out of steam.  So I’m going to share two things I’ve been enjoying each day as a connection to Gravesham. Both are Twitter accounts. @Meopham_Weather tweets detailed weather updates. It’s strangely nice to know the humidity in Meopham (when sometimes I don’t even know if it’s raining outside my own flat)  @FraserG32883664 Fraser Gray – who tweets the comings and goings of all sorts of marine traffic past Gravesend. I just like dropping in and then checking up where the tankers have come from and where they are going. I hope that you enjoy them.

Sarah had seen my posts in different Gravesham Facebook groups and sent me a message to find out if anyone had responded, and to offer some suggestions.  Sarah works at the local hospital (Darent Valley) and was born and grew up in Higham. She moved to Gravesend in her 20s, back out to Chalk  and has recently moved back to Higham to support older family. A whole life lived in this chalky soil. Sarah wanted to share that the thing she is proud of, how 22 miles from central London she can stand in open countryside and not see a single house – she love’s the open space. Through my chat with Sarah I learn how proud she is of so much – the Sikh community who delivered hundreds of meals to the hospital staff during the peaks of the Pandemic, the beauty of the local woods – Cobham, Shorne Country and Jeskyn’s Parks, the Cyclo park that friends of hers travel from Cambridgeshire to enjoy (it’s that good) Sarah is someone who builds community  through connecting and sharing. I finished the call

It’s a grey and rainy morning as I drive into Northfleet to meet Mandi Knight, Creative Community Development Manager of Big Local. To an outsider it’s difficult to get my bearings about where the houses are Gravesend and where they become Northfleet. I wonder about these invisible boundaries that mean so much, I know from my husband’s family who live in almost joined up villages in Staffordshire that getting the location right is important.  It’s a connection to identity. I remember hearing an anthropologist on a TV programme saying something along the lines of, isolationism and purity of identity based on geography is always dangerous but vigour in place based identity is vital to retain a sense of belonging and culture.  I don’t really know what to expect from Northfleet but after 90 mins with Mandi, seeing this place through her eyes I’m fascinated. I don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere that is on the brink of so much radical change. It’s unexpected and fascinating with a particul

I started the day with a Facebook Live from the Confidence Queen Genny Jones . In a packed and joyous half hour there was a friendly check in, some really great simple but powerful tips on setting goals, encouragement to connect and support each other and then some dancing. Bobbing around to 'Don't Stop me Now' was glorious - I don't dance often enough. I'm going to make more time to do this. It's a visit to Gravesham day, having completed a Covid test I drive over to meet with Mandy Hare, a Cultural Manger at Gravesham, which includes responsibility for The Woodville. Mandy began her career in the West End, before moving into managing venues and now she has a wider, more strategic remit. Since The Woodville first closed its doors because of the Pandemic (exactly a year ago) her working life has changed completely – and yet sort of not at all. There have been brief periods when The Woodville re-opened, with social distancing measures but much of her time has be

David moved to Gravesend from London three years ago with his partner. He used to live in an artist community in North London but couldn’t see a way to buy a place, to support starting a family. The move to Gravesend was prompted by economic necessity, rather than attraction to place. But, as David talks, I sense a deep and growing affection for Gravesend. David and his partner decided quite quickly that this town would not just be somewhere they slept – they wanted to become part of and support the community. Meeting key community connectors has helped them discover the place through a network of people – including Lauren. David remembers being welcomed on his first day by some older residents and neighbours, and feeling really excited by the sense of community and neighbourliness. At the same time a throwaway comment suggested a racist othering of a different neighbour. He wondered for a moment if he had made the wrong choice. David notices there is a gulf in politics between some Gr

My final call of the second week is with Genny, AKA the Confidence Queen . Genny was born and lived in Sierra Leone until she was 15, then joined her mother in London until her 20s. When she married and wanted to start a family she wondered where to settle. In one of those strange, small world coincidences ,the woman who had looked after her as a child in Sierra Leone had moved to Gravesend and suggested Genny could do the same. And so she did. Genny radiates a deep and genuine warmth, even down the phone I can sense it. She tells me about a difficult time in her life and a dream she had. In this dream she was a bird trapped in a cage – when the cage door opened she realised she was an eagle who could fly. For Genny this dream was encouragement to admit that she needed help. And asking for help changed her world. I’m struck by the courage and wisdom of this experience, and how much better the world might be if we listened more attentively to our dreams. Genny began a search for happin

Although things have been quiet on the blog I've had lots of brilliant phone calls and connections. I'm giving people the opportunity to edit and approve anything I share so things will start to appear out of order and might be bit slower.  When I make theatre it's really important to me to be clear about whose story it is to tell, it can be very appealing to tell other people's stories. I usually think people should be given the resources and support to tell their own. Sometimes it's ok to tell other people's stories, only ever  with full consent and an ongoing conversation about that. The stories that appear on this blog are a little bit mine, a little bit other peoples and a little bit what happened between us. So, I'm working out how to navigate that. In the meantime, I went down to the river and found some excellent pieces of crockery, a bit of clay pipe and a piece of broken glass with 'return' stamped on it - I love it. It makes me think of La

I joined lots of Facebook groups for the communities of Gravesham and spent some time reading posts and introducing myself and having follow up message chats. I read some parish newsletters, and discovered the Meopham super neighbours I set up some conversations with different people in Gravesham I spent some time on Google Earth looking at the Borough and looking for maps  I read about a helmswoman of Gravesend RNLI and other women working for frontline and emergency services locally. I’ve enjoyed looking around Duncan Grants blog - some wonderful artworks and real generosity in profiling other artists work I watched We Are Gravesham, celebrating the volunteering and community work that happened during the first lockdown. It says a lot to me about pride, and an expansive sort of pride. I explored the Harvel Hash House Harriers website – a drinking club with a running problem…  And went back to the Rosherville Gardens Facebook page, so much pride and delight and shared history. I’d

I attend a Commonwealth celebration on Zoom. There’s a mixture of films about the history of the Commonwealth, it’s role today and people who live in Gravesham with ancestral and family ties to other countries in the Common Wealth talking about their lives and experiences. It’s organised and hosted as a Zoom webinar by Kent Cohesion Plus  who aim to promote positive community relations in Kent, bringing communities together through the arts, public education and sport. Last year the event happened in person in St Andrew’s Arts Space, the frequent references to food make me think that food usually plays a really important role in their events. I’m missing sharing food with others. There are references to International Women’s Day, with lots of speakers acknowledging the leadership and influence of women in their lives.  The event doesn’t shy away from the complexity of the commonwealth, it’s roots in colonialism and empire. The focus seems to be on building out of this, and I wonder wha

People are reading the blog! Which is lovely and a bit terrifying - grammar and punctuation and proof reading my own work are not a strong point. I'm also starting to meet and chat to more people and wanted to be clear that nothing about anyone appears here without the full permission of the person involved.  This might slow things down a bit as I want to give everyone time to reflect, chose not to have our conversation shared, ask for changes to what I've written etc.  So if I'm due to chat to you please don't feel put off by this public face of the residency, you will be in editorial control. Thinking about the ethics of any project I get involved in is part of how I chose what work I want to do, and keep checking in with what, and how, I'm doing things. At it's heart I'm asking myself a set of questions is this useful? is this kind? what power do I have and how am I using it? is this my story to tell? how is this defending and supporting the human rights

I feel like I’m getting some impressions of Gravesend and the importance of the river to Gravesham but the interior feels a bit of a mystery. I decide to take myself to the furthest point away from the river in Gravesham.  The drive to Gravesham from East London feels quite intense, I’ve used both the Blackwell Tunnel and the Dart crossing on my previous visit. The roads are quite empty but are clearly made for huge volumes of traffic. There are roadworks, four lane roads and lots of interchanges. I wonder if all that traffic will return? What will a year of living through the pandemic change our commuting and travelling behaviour for good?  I usually use public transport, an environmental and practical choice that’s accessible to me. I’ve borrowed a car from a friend to enable me to support family who have been unwell, in a lower risk way. The journey to Gravesham by train is easy by comparison to the drive. The roads feel like an imposition, unconnected to place. They are a way to pa

It’s been a day of rich conversations. I started with a long call with Lauren, an artist I met on a directing course and a Gravesend resident who works for the Woodville. We got on really well for the week we were learning together and have occasionally been in touch since but busy lives have got in the way of a deeper connection. I was really pleased we were going to speak. Lauren grew up in Gravesham but left at 17 to explore the world, before the tides bought her back 15 years later on 23 June 201 6, the day of the Brexit vote. As someone who, as a teenager, also left a small town that was experiencing economic and social shifts I felt a real affinity with her experience.  Wondering what was out there in the world and where you might fit, and then finding yourself drawn back.   A mix of usual life events, families changing and growing, combined with the surprising coincidence of a good friend choosing to put down roots in Gravesend prompted a return. Walking along the prom, seeing t