“Culture Our Way” is a documentary by Social Ark, directed and produced by Marlon Rouse Tavares.
It premiered on Wednesday 20 March 2024 as part of a celebration for the Cultural Exchange 23 pilot programme, led by Social Ark with Sirlute, Skaped, XCONVERSATION, Truce ’n’ Train, Calling4Gr8tness led the exchange pilot — working collaboratively with three UK youth engagement partners: Aalfy, Sheffield; Birmingham Says No, Birmingham; and Strive to Thrive, Preston.
The documentary follows the journey of young people from the East London cohort along with young people from Birmingham, Preston and Sheffield. It shines a light on their talent, skills, resilience and aspirations, with particular thanks to the Social Ark Consortium who led the exchange programme. It also demonstrates the impact and lifelong learning this programme brought to all who took part.
The UK Cultural Exchange was generously funded by Westfield Stratford City as part of the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund and is an innovative UK-wide exchange programme that was devised against the ‘levelling up’ backdrop.
The Cultural Exchange programme aims to connect young people, arts, cultural and innovation organisations, and communities across East London and other UK cities, using creative and inclusive placemaking as a learning tool while fostering leadership and change-making skills.
The Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund is an ambitious five-year programme that aims to invest £10 million into the local communities of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest, supported by retail destination Westfield Stratford City. This flagship project will provide new jobs, learning, training and educational programmes through arts, culture, innovation, public realm and creative placemaking.
For more information, see future.london
what is [Music] culture culture is the ideas beliefs norms and behaviors within a given group and um it can be seen as the waves of an ocean where people impact each other’s cultures through the through like transmitting their cultural beliefs through their actions I think culture can be a gift to people that know how to use it in a way that empowers other people within the community and when I say Empower I mean it brings them joy and it brings them it it provides a good way of life for other people [Music] [Music] B20 is in B21 you’re not hands of hood babe you’re still handsome I love Birmingham I love being from Birmingham walk up a road and you’ve got the rich people down Road you got the asking you for 2 bu but really he wants his crack people like always come for Birmingham for the accent black country will say y want aam but we will say do you want it’s actually the black country accent that is that makes so birmingam is Birmingham burger and sauce Burmingham delicacy you can get the order going right now all right so pretty much Sheffield is one of the greatest cities in the world he’s not that big and it’s not that small every part of Sheffield’s got his own accent it literally just depends who he’s speaking to instead of saying all right say all right off your pop basically me like you can get out Sheffield is the city of Steel everyone’s welcome literally coming you’re fitting straight away you’re going to bump into everyone you know I really do hope you guys took some more shots people really do think that we live in a farm that’s why I call it yeah P toown for City we got the second biggest bus station in Europe we just called nor that’s where where we are near Blackpool and I don’t I don’t like that all I’m I’m the near Manchester no one’s the same impress everyone’s got the wrong little phrases it’ll get called a Milky CH where I’ll get called a Chucky ch who more friendly people more friendly than sers oh yeah this is London where we call home whatever image you have of London check out the window because that’s not what it’s like they think London’s like top boy everyone just get stabbed or shot what they thought everyone in London’s rude or I would say that London is like a spice rack filled with so many different flavors so you won’t go to one place and it’ll be the same oh yeah plomo is so big in London not going to lie I think London is ruthless fast pace you don’t stop so whatever you need and whatever you want get [Music] it do you remember the kids that used to said they was from the but you know they were no they just tried to fit in in that yeah trust me man I was like it’s like why would you want to come from where I’ve come from been through what I’ve been through you know what I mean like London these look like C get here and this area you’re in the bits I’ve got like English friends that have been told they’re not allowed to go through this area even like on the bite it’s off limits but it’s not it’s it’s got a really bad rep but it’s really not that bad yeah it’s not that bad it’s more B [Music] grieve we basically are here as part of the culture exchange to learn to learn what it does it what does being from Sheffield mean what does it what is the heritage of of Sheffield what are the difficulties and the barriers that young people face what is history to you guys as far as your concern for Sheffield so we can take that and say you know what this is what we do in London and this may work for you guys so what do you do in Sheffield and like well okay this might work here in London too do you get what I’m saying so it’s about that exchange of knowledge that exchange of of ideas when we all in here we respect each other we like if you come in there you know everyone’s your friend no matter what happens outside and if you need anything will help you it’s like friendship Brotherhood I mean that’s what works well for us as well it’s like people come here and they feel safe everyone that comes here has got Pure intentionally we live in a we live in a internet world at the moment you get Co affected the lives of possibly every single young person so when you meet people in person you actually deep you actually make that Paradigm Shift of this is real this is happening what I would like to do would be to bring everyone back together bring back Community cohesion and really live out what community means being together being a back in the day people used to ask like their neighbors for sugar for an egg do you know what I mean but now it’s like if you do that it’s in this kind of time in general there’s a lot of like difficulties for young people to go through like it’s it’s it’s kind of hard like growing up in like this kind of area with with like obviously everything that’s going on in the world world like I think people kind of struggle to know exactly what they want in [Music] life what is important to you to at this point in your life right now we go like this yeah I so deep still um do you want my honest answer on the camera answer cuz I’m we might get emotional so I had kids when I was 19 and growing up I never had my daddy passed away so I didn’t have no one to look up to and my mom never worked all my siblings don’t work um and so it was just don’t want my kids to grow up like that in it I don’t want my kids to grow up with no motivation or anyone doing anything around them for me it is important for me to build like my character and just be a bit more because I am approachable and I am like confident but I just need to be more out there I don’t know I feel like I’m still trying to figure out what I like and what I want to do so probably like finding myself and figuring out what I want to do in the future and yeah I just do good in my social life I suppose have a social life cuz I think I lost it back in college after I finished my after I finished college and such I didn’t really getting get like I wasn’t in touch with my friends or anything like that I think for me my aim is to get excited feel excited um feel excited about the city I live in feel excited about life having a career I’m just doing something with my life really progressing in life and yeah making something in your life that’s it I just want to prove people wrong me I’m not even going to lie to you whoever told me that I couldn’t do that I am going to do that so yeah that’s that that’s truth man you just want to prove everyone wrong [Music] we say a going to a yeah ining they’re look at confused a just listen she not repres right nowes right now it’s a cop it’s a cop what is it like being a young person things aren’t given to you you have to work for it like everyone just FMS it over you yeah it is what it is feel like you don’t have a choice in Birmingham because I feel like everybody’s doing something like like even if you look at like the like Instagram pages and stuff everybody’s got their own little business or something like that growing up in the East End you wouldn’t change it for the world your neighbors have got a smash window that don’t mean nothing you know what I mean just B it up we ain’t trying to get a double glaze window around in we’re cocky and we’re cocking for a reason and that’s because you know what we’ve got nothing and with nothing we still make something happen do you know what I mean being in East London I’m surrounded by a lot of people that are hustles and people that get it we say we’re going to go graft that’s how hustle grafting is like hustling now the one thing we say is that we’re locked in we’re locked in we’re locked in when you Graf in grafting right you hustling you’re grafting when you locked in think about a lock once you got the lock you can’t come back out the lock the lock we got the lock we locked it it’s gone [Music] away people don’t understand how exciting for somebody that’s never left pressing it is to go to London or a big city like that and just see it when you grew up here for most of your life and you know all the streets you know your people you just love it SE I will have a PO like yeah you’re all right M yeah take care bro see how we just see how he just mov you to say excuse I’m in shef now I want to go back to I want to go back to you know what I’m saying old ladies calling me no honey oh you’re a star Mak you proud about the butter pies the butter pie the butter what a butter pie I never heard of that yeah the butter pies I I’m but P are amazing why is change important why is change important because you can’t you can’t be stagnant like you can’t have the same rigid beliefs because people change societies change and you need to change alongside with it I feel like without change you don’t have growth I feel like those are literally two things that are very very uh Interlink even though on TV you know we might see people living luxurious lives that’s not what it’s like for the majority of people um so those of us who have enough privilege to be able to try and change need to band together um in order to make that happen in solidarity with those who were born in different positions to us I did something called like trauma um trauma informed like training and then they spoke about a cycle like when you’ve gone through something that you haven’t dealt with you’re always going to be in the triggered stage and it’s the buildup and you don’t realize it so it’s sick it’s so sick learning about yourself and learn about human psychology it’s what’s beautiful is you guys have got this already took me 50 years to get it everyone gets it that time honestly you have to you end up going through a crisis before you recognize that you know what I mean you’ve been operating in in the wrong space MC we’re older than you you know in spirit for real we’re old we been no literally why is that the case I such a good now I’m telling you we in the right [Music] spot the journey within this program was just about really getting inspired really kind of finding dots you know connecting dots between me and other people and how we think and how we can create this like energy that can move me forward and can move you know we can all go forward basically you’ve always got to realize who you doing it for if I was doing it for me I never would have worked with the police but it’s not for me that’s selfish and me I’m doing it for young people cuz we’re all kind of like I think we’re quite similar people in the way that like we all like doing community work youth work like we’re kind of like activists and like we all kind of do similar sort of thing we definitely click one of the things that community means for me is that a livable place for everyone and is that what you see when you look around your local area do you see a livable place for everyone this is nothing like it used to be back a day it was a smaller Library they monopolized it capital site you know all that crap through this there through a waterfall which no one can actually go on cuz if you do you’re going to get trouble someone’s going to shout at you and scream at you everything’s changing lots of development it’s becoming less like home more like a place for tourists to come and more attractions and more big Landscapes and landmark sort of [Music] things very well amazing thank you everyone’s everyone’s closer people that came in with no confidence have got more confidence you can see it like from the beginning to now it’s a big difference for everyone no one’s strangers before it felt like everyone was strangers it was kind of everyone’s high high now it’s more everyone’s more comfortable he’s not in our team he’s not in our team are you in our team like me a lot of people want to break the molds want to stay away from stereotypes and it’s interesting seeing how where people grew up and where they come from and the paths that they’ve LED has kind of LED them to where they are now and the changes that they want to make so it’s nice being in an environment with people that actually actively want to do things if you’re mentally strong you can do anything you put Mar to I believe that and I I’ll want it cuz that that’s life life is hard and it you took everything and you got it you got to make your own look don’t wait for anybody else you’re going to make your own up do what you’re going to go and do you know I mean that’s in my it’s not about me anymore it’s about helping these kids that are vulnerable the kids that are at RIS like I was what happens when that CH is the village and what becomes them a world of rising technology is true I definitely have and before joining the social right then yes hi everybody I hope everyone’s doing well today um before I begin can I please get a show of hands if you are a passionate entrepreneur creative or you’re just passionate about your career all right all right I see a lot of them we’re from Preston in Lancer and we’re creating a podcast well created a podcast for Young People by young people to make that change in the community hey everyone my name is Mo I want to tell you about EMP power youth it’s a project I want to start in East London got this I was once that kid that gave up on himself because I was keeped out of school I went down the wrong path and thought I never amount to anything I’m sure each and every one of us here has a point in their life where they felt alone I definitely have so connecting Minds is a community and youth Le project which uses Ai and social media as a tool to address technological poverty hi my name is Will and I come from just will Productions and I’m here today because I believe I have a solution to the problem that is the in affordability to pursu a career Within the Music Industry repping up the east of London stret out at the dungeon ain’t no one got a flow like me ain’t no one the show like me I mean got state facts it was just really lovely to be in that space with everyone and I feel like we’re all so accepting of each other and inclusive and there was no judgment there which is really hard to find you are just amazing projects you’ve come up with the passion the skill is just mindboggling it doesn’t matter if you were on your phone had a piece of paper or you were so good that you can remember it it doesn’t matter you got up here and you did it and I was blown away by that but the second thing that really struck me is you’ve got a problem you found a solution and you’re working together I think it’s just terrific and I could talk all day about it but well done I pulled your wheel up I had to pull your wheel up cuz you’re sa everybody in that room I’m just really relieved you know cuz I I had so much nerves and then when when it was my turn to come up you know he’s a legend nobody could have done what he done I’m telling you so I’m a m always part like my point in life was to help people to inspire and to give back the culture Exchange program gave me the opportunity and then most importantly it really gave me a family I came from a place where I had no family been in the care system um so to have a bunch of people from all over the UK tell you you know your family it’s absolutely amazing I feel like I left the program feeling really yeah grateful for for other people’s generosity um kindness and just like made me like oh like we can be a community we can be you know I built friendships that I didn’t think think i’ actually build cuz don’t look at me well I didn’t think I’d be ran with you joking I got to learn a lot from them I got to hear a lot from them as well hear their stories it St inspires me as well like I said I knew what I wanted to do but I didn’t know where to start from and now I feel like I’m at a point where I can go and do things by myself about as as good as support is from everyone but eventually you have to go and do things yourself and now I’m way more confident and like what I want to do what I have to do and we built this mad bom where I’m like pretty much family members with everyone now at me it’s amazing to have a community together that shares the stain vision of wanting to shape the future I think that’s basically what the whole purpose of the culture Exchange program might even be but sharing a vision together [Music] I’m inspired right now you I’m inspired right now I see iate I’ve seen things that I never seen before this is going too slow why is why are we going to BU [Music] CR right now put on neutral put on neutral stop guys having a B I love the social condem the guys the guys look at these Ops they’re riding on the boat about man and they can’t even [Music] FL even oh [Music] [Music] [Music]