East End Review

Tag: Haggerston

  • Azealia Banks axed from Hackney music festival after racist rant at Zayn Malik

    Azealia Banks
    Azealia Banks. Photograph: Rick Bonetti via Flickr

    Azealia Banks has been dropped from headlining a Hackney music festival after the hip hop artist unleashed a racially abusive and homophobic twitter tirade.

    Banks was set to headline Rinse: Born & Bred festival in Haggerston Park on Sunday 5 June.

    But Rinse FM, the festival organisers, have dropped the US star after she posted offensive tweets targeted at One Direction’s Zayn Malik.

    In a statement, the festival organisers said: “We have decided to cancel Azealia Banks’ headline appearance … Rinse: Born & Bred Festival is a celebration of rave culture and has been created for everyone. We celebrate inclusivity and equality.”

    In a stream of derogatory tweets, Banks called Malik a “brown-faced refugee” and said his whole family would be “obliterated by the good old U.S of A.”.

    She added: “The UK really can’t rap though. UK RAP is just a disgrace to rap culture in general.”

    The row started when 24-year-old Banks claimed Malik had copied her work for his new video, Like I Would.

    Damn Zayn be mood boarding the fuck of out me 😳.. I’m not mad about this though. Zayn is a cutie pie

    A photo posted by Azealia Banks (@azealiabanks) on

    Banks added that she thought the singer was a “cutie pie”, but when Malik, a British singer with a Pakistani father and English-Irish mother, tweeted: “I see you reaching but I don’t care … My @’s too good for you,” Banks assumed it was aimed at her and unleashed a tirade of abuse, including the accusation that Malik was only in One Direction “to draw brown attention”.

    Responding to the festival’s decision, Banks tweeted: “To all of my Darling UK fans who bought tickets to see me at the Rinse FM show. My sincerest apologies!!!!!

    “But you know Mama Puma always goes in for the Kill. And NEVER backs down.”

  • Stephen Staunton’s ‘dramas of colour’ make Headway in Bethnal Green this month

    Stephen Staunton’s ‘dramas of colour’ make Headway in Bethnal Green this month

    Birds by Stephen Staunton, who became an artist after sustaining a traumatic brain injury.
    Birds by Stephen Staunton, who became an artist after sustaining a traumatic brain injury.

    In 1991 Stephen Staunton – an artist originally from Galway in Ireland and now living in north London – sustained a traumatic brain injury in a road traffic accident. As a result, Staunton is deaf and uses very little language or formal signing, instead “communicating through gesture, isolated words, vocalisations, and the physical resources of his surroundings,” according to Headway East London, a Haggerston-based charity that supports people affected by brain injury.

    Staunton began attending Headway in 2007, where he started painting. Nine years on, and an exhibition of his work – described by Headway as “patchwork dramas of colour” – is on display this month at the Gallery Café in Bethnal Green, sponsored by the Whitechapel Gallery and curated by Steph Hirst.

    “I think Stephen’s paintings are partly expressions of an unusual way of seeing,” reflects Bryn Davies, co-ordinator at Headway. “He paints as if he’s at home with the social lives of colours. Stephen’s works usually begin from a source image, but they quickly take on a life of their own. He works with a mixture of careful planning and off-the-cuff gusto.”

    Chinese Ladies by Stephen Staunton.
    Chinese Ladies by Stephen Staunton.

    Staunton developed his practice in Headway’s art department, known as Submit to Love Studios. Davies explains that the studios are a central part of Headway’s work. “Art gives an opportunity for our members to express themselves and their relation to the world in an atmosphere of collaboration and mutual support,” he says. “Such projects also open up conversations which will hopefully lead to a deeper understanding of the difficulties and talents of brain injury survivors.”

    Staunton himself gave a talk on his paintings on 5 May at the Gallery Café, followed by a musical performance by other Headway members.

    Steven Staunton Paintings
    Until 31 May, Gallery Café,
    21 Old Ford Road, E2 9PL
    whoareyounow.org

  • My Stuff – review

    Stuff and nonsense? Petri
    Stuff and nonsense? Petri Luukainen ponders his possessions in My Stuff

    Like many of us, Petri Luukainen had too much stuff. But unlike many of us, he decided to put everything he owned into storage for a year.

    In doing so, he embarked on an exciting ‘human experiment’ which he chose to film. The end result is My Stuff, Finnish docudrama based on the bizarre personal experiences of the director himself, Petri Luukainen.

    After a difficult break-up with his long-term girlfriend, Petri descends into quarter life existential crisis mode. He realises his possessions have come to define his very existence and failed to bring him any real happiness, and he finally reaches breaking point.

    To solve the problem, he decides to put all his possessions into storage. He is left alone, naked and possessionless in his empty apartment in Helsinki.

    Petri sets aside a year in which he can retrieve one item from storage per day. He also forbids himself from buying anything new during these 365 days. Day one sees him running through the snow butt-naked to retrieve his long coat – luckily this doubles up as a standby blanket for the night.

    Cutting through his clutter, Petri reappraises his life via his belongings. Each day, he struggles over what is more necessary – a toothbrush, a sock or a sofa.

    On the second day of the experiment, he collects his shoes, on the third his blanket and on the fourth his jeans. As the days progress, Petri discovers he can get by with one hundred things, this includes a laptop, debit card, diary and swimming trunks.

    In the attempt to discover what he needs to live a wholesome but comfortable life, Petri learns a lot over the course of the year. In turn, this 29-year old recognises the difference between possessions which he needs and those which he simply wants.

    After the screening at a Q&A session, the filmmaker confirmed it was an experiment that took a lot of courage. “I was forced to take control of my life, challenge my needs and actually be honest with myself,” he said.

    The film apparently came about by accident: “One day I looked around at all the useless shit in my crowded apartment which I’d bought to fulfil some spots in my soul and I thought ‘what would happen if I transported all this stuff someplace else?’. I needed a fresh start. My friends jokingly suggested I film it so we did.”

    As Petri is slowly freed from the burden of his possessions, he falls in love with a new girlfriend half way through the year.

    What is more, after his grandmother falls ill, she wisely points out that: “Life does not consist of things and things are just props,” summing up the fundamental message of the film.

    Through his own personal journey, Petri’s subtle yet bold documentary manages to shed light on the materialistic nature of consumer society.

    www.day-for-night.org/cinematheque