This thrilling opportunity was made possible through the documenting the oral history for the choir by multiple Bishop Challoner students in Tower Hamlets with, Beyond Past, an organisation run by Rosa Kurowska who is currently a ReachOut Project Leader at my school. Over the April half, I was among the four year 10 pupils who filmed and conducted the interviews of four of the ten Velvet Fist choir members.
Velvet Fist was founded in 1983 as part of an arts project organized by the Communist Party. Originally a mixed choir called Artery Choir they later became a women’s group and changed their name to Velvet Fist. They have sung at many festivals and for political campaigns for human rights, equality and social justice such as the Various Voices Festival at South Bank in 2009, the National Portrait Gallery in 2010, and a concert in support of Palestinian women in Camden in 2010. As a strong believer in equality and freedom and pioneer of moral values in society I was more than happy to take part in the conference this July.
Once the conference began, Rosa gave a PowerPoint presentation on Velvet Fist and the importance of oral history. The film screening was played and lasted 20 minutes, as it came to an end the audience were filled with though provoking queries. They were posed by academics and members of the general public. To give you a flavour of their thoughts, my most memorable question which I was asked was ‘how were the dynamics between working with the former choir members’. To my amazement, over the past few months I was intrigued to find that there were many similarities between us, the pupils and the senior choir members. This ranged from our love of feminism to our political views of the EU Referendum.
‘Stand up for what is right even if you stand alone.’
