A Month in Dalston

Sunday 14 Dec: Legacy in the Dust

2008-12-08T10:52:00.002-08:00

Winstan Whitter's documentary Legacy in The Dust is now been shown across London at venues such as the South Bank and the ICA.

This independent film will take you on a sensational journey of ‘The Four Aces Club’, which for some 33 years was home to the most influential black music and musicians. It showcased new music genre’s like; Blue Beat, Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae, Jazz and Soul performed at the time by artists like Alton Ellis, Desmond Decker, Jimmy Cliff, Count Shelly, Ann Peebles, Percy Sledge and Ben E King

It is showing this Sunday 14th December at the Hackney Empire at 8pm.
plus – Live Dub Poetry from El Crisis, Ska & Rocksteady from Freetown

Legacy in The Dust
14 December 2008
Venue: Marie Lloyd Bar
Price(s): £10. Concs: £2 off. Friends: £3 off. CAN: £2.50 off.

Sunday 30 Nov: Alevi Cultural Centre and Cemevi

2008-11-30T11:37:00.000-08:00

The Alevi Cultural Centre at 89 Ridley Road is a community centre for Turkish and Kurdish Alevi Muslims including refugees and asylum seekers. Offering General Information and welfare advice as well as a program of educational, sporting and cultural activities.

Their weekly program includes, supplementary school attended by 350 students from Hackney and Haringey. Football club, Women’s group, and Semah Classes.

Sunday 30 Nov: Every Sunday at the Haggerston

2008-11-30T11:33:00.001-08:00

Saturday 29 Nov:

2008-11-30T10:51:00.000-08:00

Stoke Newington International Airport, held the first of two Christmas craft fairs, next one 13th December.

If you missed this there are other Christmas Fairs coming up:

Monday 24 Nov:

2008-11-26T06:48:00.000-08:00

Saturday 22 Nov:

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When Party Party first opened, it was intended to be the shop where you could buy everything you need for a party. Regular cake decorating and balloon shaping courses are held upstairs.

Check out the Christmas Fair at mossbourne academy

Friday 21 Nov:

2008-11-26T02:26:00.000-08:00

Amarjit works for Agewell, running a number of exercise classes for people 50 –65.

Monday 11.30am – After Lunch, walk and lunch starting from Rhodes Estate Community Hall
Tuesday 11.30 –12.30 pm, chair based exercise CLR James Library
Friday 11.30 – 12.30 pm, Meditation Class CLR James Library

Wednesday 19 Nov at Arcola:

2008-11-25T08:02:00.000-08:00

Arcola Theatre runs a busy program of activities, on Wednesdays the over 50's drama group meet between 6 and 9pm.

The first meeting of Hackney Transition Towns held at the Arcola.

Transition Towns (http://www.transitiontowns.org) are made when groups of people who are interested in living sustainably meet up and create simple ways for people within and outside that group to actively address climate change with their everyday actions.

Wednesdays at Studio Upstairs

2008-11-25T04:58:00.001-08:00

Studio Upstairs shares a building with the other organisations housed by Hackney Cooperative Development at Number 3 Bradbury Street.

Studio upstairs is an arts organisation with over sixty-five members. Members come from all over London and the surrounding area on one or two set days of the week to develop their art practice in a supported and therapeutic environment.

Currently members of Studio upstairs are working on a set of Christmas decorations for Gillette Square, and Inez a graphic designer from Dorking in Surrey is exploring ways illustration can be used to mediate social relationships, with two other members, Mary an art therapy student from Oxford, and John a Dalston resident and volunteer.

Tuesday 11 Nov: CLR James Library & Centreprise

2008-11-13T00:17:00.000-08:00

CLR James Library:
The Adult Book Group meet on the second Tuesday of each month at the CLR James Libary, to discuss the book of the month in an informal environment. Some of the people who attend also frequent a larger group that meets at Hackney Libary, for book talk, tea and cake.

CLR James Libary also hosts a Science Fiction Reading Group.

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Centreprise:
Tfl held an open day at Centreprise Bookshop, for members of the public to come and find out more about the plans for the East London Line extension.

Up Coming …

2008-11-12T23:50:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 5 Nov:

2008-11-06T08:21:00.001-08:00

Musiko Musika run a music workshop every Wednesday from 3.45pm – 6.30pm at Making Marks, St Mark's Community Halls. St Mark's Rise, Dalston E8 2LH Some of the children who regularly attend from Colvestone Primary School and St Mary's CE Primary School, told me how they spend their spare time.

Jasritpal (nickname Lalie) who goes to Colvestone Primary School agreed to write up a complete diary of his week for the blog.

My Life:
Hello my name is Jasritpal. I'm an extraordinarily busy person, let me tell you what I do all week. Firstly on Monday I do Violin (my favourite instrument) then I go to a school club called Arsenal double football club (Arsenal is my favourite team). On Tuessday I go to music in the mornings as well as P.e and then in the afternoon I go to football try outs then street dance. On Wednesdays I go to S.t Marks church to do a project called Musico Musica where I play panpipes, sing, play guitar, and ensemble(It's when lots of people play different instruments at the same time). I don't do anything on Thursday. On Friday I do ICT surf club and wing Chung ( a type of marshal arts). Just a month ago I went to a science scholarship and got a distinction in science. Last year I won two tennis tournaments in Mosborn.

Gizella

Monday – Camera Club in Stoke Newington
Thursday – Science Club
Saturday – Drama Club

Faith

Monday – Piano
Wednesday – Ballet in Islington
Saturday – Horse Riding in the Lea Valley

Tyra

Monday – Street Dance at St. Mary’s
Tuesday – Swimming
Thursday – Street Dance at St. Mary’s
Saturday – Drama

Andrea

Monday – Brownies on Wick Road
Thursday – Swimming
Saturday – Drama in Islington
Sunday – Horse Riding at Lea Valley

Friday 31 Oct: March of the Dead, Room in Dalston & Vortex

2008-11-03T04:24:00.000-08:00

March of the Death
Strangeworks held their annual Halloween 'March of the Dead' Parade:

Starting at 7.30pm at Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington High St. N16 and travelling to the After Party in Passing clouds New Venue on Richmond road.

This year the march was about the moon, a variety of dead souls carried a huge glowing moon from Stoke Newington Graveyard all the way down to the new Passing Clouds venue on Richmond Road.
On Gillette Square a bunch of rotting sailors, pirates and such like, greedy for moonlight in the underworld, ambushed the March and tried to capture the moon.

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Room in Dalston
PAV MXSKI runs a gallery space in his front room, nothing but the name on the door bell gives away the location of the gallery from the outside, the latest exhibition, ROOM IN DALSTON opens today.

PAV MXSKI told me about his decision to open his front room to the public, and talked about his relationship to the area, walking along Dalston Lane he pointed out where there use to be a bench outside Navarino Mansions, which he missed as it was a good place to meet other people living and working on the street.

Friday 31st October
7PM til late

Featuring: Danny Fox, Dagmar Schurrer

31/10/08 - 23/11/08
Fri–Sun 1-6PM and by appointment
tel: 07768 267 392
SLAGINC
184 Dalston Lane
London E8 1LA

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Vortex
Tomorrow Evening at the Vortex – Celebrating Women in Jazz

Thursday 30 Oct:

2008-11-03T03:34:00.000-08:00

Dalston Artist Collective's Urbania create an installation 'Red Room' as part in 'GSK Contemporary' at the Royal Academy.

31 Oct 2008—19 Jan 2009 at 6 Burlington Gardens.
http://www.agrifashionista.tv/blog/215
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/gsk-contemporary-season/

Wednesday 29 Oct: Journeys around Dalston

2008-11-03T02:57:00.000-08:00

Laura Braun
Laura Braun's Dalston Polaroids record a private journey around Dalston at night.

Laura Braun
www.laurabraun.net

Alexandra Blum
Alexandra Blum, is recording drawings of Dalston, as the area chages, she recorded two days of observations for the blog.

I’ve been making drawings of the streets in Dalston for about 6 months, trying to build up a series of images which relate to each other, to give a sense of how the area is changing: the life cycle of Dalston’s buildings, the interaction between existing buildings and spaces and the potential impact of new constructions.
Recently, I was given access to the building site as ‘Construction Artist’ at the Barratt Dalston Square development, so now I’m drawing from inside the site too. Below are some notes made over a couple of days’ drawing.

4.11.08
I want to draw the transparent staircase scaling the side of the furthest block, part of the system of structures builders use to transport themselves and materials around the site. I need to find a space to draw from, quiet enough to concentrate, with a good view, and not in everyone else’s way (too much!). Find a place in Ashwin Street by the side of Cafe Bliss. A small space, between a euro bin and the door which leads to the inner workings of the cafe. A step on the other side of the bin becomes a seat for a succession of people throughout the day, smoking, resting, chatting.
I see the man who sometimes asks for change for a cup of tea, he is upbeat and friendly as usual. He blows me a kiss, and says Hello Artist. The area he occupies is small, just a few streets, but his influence is wide. People travel through his territory and he acknowledges them. He puts some kind of spirit back into the street, a sense of someone being there who knows a vast array of people personally, someone whose existence revolves around his interaction with people passing by in the street. He is like a bridge between people, a kind of antidote to the anonymity of the city.
Speak to a man who looks at my drawing and the building site and says it is like a skeleton. It feels as if Dalston is being dissected , its innards laid bare, through the process of both construction and destruction. Impenetrable facades are crumbling, layer upon layer of spaces are revealed. Hoardings are put up in front of the Snooker Centre, followed by another layer, the first layer is dismantled from within. From the top of a double decker bus, its now exposed dark interior space is open, waiting for the deconstruction before the construction.
Two men from the station construction site come to see what I am up to. We speak about how this new structure is emerging from a vast number of individual units. Units of physical components , but also of actions. The scale of the site dwarfs the individual, but it can’t come into existence without the individual actions of an army of workers.
Returning to my studio, I realise Ashwin Street is now closed to traffic. Every time you walk into Dalston something has changed, bit by bit, following an inevitable plan, a plan so vast that the final outcome feels unknown.

10.11.08
Drawing on the construction site today. From Kingsland High Street, I cut through Ashwin Street, still traffic free. A million miles away from the frenetic pace of the main road, it seems hidden, unexpected, almost an oasis. It doesn’t feel run down, more in a moment of flux, with potentially active spaces hiding in the disused terrace. On reaching Dalston Lane, anyone wanting to enter the construction site has to play a game of chicken with the traffic to reach the pedestrian entrance. So far the pedestrians have won.
On entering the site, scale and context change immediately. I shrink, context expands. It’s teeming with rain and very windy. I draw from inside the block nearest to Dalston Lane. I draw the edge of the building. Boundaries between interior and exterior are fluid, scaffolding’s like an intermediary between old and new. Exterior space pours in, swirls around the interior, before racing back out onto the street. Feels like being on a cliff face, so I retreat further into a cavernous interior.
An interior staircase is blocked, a site worker shows me the way to climb the exterior ladders , zigzagging between each layer of scaffolding. It’s exposed, but less precarious than I’d imagined. Noise increases and I am offered ear plugs, yellow cones to be rolled to a point with one hand. They don’t have much effect until they seem to expand in my ear. Instant peace!
At lunch time I go to Cafe Bliss. Get my favourite table, at the front with a view of the fragmented facade, layers of scaffolding, cranes, hoardings and buses. Still pouring with rain, which seems to make everyone relaxed, a bone fide reason for refusing to rush. Gives me a reason to have apple pie and custard. From the cafe window the site shrinks, it can almost be taken in with one glance.
Back on site, I draw the wet interior with its cascades and pools. Reflections multiply the layers of concrete, scaffolding and light. As the light fades, concrete pillars begin to dissolve through a network of shadows projected from exterior flood lights. Previously clear distinctions between separate blocks of flats disintegrate, and a labyrinth of temporary spaces emerges.
I leave, it’s still raining. Outside, the artificial light makes the area seem transparent, skeletal. Kingsland High Street feels like a backbone, from which spaces move back and forth. Lights draw my attention to other areas, creating connections. A new network of spaces comes alive. Lit signs indicate basement bars. Light from shop fronts, particularly the glassless ones, extends their territories onto the street itself. The barrier of a threshold is removed, passersby inadvertently wander into the shops’ extended spaces, invited to explore. The process feels accidental, a fortuitous by-product, another layer to Dalston’s vitality.

Alexandra Blum
www.alexblum.co.uk

Tuesday 28 Oct: Turkish cafes

2008-11-03T02:12:00.000-08:00

Philip Jones, East End painter and poet, has decided to move from his current studio, located in the artist centre of Vyner Street, to Dalston in pursuit of a greater proximity to the ready supply of Turkish Cuisine.

On Tuesday 28th of October 2008, he counted the number of Turkish cafes, restaurants, food shops and private clubs between the Rio Cinema and Arcola Street:

131 Kingsland High Street: ÖMINE Restaurant [fireplace or grate]
144 Kingsland High Street: Ali Baba Restaurant
6 Crossway: UMUT 2000 OCAKBASI [Umut: hope, expectation, wish, promise; ocakbasi: chimney corner]

4 Stoke Newington Road: Mangal II [Mangal: barbecue, brazier]
8 Stoke Newington Road: Fenerbahçe Social Club
9 Stoke Newington Road: ISTANBUL ISKEMBECISI [Iskembecisi, I think means tripe seller!]
14 Stoke Newington Road: Hasan Meze and Mangal
17 Stoke Newington Road: TAVA Restaurant [Tava: pan or frying pan]
27 Stoke Newington Road: MANGAL Pide and Lahmacun
30-32 Stoke Newington Road: TU_RA Patisserie Baklava Specialist [sultan's signature]
34 'Stoke Newington Road: 19 NUMARA BOS CIRRIK'
10 Arcola Street: Mangal Ocakbasi:

Ercan owns manages, cooks, and waiters at Mangal seven days a week having inherited the business from his father who opened the restaurant 19 years ago on what was then an undiscovered street full of working factory buildings.

Soon there were queues around the block, as Ercan comments ‘the street was bad but the food was good,’ and Mangal has now built a reputation for serving the best Turkish food in the area. Again in Ercan’s words ‘ there is Coca Cola and there are many other brands, at Mangal we serve Coca Cola’

Mangal is now a world famous restaurant, reviewed in ‘Time Out’, The Evening Standard’, ‘The Times’, and Internationally.

In the recently expanded premises, up to 250 people can be served, either eat in or takeaway, in a busy hour. In Ercan’s estimation between Mangal, the Cash and Carry opposite, and the Arcola theatre up to 5,000 people visit the street in a week.

Among his regular customers he notes a couple from Kilderry in Ireland who visit once every two weeks, members of the Turkish community from Harringey and Palmers Green, members of the Indian community from Ealing and Tooting, and local people from Dalston, Shoreditch and Angel.

As a local business he uses the Cash and Carry opposite, as well as shipping some ingredients straight from Turkey, he comments 'Dalston is like paradise, there is everything you need here, shops, restaurants, cinema, theatre all within a stones throw’.

Over the years the main problems he has faced have been from local gangs, and the ‘drug house’ opposite making the street unsafe.

If the street were to change now he would like to see better parking provision down one side, and a cleaner safer environment, including better rubbish collection.

Acknowledging that, even with things as they are, Mangal is one of Dalstons key visitor attractions.

Miller's Mews: Bozhüyük Spor Kulubu [something about sport..]
Miller's Mews:LONDRA BOZCADER DAYANISMA DERNEGI [London something solidarity association/ fellowship]
Miller's Mews: HUNDERED FLOWERS CULTURAL CENTRE

Stopping off in the two supermarkets on Shacklewell Lane to look at all the produce.

Monday 27 Oct: Patrick Wright

2008-11-03T01:45:00.000-08:00

I spent the week finding out some more about artists who have been inspired by Dalston, and discovering the way those living and working in the area perceive its character.

Patrick Wright: ''A Journey Through Ruins" finds its spine on a short stretch of Dalston Lane – a section of perhaps five hundred yards in all, running east from Dalston Junction to the intersection once known as Lebon’s Corner (after a long since vanished coal merchant). I conceived it as a work of ‘thick description’: a travel book for people without air tickets.'

A week in view Monday 27 - Friday 31 October

2008-10-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

Sunday 26 October:

2008-10-31T08:38:00.000-07:00

Demontration
The Kurdish Federation UK organised a march and demonstration. Demonstrators assembled at 12.30pm at Dalston Junction.

Bettsy's Salon
The Scolt Head 107A Culford Road London N1 4HT, host regular film screenings, and the bi-monthly 'Bettsy's Salon' a night of performance, and discussion.

Saturday 25 Oct: This is not a Gateway

2008-10-31T07:41:00.000-07:00

This is not a Gateway
Twelve exhibitions recording images inspired by city life took place in and around Dalston during the 'This is not a gateway festival', including public exhibits in Gillette Square, and the underground bunker on Abbott Street.

For a full list of shows visit
http://thisisnotagateway.squarespace.com

RUTH HÖFLICH, MARIA BENJAMIN
of Guestroom 103 shacklewell lane london e8 2eb, hosted a free evening:

Ways Of Living: A Film Screening Epic In Chapters; Screenings and discussion of films related to travel, migration, tourism, location and the wider concept of the journey.

Friday 24 Oct: Guerilla Gardens

2008-10-31T03:25:00.000-07:00

The Orphaned Land Trust, lead a walk around London's best known Guerilla Gardens, starting off from Cafe OTO.

Thursday 23 Oct: This is not a Gateway

2008-10-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

The free, three-day festival 'This is not a gateway' opens at Cafe OTO. A program of over forty events hosted by eight Dalston venues are scheduled for the next three days.

Wednesday 22 Oct at Lux 28:

2008-10-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

From the 2 October – 1 November 2008 Lux 28 are exhibiting a group show, Correspondence, Auguste Orts. Auguste Orts is a Brussels-based collective of four artists – Herman Asselberghs, Sven Augustijnen, Manon de Boer and Anouk De Clercq – who all work predominately with the moving image.

Alongside the video works on display at Lux 28, the artists have asked Scanner to re-mix the soundtracks of their video work into a new composition. The resulting will be broadcast on Resonance FM at 8pm

Tuesday 21 Oct: Moving East

2008-10-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

Moving East
Centre for Dance Martial Arts and Complementary Medicine

Children's Aikido Class
Tuesday 6pm–7pm
10–15yrs
Instructor: Campbell Edinburgh 2nd Da

Monday 20 Oct: Arcola Youth Theatre

2008-10-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

Arcola Youth Theatre welcomes anyone aged 13-19 years interested in learning about theatre.
(No previous experience is necessary). Classes run from 5pm -7pm

Saturday 18 Oct: Dance Umbrella & Word Power

2008-10-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

Dance Umbrella
Dance Umbrella staged ‘Transports Exceptionnels’ a performance by the French dance company, Compagnie Beau Geste, in London Fields as part of London’s International Festival of Contemporary Dance.

Word Power
Look out for events at Centerprise during Word Power – International Black Literature Festival & Book Fair.

Friday 17 Oct:

2008-10-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

Flux
Jonas Mekas Presents Flux Party.
11.15pm until late at the Rio Cinema

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Cave
Live Music at the ‘Cave’ Restaurant Kingsland Road

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Jamie Baxter,
local architect and researcher meets friends and colleagues in Bar 23 on Stoke Newington Road, every Friday night to catch up on the week.

Thursday 16 Oct:

2008-10-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Guestroom
Take a look at 'Passerby', a new series of works conceived for the front windows at 'guestroom' and a disused billboard around the corner.

guestroom
103 shacklewell lane
london e8 2eb

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FORMCONTENT
Dalston based Curatorial Project Space; FORMCONTENT are represented at Zoo Art Fair, 17–19 October 12–8pm.

FORMCONTENT'S next exhibition at their new location opens on the 28 November 2008.

51–53 Ridley Road
London E8 2NP
Open: Friday – Sunday, 12–6pm

Wednesday 15 Oct: Barden's Boudoir

2008-10-16T02:55:00.000-07:00

Barden's Boudoir, one of Dalstons underground venues hosted a night of experimental film.

Tuesday 14 Oct:

2008-10-16T02:45:00.000-07:00

Todd Hart author of the popular 'Dalston Oxfam Shop Blog' recommended spending the evening at the artist Martin Creed's opening night at The Hub on Goulston Street (East London), where one of Todd's featured bands 'Maria and the Mirrors' would be playing.