Ravinder Atwal / Ravinder is an artist and life coach, working most frequently with young people including children in care. She is passionate about there being more opportunities for art and artists in Barking and Dagenham and was a member of our first Neighbourhoods panel.
David Barrett / David is a music producer and visual artist who has recently returned to Barking and Dagenham, where he grew up, after 20 years living in New York. His work Karito - which debuted at The General Assembly Of The UN in NYC - will be shown at The Henley Festival in July 2014.You can see/hear it at:http://www.karito.org/div/audiomap/and read about it at:http://www.karito.org/div/index.php?page=0. David is interested to see if he can set up a new project here.
Will Battle / Will is the social media apprentice at Studio 3 Arts. He has given advice on the development of the CBD website, taken part in a CBD panel.
Jaha Browne / Jaha is a documentary film maker; she gained a scholarship from Royal Holloway in 2010 to study Documentary Practice and her work has been screened at the Barbican and several film festivals including the Black International Film Festival. She is currently working as the Website and Digital Media Coordinator for Tigerlily. Jaha lives and grew up in Dagenham.
Naiem Bukalam / Naiem is a law student. He met Helen at BLC because he was in there making a film using his phone; he is passionate about film and film making.
Sharlene Carter / Sharlene is a Dance Artist/Fitness Instructor who lives in Barking. She produces shows for dance company "Far from the norm" and works with LBBD and East London Dance. She delivers dance sessions in many local primary and secondary schools and is passionate about bringing professional dancers to the area to inspire local dancers. She regularly watches professional dance to inform her own practice.
Lisa Cameron / Lisa is an IT tutor for Barking and Dagenham Technical College. She is supporting one of her students with the development of the CBD website, and is also helping Helen to give talks about CBD to college staff and students.
Robin Dixon / Robin is a former volunteer at Studio 3 Arts; he is interested particularly in poetry and spoken word and has taken part in CBD interview panels for staff and the neighbourhood commissions.
Anne Estlea / Anne is the chair of the Chadwell Heath Community Centre. This keeps her pretty busy, but she has worked with Helen to develop a partnership with CBD and Green Shoes that resulted in a successful Film London funding bid to set up a new cinema club for the building.
Richard Edgson / Richard is 35 and has lived in Dagenham for most his life except for the six years he spent in Clifden, in southern Ireland, where he played in a band and work in bars and restaurants.
He left a job as a shop fitter to retrain in Technical Theatre at Barking and Dagenham college and is half way through a one year apprenticeship at the Broadway Theatre Barking. He still plays music to date and has a keen interest in art of all types, and he is hoping to broaden his contacts and find new connections through joining up with other Cultural Connectors. He is really interested in getting involved with local projects and aiding in the technical side of the events
Kirsty Gardiner / Kirsty is studying A-levels and is a member of the Youth Music Service.
Saran Headman / Saran is a qualified sound engineer and music education professional who lives in Barking. She has recently set up Link Training and Management a brand new company working with aspiring music professionals to bridge the experience gap into sustainable employment. She is keen to meet and work with other creative people locally.
Rebecca Hussein / Rebecca has lived in Dagenham all of my life and feel excited at the chance to celebrate my home borough’s rich cultural heritage. She is currently a teaching assistant at a primary school in Newham but, as a Theatre Studies graduate, her passion for theatre has found an outlet through my reviews for A Younger Theatre and Whatsonstage.com. She writes her own blog and am very interested in play and story writing. One of her proudest achievements was working with her brother in 2012 to produce an Olympic promo that won the prize of being played at various Olympic venues.
http://rebeccahussein.com/
Naas Jamal / Naas lives in Barking and is a studying photography at University of East London. He is currently also working on his first film. He is an expert at portraits and regularly works as a wedding photographer. His latest project is making a documentary. Naas is someone who likes to be out and about helping in his community and having lots of fun.
Kim Jones / Kim grew up in Barking and now has a young family there. She is volunteering 1 day per week with Make Good as part of their Neighbourhoods commission on Scrattons Farm. She is in the process of setting up a blog for families about good arts experiences and days out.
Keita Kaba / Keita has lived in Barking since 2011, previously he lived in Africa. He is studying Business Administration at Newham College and is a volunteer at the Gascoigne Youth Club. He plays football for West Ham Academy and enjoys photography. He would like to set up his own creative events locally for young people.
Silvia Laboukaite / Silvia lives in Barking and she volunteers at The Broadway on front of house. Originally from Lithuania, after secondary school she studied at Art School for 2 years, then studied photography at University. She is interested in a wide variety of artforms, including visual arts, graphics and graphic painting. She is particularly interested in learning about the music industry at this current time.
Harsharan Landa /
Harsharan lives in Barking; she has a background in fashion and previously had her own line of clothing in Topshop. Since then she has set up Maidie Create, a social enterprise working with vulnerable people, particularly women to build confidence and entrepreneurial skills through fashion. Maidie Create was nominated for the Barking and Dagenham Business Awards last year. Harsharan also writes a music blog harsh.tv, supporting new talent to get signed, and took part in the PGP panel.
Lekia Lée / Lekia’s background is in broadcast journalism and worked as a radio producer and presenter on the now Capital Xtra and researcher at BBC London and London Weekend Television making programmes for ITV and BBC. She started her broadcasting career in Nigeria working as a news presenter on both radio and TV. She left freelance broadcasting to set-up Kouture Afrika to promote African fashion and bring it to a wider international audience. She worked briefly with Fashion TV promoting African fashion designers on the channel by hosting FTV parties in Africa. She also set up Project Embrace to promote diversity within the beauty and fashion industry, using the strapline, I. Am. Enough to encourage women of African descent and indeed everyone else to love themselves just as they are. Lekia has just recently had a speaking gig and hopes to more hold motivational talks and workshops to help women and girls build their self-esteem and confidence in order to embrace themselves and their beauty. She hopes to create a wider narrative of what it means to be beautiful.Farah Mohammoud / Farah is an aspiring social entrepreneur and the co-founder of a social enterprise called You Press, based in East London. He enjoys travelling and experiencing different cultures especially through professional networking. In his spare time he enjoys creating and organising events and activities and is also very interested in poetry, spoken word and music.
Farah has recently set up his office at Starting Point in Barking.
Farida Mohamed / Farida moved to Barking to be closer to her children and grandchildren, having previously lived in Leicester. She is very motivated by community and bringing people together and has organised a range of really successful events for the libraries service. She also runs both a book club and exercise club for women.
Antonia Murphy / Antonia’s favourite choreographer is Akram Khan, and first came along to CBD as a Cultural Connector’s guest to watch his work at the Barbican last month. She is a former dance student but had to leave her course following an injury. She now lives and works in Dagenham.
Cameron Murray / Cameron is the Technical Stage Manager at the Broadway.
Vincent Ndringu / Vincent is 20 years old. He is studying Level 3 Subsidiary Sport at Barking and Dagenham College and is currently considering what career he would like, and is thinking about comedy and acting as a possible route. He is a volunteer at the Gascoigne Youth Club and plays football and basketball at Barking Park. Since taking part in CBD he has joined the Young Actors Company at Studio 3 Arts. He has also been a panel member for the Landmark commissions and given advice on social media.
Mo Obadina / Mo Obadina is an accountant and a business coach. She lives in Dagenham and has 2 children. She has recently set up her own coaching business, specialising in providing business support to women. She was a panel member for PGP and is interested in writing about the project; we are currently exploring this as part of a regular feature for the BD Post.
Joseph Obasi / Joseph has lived in Barking for 6 years, he is a married father of 2 and a photographer and videographer and a digital film editor. He is a film and video graduate of the University of East London. He is interested in documentary filming and is ready to share his experience and skills with others, as part of the Cultural Connectors programme.
David Osaghae / David has lived in Barking for 6 years. He is a photographer and videographer and has made music videos and filmed events and occasions. He is also an editor. He is friends and work colleagues with Joseph, one of our other Cultural Connectors. He would like to develop his film and video portfolio and help others to learn similar skills.
Julius Razanauskas / Julius is studying a level 2 diploma in IT at Barking and Dagenham Technical Skills Academy. He is currently working as part of a team with a college tutor, digital creative and artist and Helen to create the CBD website.
Rizwana Reza / Rizwana moved to Dagenham this year, having lived in Camden. She is the CBD admin volunteer once a week and is interested in visual arts.
Vanessa Russell / Vanessa is the Community Arts Apprentice at Studio 3 Arts. She is incredibly excited about Punchdrunk being commissioned through Landmarks and has signed up to be involved as a volunteer with their project.
Denise Saunders / Denise lives in Barking with her young family. Together with husband Wayne they run Boss Crown Productions, making films for commercial clients and running weekly film making workshops for young people at the Rivergate Centre.
Wayne Saunders
Jeremy Simmons / Jeremy graduated in Arts History from Cambridge last summer, before returning to live in Dagenham where he grew up. He is a volunteer and founder member of the Corner Café, and works locally as a teaching assistant. He is a painter and is currently waiting to see whether he has a place on the MA course at the Royal College of Art.
Katrina Smith-Jackson / Katrina is from Dagenham. She is an actress, screenwriter.producer and director. She is also the founder & Managing Director of Boardwalk Bridge Arts.
Deborah Taiwo / Deborah Taiwo has a passion for arts and is intrigued by the role it plays in transforming lives and communities. She loves writing , storytelling, sugar craft/edible art and digital animation. She is an accountant , a coach and an entrepreneur. She was one of the PGP award recipients and is keen to see more people engage in creative activities locally.
Peter Thorne / Peter is the Front of House Supervisor at the Broadway. He is a local and went to Robert Clack School.
Daniela Tomarkin / Daniela is a qualified photographer. For the last 2 and a half decades she has been a mother and carer. She thinks this borough is very deprived culturally and this scheme promises to potentially change that. At the same time, she thinks CBD is good for encouraging her to continue, where she left off a long time ago (professionally and personally). At home she does crocheting and some other crafts, while also taking photos of my husbands’ paintings according to the specifications of the galleries his works are shown at, for example Saatchi online. She is also setting up a photography group in her Jewish community.
Miro Tomarkin / Miro is a visual artist. He has lived in Dagenham for over 20 years. He has taken part in both group and solo exhibitions in the UK and abroad. He will be showing his work in New York in October 2016. Miro has been involved as a CBD panel member for the Landmark commissions and worked closely with Board member Josh Cass, a graphic designer and Helen to develop branding for the project.
Naas Uddin / Naas is a photography student at UEL. He earns money as a photographer particularly at weddings and is currently planning to make his first film. He also works part-time at a large multiplex cinema.
Blayne Young / Blaine is the second technical apprentice at the Broadway and is also keen to gain hands on technical experience through CBD.
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