Jenny Harris RIP

Jenny Harris on the left, at the opening of the brand new Albany in Douglas Way, 1982. Credit: Art of Regeneration

 
Many local people have been stunned to hear the sad news that Jenny Harris, former Executive Director of The Albany, passed away on Tuesday 6th November, at the far too early age of 67 (1944-2012).

A memorial service will be announced shortly.

Such is the breadth of her achievements, influence and inspiration, that tributes have been pouring in for her at a special website Tributes To Jenny, set up for those who knew and worked with her to contribute their thoughts and memories.

I heard the news only an hour before I took a seat at Greenwich Picturehouse to watch Skyfall, and was immediately reminded that without Jenny, the cinema would not be here. In the late 80s, she hatched the idea, located the site and developed the plans for what eventually became the Picturehouse.

For most, she will be remembered for her extensive and passionate contribution to the arts and, in her own words, "as a persuasive advocate for education, training, cultural and creative action and engagement, and their crucial role in cultural, social, political and economic change".

Jenny and Deptford...

Jenny arrived in Deptford in 1972 as co-director of The Combination, a Brighton-based touring fringe theatre company (and cultural and community development project), which became the resident theatre company at the 'old' Albany on Creek Road. Working together with the Albany Institute and Deptford Fund team, the Combination helped to transform the old and forbidding Victorian building into a vibrant fusion of community work and the arts, renamed The Albany Empire.

Although many may attribute the demise of the old building to the arson attack in 1978 (in which it was burnt down), it was actually marked for demolition to make way for road widening. But there had long been plans for a new and more accessible building, and Jenny's drive, enthusiasm and beliefs were central to the creation of the new bulding in Douglas Way, which was opened by Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1982. As Executive Director of the new £15m Albany Empire, Jenny oversaw the funding, designing, building and running of the purpose built arts and 'cultural action centre' within which all the projects initiated in the old Albany building could expand and develop.

Those projects included a Community Health project, a Children & their Families Centre, a creche (most important), a silk-screen print shop available for community use (later, print and photography and video projects), an Unemployed Action Group to help those on benefits, an Active Age Project that helped older people, sports & cultural activities, estate-based Outreach Projects (that flourished most on Pepys Estate as Co-oPepys that included holiday play-schemes and community theatre), a special needs project for young people that developed into Heart n' Soul – one of the most successful arts projects ever. And then there's the carnival projects that later saw Harare Dread's Pax Nindi as the Arts Council's man-to-go-to.

Youth Theatre, Music and Dance projects at The Albany at this time launched careers for some of the young people involved. Those that have remained in Deptford include: Wozzy Brewster (now an OBE and originally a member of the Albany's Basement Youth Arts group) who founded Midi Music from the original Lewisham Academy of Music. Irie Dance Company was started by choreographer Bev Glean and continues to this day. Second Wave Youth Arts, started as a young women's drama project by Cath Kilcoyne, produced some successful female writers and directors, and expanded, under the directorship of Ann Considine, to include young men. As well as offering drama, writing, music, dance, youth leadership and advocacy, their exploratory and groundbreaking work with the Met Police, in partnership with Greenwich University, has gained international recognition.

There is no doubting the contributions various men (both black and white, young and old, gay or straight) made to those changing times, but it is notable how many young women, both black or white, were empowered to begin and continue the work started by Jenny and her contemporaries. It was known to all working with Jenny that she was gay, but this made no difference to how people were employed, which was on their merits, black, white, gay or straight. At that time Ken Livingstone and the GLC were leading the vanguard of human rights and equal opportunity, and funding accordingly. Far reaching changes were made during these times, and assimilated – though equality in gender and race may still seem futher away than ever these days.

At the time the GLC was abolished in 1986, The Combination managed a turnover of £2.5million and a staff of over 40 full and part-time staff. In that same year, Jenny left The Albany to develop other projects before going to the National Theatre in 1991, where until 2008, she was Producer and Director of Education & Training. Whilst there, among other things, she initiated the Art of Regeneration, a culture-led social regeneration programme which focused on the creative potential of young people aged 7-27 to access and participate in cultural activities. The partnership with Lewisham and Greenwich Councils, Goldsmiths, Lewisham College and The Albany provided an enormous boost for the latter with an opportunity for refurbishment – The Albany had suffered severe cuts in public funding in the intervening years and had been struggling to survive.

After leaving the National Theatre, Jenny went on to develop a range of projects as a freelance arts and education consultant, and to work with her longest and closest collaborator, John Turner. One of these projects is Emancipation of the Dispossessed, a South East London perspective on the slave trade, which features the docudrama, Blood Sugar, written and directed by John. She had also begun to digitally archive images connected to the projects she'd been involved in.

Jenny's return to The Albany in 2001 with the Art of Regeneration was, for some, like a mother coming home, since the 'new' Albany in Douglas Way was her baby. It is indeed poignant that she has died in the same year that The Albany celebrates its 30th birthday. She will be sorely missed.


Hear Jenny reflect on both the old and new Albany in an audio clip hidden away on the Art of Regeneration website.
See also Albany History on The Albany's website.
See Jenny's biography on her own website, which also documents many of her projects.

Modified 12 & 16 November 2012

Obituary in Guardian Online by Richard Eyre (18th November 2012)

Roderick Johnny RIP

Deptford poet Roderick Johnny passed away on Wednesday 24th October 2012. Roderick was one of the sons of the Johnny family who run Deptford's much loved (and only) hardware store. Regular high street visitors will remember Roderick as a gentle and colourful character, who may have stopped them once or twice to read them a poem or sell them his latest published anthology.

The funeral service will be at the Catholic church, Our Lady of the Assumption, tomorrow (Wednesday 7th November) at 10.30am, followed by a burial at Hither Green Cemetery at midday.

Friends are invited to celebrate Roderick's life in the afternoon at Utrophia (120-122 Deptford High Street).

Neville Johnny, the lovely guy you'll usually find behind the counter at Johnny's, has set himself a challenge to raise funds for MIND, in Roderick's memory. Neville says "I started this in order to raise money for MIND having been brought up with two brothers with mental health issues. Recently, one of them, Roderick, has died very suddenly and I will now be doing this cycle ride in his memory. You are missed."

We're not sure how far Neville plans to cycle, but he's set a date for 22 September 2013, by which time he hopes to have raised £4,000. Donations can be made to MIND via this link.

RIP Brian Hibbard

Whilst the Welsh mourn for one of their own, Brian Hibbard (who was born in Ebbw Vale and died in University Hospital Cardiff yesterday of prostate cancer), there are quite a few in Deptford who will be shedding a tear at the news of his passing – since Brian's earlier career with The Flying Pickets is a part of Deptford's history.

Brian used to live in Evelyn Street in a house known to friends as The Yellow Duck, which he shared with other actors and performers who were involved with The Albany, as it made its transition from its old building on Creek Road to where it is now on Douglas Way. Quite how Brian made his way to Deptford is a story probably best told by those who knew him better – that includes some ladies of a certain age still living in Crossfields, and the bloke who designed the poster above and below, plus all the original members of The Combination Theatre group who founded the new Albany, some of whom still live in Deptford, plus students of Rose Bruford College which was based in the now demolished old school on Creek Road, betwixt Creekside and Church Street.

Connections were formed through Liverpool playwright John McGrath's legendary 7:84 Theatre company, a Scottish left-wing agitprop theatre group (don't hear that phrase agitprop these days) – whose title displayed the ratio of wealth in the UK in the 70s. It may well be less than 7% of the population who now own more than 84% of the nation's wealth in 2012. David Tennant, Douglas Henshall and Bill Patterson are among 7:84's alumni...

Brian is credited with forming the Flying Pickets in 1982 when working with 7:84 on John Burrow's One Big Blow – a musical play about coal miners, brass bands and the tough conditions they worked under – in which the players sing the brass parts acapella – and which was written 15 years before "Brassed Off". Rick Lloyd, who wrote the music for One Big Blow (1982), was among those who joined Hibbard. They took their name from the miners' strikes of '72 and '74, when the phrase 'flying pickets' may have been first coined – flying pickets would travel to join a picket wherever a strike had been called, to support and swell the numbers.

Any younger readers who visited the recent Jeremy Deller show Joy In People at the Hayward Gallery may have found themselves moved by Deller's recreation of the Battle of Orgreave, a filmed re-enactment of the conflict between police and striking miners in 1984, when there was mass picketing. The Flying Pickets had by then topped the charts for five weeks with a UK Christmas number one (1983) with their debut single Only You. With Thatcher's decision to close 20 pits and a loss of 20,000 jobs, record company Virgin was reported as extremely unhappy that the group were making the most of their fame by picketing in Yorkshire and performing benefit gigs for the miners. The Albany itself had a benefit or two, notably with Test Department, as well as The Flying Pickets.

Brian and fellow band member Stripe (also a familiar Deptford face in the early 80s) left The Pickets in 1986 and both moved away from Deptford. Hibbard pursued an acting career that eventually saw him in Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and East Enders, with regular appearances on BBC Wales, notably in Welsh language soap Pobol y Cwm. 

Deptford remembers Brian and his contribution to our place and memories, and our sympathies go to his wife and children.

If anyone has some memories to share or better photos than the ones we've nabbed off the usual media, please get in touch.

UPDATE: Transpontine has transcribed a piece from Wales Online which tells the Picket's story in more depth.

More acapella and acting up at You Tube.
The Flying Pickets were actually at their best in their ironic interpretations of modern songs of the day. If they could've danced as well, who knows what they could've started....

Thanks to jennyharris.org for poster images.

Pete Pope RIP

Local community 'activist' Pete Pope died on Friday night after a long battle with cancer.

The video above is an interview with Pete talking about regeneration in Deptford and was filmed in 2007 by Gopi Sastri, Ellie Walton and Salim A Syed for Deptford TV.

More about Pete over at Transpontine. 

UPDATE 24-05-2012: Funeral Details

Deptford Misc has posted the details of Pete's funeral. To keep updated join the mailing list.
In brief:
Friday 15th June 10.45am
Hither Green Crematorium SE6 1TP
Refreshments from 11.30am at Dog & Bell SE8 3JD
There will be a Mass cycle ride from Deptford to the crematorium, and the Humanist service will be conducted by Billy Jenkins.