Tuesday 17 May 2011

Clare Cochrane

Opening the Heart of Jericho



An event for all who love Jericho: Saturday 1 October, between 2 and 4.30pm, St Barnabas Church, St Barnabas Street, Jericho

Throughout the summer Clare Cochrane has been facilitating a series of creative interventions in the historic community of Jericho involving local people: collecting contributions to a community poem, reviving the memory of a forgotten local poet, making a film with the former residents of an old people's home.

The project was inspired by a closed down building at the heart of the community, and has included resurrecting the memory of a forgotten local poet; re-dedicating a memorial bench that was nearly lost to the community; facilitating the writing of a collaborative community poem; recording the conversations of marginalised older people moved out of the closed-down sheltered housing; and numerous wonderful, warming, weaving conversations.

Through her work Clare has been asking a number of questions:
What does it mean to become conscious of community?
What do we forget to pay attention to at the heart of our lives and communities? 
How can we carry the past with us as we move into the future?
How can we meet each other as individuals in the context of community?
How can we open up and keep warm the heart of our communities?

Clare herself has moved around a lot throughout her life, and through this work she's also exploring her own ambivalence about putting down roots.