Category: BBC
Date: 17.06.2005
Printable version
The BBC launches a giant artwork - BBC Voices Of White City - today.
Made up of 10,000 stickers, each one bearing an individual poem, and extending to more than 100 metres, the artwork is located on a wooden hoarding at the BBC Media Village at White City in London.
The individual poem stickers combine to spell out large, human-size words, which in turn join together to make the phrase 'Voices Of White City'.
Passers-by will be invited to peel off any poem and reattach it somewhere else.
The unique artwork is designed by John Morgan and is a product of the BBC Voices Of White City project, a collaboration between BBC staff and community participants from the White City estate and other parts of Hammersmith and Fulham.
The aim of the project was to create better understanding between the BBC and its local community and to give that understanding a tangible voice.
The poems were written in a range of workshops run across 2004 and led by established writers, including leading contemporary poets Francesca Beard and Bernadine Evaristo and rap artist Crisis.
Workshops included a child/parent story telling session, youth rap sessions, reminiscence writing with members of the Nubian Elders community and a mixed writing group bringing together BBC staff and West London residents.
The poetry produced tells intense stories of the participants' lives - their connections, their conflicts, their pasts and their futures.
Robert Seatter, BBC Project Manager, says: "The ultimate aspiration was always that this work would find its way into the landscape so it could be reflected back to the community from where it came.
"But the additional innovation is John Morgan's wonderful hoarding design which invites people to peel off any poem they take a liking to.
"Who knows how far some of these poems will travel?!"
BBC Voices Of White City is part of the BBC White City public art project. The Project Champion for Voices Of White City was Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate.
Designer John Morgan worked with Andrew Motion on the earlier BBC poetry pavement, also part of White City public art project.
Sample Poems
Early Days in West London
A small room, small-small
I put in ornaments, a bedspread
bought a Blue Spot gramophone
some records to liven it up a bit
In winter I washed my clothes
put them on the line to dry
and they get so stiff, I was shocked so stiff
Christmas, I put up balloons
I scrubbed the lino till it shined
No fridge so I put the chicken
on the window ledge, with the jelly
Miss Baker
Arrived in West London from Jamaica, 1962
Participant in Reminiscence Writing Workshop, BBC Voices Of White City
Calling
Beyond the brown wall
Hear the old men calling
To the greyhound ghosts
Nikki Joule
Participant in Community Poetry Workshop, BBC Voices Of White City
White City Rap 1: What We Are
Who are we?
We are kings and queens
Princes and princesses
We are gifted souls on a journey through life
We are the future and guidance to the next generation
We are the sons and daughters of great minds
And the bringers of the greatest minds to come
What do we want?
We want to be successful
We want to be in control
And we want you to realise
That no matter what differences we have
We are made to perfection
Chamelle Ifill
Participant in Youth Project Rap Workshop, BBC Voices Of White City
TV Producer
Overcast morning
he reaches for
his Mickey Mouse socks
Doreen King
Participant in Community Poetry Workshop, BBC Voices Of White City
