Saturday Soup Information

What is Saturday Soup ?

Saturday Soup is a photo film of Windrush generation archive photo’s, bespoke music and recorded conversations about the lived experience of the Windrush generation in Britain from the 1950’s to 1960’s.

This project is part of wider project called Dorothee exploring five centuries of African Caribbean presence in Britain

Who is the inspiration for the project?

Our project was inspired by my Grandmother Dorothy’s journey to England in the 1950’s from Trinidad. Her decision to bring my father, uncle and aunt has determined much of our families lives. Unfortunately, my children will never know her as I did. Fortunately, we interviewed her so my children can connect with her personality, her memories, and gain an understanding of the broader historical context in which she grew up

Why should I take part in this project?

A recording or your early experiences is a gift to future generations and the legacy of our culture.
Studies have proven that sharing stories

• Builds self-confidence for both the storyteller and the listener
• Creates meaningful conversations and combats feelings of isolation and loneliness
• Helps people resolve conflicts and fears as they reflect on their life
• Preserves family stories and traditions
• Promotes intergenerational connection and understanding

When you agree to do take part in this project it’s good to know what you want to get out of it.

• What do you want people to know or remember about you?
• What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
• Do you want to go over their entire life or focus on a specific aspect or part?
• Is anything off-limits or are you an open book?
• Once you’ve answered these questions for yourself it will guide our questions and give us a structure to work with

How will we record our stories?

1. Recorded interview at home with a member of your family or a friend. We will provide the guidance for a trusted family member or friend to record the interview at home.
2. Telephone/zoom interview. We will arrange a time and date to discuss how we will approach your interview. You can be interviewed by a member of your family or a friend.
3. Performance. You could record your story as a narrative, anecdote, story, poem or song.
4. Anonymously. Alternatively if you want to be anonymous we will have a professional voice actor listen back to your recording or perform your written record of your stories for the photo film.

What kind of questions will you ask?

During the interview we will start with easy questions so everyone will feel at to ease. We encourage everyone to share what they feel comfortable with whether it was in with some easy, non-intrusive questions and work your way to more difficult or personal ones

Our interview will consist of open-ended questions e.g. “Tell me about…”, “Describe what it was like…”, “How did you feel when…”, “Why do you think…”. As we listen to your answers we may have follow-up questions that help us dive deeper into the story.

You may get asked a question that you churn over and over in your mind, only to come up with an answer or memory days later. Your friends or family may recall memories in the time between our conversations that end up contributing rich reminiscence material to our project. We will return to record in a recording studio at a later date.

We hope your story will convey who you were, not just what happened to you or what you did. We’d love to hear about your motivations, hopes, fears, values, beliefs, and personal ideologies. We’d love to hear stories about your parents and stories they shared with you about their early experiences in this country.

How can I prepare for the interview?

Step 1 Before your interview you should speak to your spouse, siblings, friends, or children about our project. They may prompt memories that you shared with them. They are welcome to join in and share their stories with us that you told them.

Step 2 We all know that memories are generally ‘triggered’ by external factors like a hearing a song or seeing a photograph. To help you jog your memory and connect with your past we have some archive photo’s of the period. However we would greatly appreciate it if you have photo’s of your own to share. If you bring them to our session we can scan them and use them for our project. If your photo’s are damaged we will pay for their repair. When you’re selecting photo’s we’d prefer if they covered the period 1956-1971. Select the photos that prompt an interesting story about your life in this country. When sharing your photographs please tell us about your favorite memories with this place or the people in the photograph. What he or she meant to you, what they were like.

Step 3 Because your story is in response to photos we require your permission to use your photos in the film. This will require making arrangements to collect and scan your photos. We will take care to ensure your photos are secure when scanned.  Once we scanned your photos you will receive a digital copy. You’ll be able to preserve your precious memories of those happy moments shared with friends and family and enjoy them over and over again, with our high quality photo scans.

Step 4 If you prefer you can have a family or friend interview and record you at home. We’re running an online Workshop on how the project. This session will include

• how to select photos for the project
• how to share your memories
• You can write about your experience and we will have a voice actor record it for our photo film.
• You can call or email us and we will call you back for a phone interview

What’s happens after the first interview ?

Saturday 23rd April, 09:25 – 19:30 a select group will be invited to Crown Lane Studios in Morden. It’s a five minute walk from the station. We will arrange a time for you to come and record your story with our team. From 4:00 p.m. we will serve Saturday Soup.

Where can we see the film?

Saturday June 25th 2:00 to 8:00 p.m. the week of Windrush Day we have an incredible event at New Horizons Community Centre in Mitcham. On the day we will have Caribbean cuisine, live performance and music of the Windrush generation. The evening will end with an exhibition of the film.