Meeting and Working with Neville Lawrence: Blog 28

Namaste!

The thing I most enjoy about blogging is that there is no structural imperative! So whereas if you are writing a book, there is a plan and an unfolding that means a progression through a narrative, or chronology or whatever shape you have determined in advance. The blog thing has a different set of rules it seems to me. I am still a relative newcomer to this medium, having only properly dipped my toe in last November.

I was chatting about this with my friend Amari Blaize, who recently took to blogging herself. You can find her blog at amariblaize.blogspot.co.uk/, its called 
The Personal is Planetary. If you are concerned with climate change its a must read. Anyway we were discussing the fact that the blog as a form is very flexible, its not bound by the conventions of publishing as we have known them. By definition its democratic, and given the plethora of blogs out there, people will let you know if they are interested simply by pitching up. But the thing I enjoy most about it, is that each day you can choose to write about what is central for you at that moment. In my case its a miscellany of posts, in no particular order. Its affected hugely of course by the things that are happening in my life on a daily basis, by politics and news, by what I happen to be reading, or the piece I am making. The fun is too that when I get up to write it, I usually have no idea what today's will be about! 

This morning, for some reason I found myself thinking about our relationship with Neville Lawrence OBE, which goes back to 1999. Its probably because I was updating my Linked-In profile about our work in the field of prejudice and injustice. I'd like to share a bit about it today - because its been significant over the past 14 years. 

It was early in the spring of 1999 when Olly and I were invited to  a meeting at the HQ of HSBC, then located on Lower Thames Street in the City. We were sponsored by the bank to the tune of approximately £3 million over a period from 1994-2001. It was an unusual and committed sponsorship for the kind of work we do. It centred on the commissioning of our Football Plays written by Olly. The first of these Kicking Out had been originally commissioned by Leyton Orient FC, a lovely synergy given that this is the club that Olly has supported since he was a kid (and I mean supported! He is a real fan). 

The meeting was with Anne Watts CBE, a great friend to this day. She had consistently championed our work and secured the significant funding to enable the plays to be performed in schools, football clubs and indeed at the House of Commons. She invited us to meet Neville with Beverley Bernard, who had worked to set up the Stephen Lawrence Trust with him and his wife Doreen. Beverley had a long history of working in the field of race and had set up the successful Windsor Fellowship to develop and promote young people of African-Carribean heritage into top jobs and to break through the glass ceiling that has historically prevented talented people from reaching the top of their professions, and sadly still does so often.

Beverley wanted to bring Neville to meet Anne, to see if the bank might support his work in schools. Following the dreadful botched police investigation of his son's murder Neville had lived with the impact of the miscarriage of justice that meant Stephen's murderers had got off scott free. One way of living his life with this pain and injustice was to go into schools to talk to young people about the evils of racism. However in his zeal to do this he had ended up travelling the length and breadth of the country visiting hundreds of schools, and often for no money. When we finally sat down in Anne's office that February morning, we saw an exhausted man in front of us. 

Anne in her wisdom had put two and two together and thought that maybe there was a way in which we could join forces with our work in schools through the Football Plays.

It was a seminal meeting that would impact on how we worked as a company from that day. I remember how we squished into Anne's tiny office, full of plants and beautiful pictures, and how within moments we were all transported into a different space. We listened attentively as Neville talked about his experiences, I remember being moved to tears as he talked about what it is like to be a parent whose child is murdered, and how his entire life had fallen apart. And yet his tremendous strength shone through his eyes. I was struck by his lack of self-pity and his commitment to make a difference with young people, as he said to make them conscious of the ingrained racism that pervaded our society at that time, and still does. 

It was a deeply emotional experience, and it changed me. Together and quite quickly we came up with an idea that would work for all of us. We were touring My England at that point, the final play in the trilogy. Money was getting tighter all round and there would eventually be an end to the amount the bank could continue to sponsor. We hadn't reached that point yet but it was imminent. The demand for the show from schools was at the same time increasing, and it was clear that much as we would have liked to, we were never going to reach all 5,000 secondary schools in the country. So I suddenly saw a solution. What if we were to make an educational resource for schools? We could film the show, Neville could speak directly to children on this, and we could write materials that would support teachers in delivering the film as part of the curriculum. The deal was quickly done and we left Anne's office with the funding to make the film and write the resource. 

This all happened within six months and the film was launched with Neville at the elegant Lutyens room at the HSBC HQ. The making of the film was extraordinary, not least because we hadn't made one before, so it was a steep learning curve. But mostly of course because we spent so much intensive time working with Neville to support him telling his story on film. It was a charged time in my life. My own daughters were 10 and 13, and the thought of losing them was unbearable, so my point of connection with Neville was firstly as a parent who had lost a child. It took two days to film the piece with him, as we constantly all broke down in tears, including the crew. Eventually we got there after 38 takes!

The resource was made and we found a great publisher in Carel Press, who distributed over 5,000 packs over the next couple of years. Its been used widely in schools and we continue to be asked for it. Sadly its now out of print, but you can see a little bit on our website here: 

http://www.arctheatre.com/education_video_myengland.html

This was to be the beginning of a powerful 14 years when we worked with Neville on many other projects and which culminated early in 2012 with the final conviction and sentencing of Gary Dobson and David Norris at the Old Bailey for Stephen's murder. I was privileged to go to court for some of the trial, and witnessed the monumental moment when the jury returned the guilty verdict. 

Jan 3rd 2011: Sentencing day: The Old Bailey

Working with Neville over those years was a special thing, and we were pleased that our work supported and helped to sustain him too during that time.

So that's it for today. I wonder what today will bring?

Have a good start to your week.