Inside the Sarabande Foundation...

Behind the doors of a very nondescript building behind the canals of Haggerston in east London is the Sarabande Foundation. More than 20 years ago, the foundation was set up by famed fashion designer, Lee Alexander McQueen as space for creative minds to work. Named after McQueen’s 2007 Spring/Summer collection, the foundation provides scholarships to students, as well as being a physical space to house artist studios. When you visit, you find McQueen’s personal art collection scattered throughout the building. The foundation also offers its artists mentoring, peer-to-peer support, workshops and a gallery space to show off their work. On a bright spring morning, we sat down with four of the foundation’s brightest creatives to get a glimpse into their working worlds.

You can read about them in our latest issue, and you can meet footwear designer, Kristina Walsh below.

Kristina Walsh. Photo by Kristy Noble

There’s something poetic about shoes and the idea that they walk you through life. They affect how you move in your environment. I trained as a footwear designer and, while studying, I saw an exhibition that featured a prosthetic leg and my mind was blown. I knew that’s what I wanted to work with because essentially it’s a shoe. The way that something looks really affects how people feel about their bodies. It will become a part of her wardrobe and the beauty of the design must be considered. 

There are so many different emotional experiences to losing a limb and when working with an amputee there are a lot of big issues you’re working with. You have to involve the person who you’re designing for because you’re designing a part of their body and life. I am working with a performer named Erin, who is an amputee, and it was so incredible watching her try on my designs for the first time. Emotionally, it was indescribable – it will be part of her. We started with two prototypes carved from wax that she chose from. You have to consider everything from how tall they’ll be to how heavy. Once the final design is chosen, they’ll then be made from carbon fibre. I’m working with other disabled and non-disabled dancers and performers who have adapted their practices to suit new movement. My designs have to be functional, so it’s a really specific way to work when you’re designing for people who have to dance. This practice makes you think about how you use footwear. 

A lot of my work is not just about physically connecting people, but emotionally too. I also design jewellery and even when I design rings I want there to be an element of feeling and touch about them. I learnt how to work with jewellery from my Sarabande neighbour James so being here really helps you work across disciplines.

Meet three other creative women from the foundation in our latest issue

An evening with Scarlet Sabet, Zia Ahmed & Rose McGowan

On 27 February, we were invited to an exclusive evening of poetry readings: ‘Love in Other Words’ organised by cultural producer and curator Ryan Lanji at the Hoxton Holborn hotel. In between sips of wine and nibbles of olives, a room of about 30 people nestled in to listen to Zia Ahmed read poems about lost love and familial ties, Scarlet Sabet read from her new book ‘Camille’, and then we were treated to a special reading of the Erica Jung poem ‘Alcestis On The Poetry Circuit’ by activist, actress and author of memoir ‘Brave’, Rose McGowan. Here we have Erica Jung’s poem chosen by Rose and a poem from Scarlet’s new collection for you to read.

Rose McGowan by Lily Vetch

Alcestis On The Poetry Circuit by Erica Jung

(In Memoriam Marina Tsvetayeva, Anna Wickham, Sylvia Plath, Shakespeare¹s sister, etc., etc.) 

The best slave 
does not need to be beaten. 
She beats herself. 

Not with a leather whip, 
or with stick or twigs, 
not with a blackjack 
or a billyclub, 
but with the fine whip 
of her own tongue 
& the subtle beating 
of her mind 
against her mind. 

For who can hate her half so well 
as she hates herself? 
& who can match the finesse 
of her self-abuse? 

Years of training 
are required for this. 
Twenty years 
of subtle self-indulgence, 
self-denial; 
until the subject 
thinks herself a queen 
& yet a beggar - 
both at the same time. 
She must doubt herself 
in everything but love. 

She must choose passionately 
& badly. 
She must feel lost as a dog 
without her master. 
She must refer all moral questions 
to her mirror. 
She must fall in love with a cossack 
or a poet. 

She must never go out of the house 
unless veiled in paint. 
She must wear tight shoes 
so she always remembers her bondage. 
She must never forget 
she is rooted in the ground. 

Though she is quick to learn 
& admittedly clever, 
her natural doubt of herself 
should make her so weak 
that she dabbles brilliantly 
in half a dozen talents 
& thus embellishes 
but does not change 
our life. 

If she's an artist 
& comes close to genius, 
the very fact of her gift 
should cause her such pain 
that she will take her own life 
rather than best us. 

& after she dies, we will cry 
& make her a saint.

Scarlett Sabet by Lily Vetch

For Jack by Scarlett Sabet

You who let your own gift decay
You who I remember everyday, to honour my own face and pen,
You, who’s face I saw reflected in my grandfathers, Catholic forefathers
You who flinched unbearable under scrutiny
Who tried to exist as lightly as possible, through your own desecration, crucifixion, mortification
Who’s tears and fears were exacerbated by the Ocean
You who uncomfortable in applause put down your own book
You who destroyed your beauty with hops and yeast, smeared the vertiginous caverns of your face into red loss and shame
You who could not stand even five decades
You who were thrown drowning into the terrible sea and asked to analyse your breathing, your own loss of breathing and failing lungs You who wrote, anticipated the flesh, sampled flesh, was offered flesh then turned and left
You whose grave I gave my roses, lilies, boot heels and tears.
You who tried the unattainable, tasted the forbidden then lashed your own back in repentance
You who rode the highways, superior to sleep and disease for seven sun cycles
You who chose the unavailable for deep down you knew your destiny was unassailable
You who waited for a coyote of the road to say: as above so below You who held Beatitude so high and while you are not here you are everywhere
You who opted out in despair, you have created love everywhere
You who were born in the third month of the year, your Pisces stellium extinguishing your fire Mars, casting you the ceaseless Neptune King followed by fish all your life
You swallowed dust and oil, you kept the rhythm of a cool, cool Aquarius heart, that detached, split everyone’s loins in half

and Sewards’s progeny in hot Texas dust, his common law wife, her german face sunken of any life
You your eyes earnest soulful offered up the truth to be spat at like a lumberjack
You too young and pure, your voice like Massachusetts honey, but gliding
oh Jack O Lantern you burnt so bright, you were the guiding light,found guilty of illuminating the way sacrificed at dawn light, dear brother Jackson, you’ve got an emergency message, a date,
to sail the mystic sea, to swim with fishes you thought would be safer but the sea was a demon that promised You danger, you
were possessed with evil, your thoughts red and blue, repulsed by everyone that professed to love you
and I know, and you know, and Jimmy knows:
that we were all born rip torn and screaming, baptised in our bleeding, always chasing a womb of warmth heat and light in the desolate wasteland of life

Mapping 100 Years of black and asian history

We sat down to talk to Kaia Charles, the curator of Another England: Mapping 100 Years of Black and Asian History which was displayed at NOW Gallery in November.

“We had archival imagery and new pieces that were commissioned for this exhibition on display. The contemporary commissions are so lovely to show how these communities are represented today. It’s across the UK but a lot of these images are focused on London because that’s where a lot of these communities were first based,” says Kaia. Another England is a project that Historic England launched over a year ago and it maps places of significance to black and asian communities.

“The new commissions are from artists that I find really interesting. They expand on themes that we know the archive touches on. It’s evident when you walk around the exhibition that they’re in such a dialogue with the archive images. It’s so important to document this history that’s still in living memory. The amazing images of Olive Morris from the Squatter’s Handbook are so incredible. She wasn’t celebrated in her short lifetime so it’s amazing to showcase her work. She endured a lot. It shows us how important it is to conserve these archives.”

If you missed it, the photography can be viewed on the NOW Gallery website.

Three young girls chatting outside a Methodist chapel, 1950-59, from Historic England Archive

Photo by Sarah Maple

London market, from Historic England Archive

Interview with Charly Cox

We’re so excited that one of our favourite poets wrote us a poem inspired by autumn and the changes it brings, for our latest issue. Charly Cox’s book She Must Be Mad is the best-selling poetry debut of 2018. We love that her writing focuses on destigmatising mental health, what it means to be a woman in the modern world and, of course, everything else in between. Grab a copy of issue 45 to read the poem Charly wrote especially for us. Here’s our chat with the writer and poet about our shared love of autumn and her perfect day…

What inspires you about autumn? Jumpers. Jackets. Boots. Sartorially I'm at my best from October onward, which makes me feel put together. Put together visually tends to mean put together in practice of work, for me. Ridiculous, I'm sure. I love the cold and the red wine and the sudden pull to closeness of autumn, you're not quite yet wishing for summer again but you're enjoying the retelling of what happened. It feels like such a wonderful time to look back on the sun stung memories and mistakes and turn them into something new again.

Describe your perfect day… I spend a lot of time wishing for a change of scenery/pace/routine but the more I thought about this question the more I realised how perfect my current set up is for me.

Wake at 10am, feed Peanut (my adopted wild rabbit) (yes, really) and walk into the woods with Piper my black lab. Coffee and a cigarette by the fireplace. Re-listen to the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, more coffee. Shower, dress, get on the train to London and convince a friend to take an early lunch and have a glass of wine. Wonder Soho aimlessly, buy another book and a magazine I don't need. Call Adrian. Call my grandparents. Sit and people watch on Dean Street and scribble in my notebook. Think about dinner. Convince another friend to let me go to theirs and cook and invite everyone over. More wine. Catch up. Be stupid. End up in G-A-Y Late.

What does writing poetry feel like? It feels safe and understood.

What's your writing routine? It's highly sporadic which makes deadlines and feeling 'productive' difficult. I'm slowly accepting that my routine at its best and most powerful starts at 1am.

Where do you like to write poetry? I write everything on my phone to ease the sense of 'oh my god my hands are hovering above a keyboard why has my brain gone silent I'm a failure' that I get when I try and write on a laptop if it's deadline based but love nothing more than scribbling in my notebook as I wake to get out initial ideas. I like writing in bed and on the tube, in pubs on my own.

How did you start writing poetry? I've written for as long as I can remember. I started writing to profess love for teen heartthrobs and damn school crushes and then it later turned into a crutch through times of depression and anxiety. Poetry became a source of therapy for me. Once what were often terrified and enmeshed thoughts and feelings were out on a page and tangible, something for me to look at and study, I felt as though they were easier to tackle and understand. I still feel that way a lot.

What're you reading right now? So. Many. Things. I am terrible at doing one thing at once, so I've got 5 books on the go at the moment. The one I carry around the most at the moment is The Best of A.A Gill. He was a genius.

Read Charly’s ode to autumn in issue 45.

Voices At The Table

Food, unlike anything else, has a way of bringing people together. It’s the thread that connects our days and ties us to our identities. Everyone can map their lives through food, from childhood recollections to the first thing they ever made for themselves. It allows for a diverse range of stories and memories. Two women making sure all of these stories and voices are heard and listened to are Miranda York and Anna Suling Masing.

Miranda, a freelance journalist, founded TOAST festival in 2013, which led into an annual food magazine. This, in turn, became what At The Table is today, an illustrated magazine that explores British food culture, featuring essays from food writers, novelists and poets. Anna Suling Masing, a writer, poet and academic, and Miranda co-curate the popular event series Voices At The Table.

Their events combine food, literature, and performance in an intimate evenings around London. We sat down with Anna and Miranda to chat about the importance of new voices, women’s writing and of course, why it's important to talk about food. 

Miranda: When we started we didn’t really think about beyond the first event, we just wanted to bring interesting people together to talk and think about food and interesting ideas like women in food or the future of meat. 

Anna: We’d known each other for years and then I wrote a poem for an issue of At The Table. I ran a theatre company for 7 years, moved into food writing and journalism and then did a PhD in storytelling, with food and identity as the biggest aspects. Miranda and I really connected over on food and what it really means.

Miranda: We really wanted to find new ways to tell these stories. Anna invited me to a play where people were cooking on stage, which I found so interesting. I wanted a way to bring the stories in the magazine into life in an event form, to bring lots of different people together from different worlds, industries and backgrounds together to talk about food in a really relaxed way. It’s all part of the oral tradition of storytelling. Everyone gets up and tells a story. It could be from their novel, from their cookbook or it could be something original that we have commissioned for the event or even someone else's writing that they really have a connection with. It’s like a literary food salon.

Anna: The big thing that we’re both so passionate about across all of our work is being a platform for new voices. The food world needs to be really diverse, the writing world needs to be really diverse. We always commission one or two new writers and pay and financially support new work. That's always the biggest feedback from events, that people find new writers to connect with.  

Miranda: Someone might buy a ticket to come and see a big name but they’ll always leave loving a new voice that we’ve featured. I love that people come and can connect with something that they might not usually experience. Food is what connects everything but it's  much more than food – it’s peoples memories, stories and history. Anyone can talk about food, it’s a great leveller for people to connect.

Anna: Food is also complicated and difficult, which makes it a really important thing to talk about. It’s not all joy and light, it’s complex. If you grew up without a lot of access to food, it affects you. Food is political. It’s gendered. It is really valuable to address it and to give people a space to talk about these things.

Miranda: We just recorded a pilot podcast because obviously events have limits on numbers and we want as many people to be able to hear these incredible stories. We’re so excited to get the stories out there. 

The next Voices at the Table takes place at The Coach London on 25 June. Novelist Sarah Winman, historian and screenwriter Alex von Tunzelmann, actor Kevin Shen and debut novelist Sophie Mackintosh will all be reading, while dining on a three course meal from chef Henry Harris. Visit At the Table for information and more essays on food, culture and why we eat. 

Oh Comely loves Lucy Dacus

Photo: Dustin Condren

Lucy Dacus is a performer of substance. Her lyrics are heady with the heat and rage of teenage diaries and her live performances are whirlwinds of guitars and bittersweet words of loss, love and the day-to-day dramas of life. She’s touring the UK with her second album Historian, a lush follow up to her debut Nonbeliever. Check her out in Bristol, London and Brighton this week.

How would you compare your two albums? The first one feels like a specific time and place. I remember singing on those songs – and I'd never heard myself singing to a band before. So, what you hear is also the first time I hear myself sing to drums. We did it in, like, a day. So I had no adjustment, that was my first recording experience. It was very fresh and I guess people have responded to that. Thing is, since the writing process is so elusive to me, I can’t really pin down how it happens. Everything past that first moment of writing lyrics is intentional. Once I’ve realised the message, I can see where it came from and what it will be, but in the moment I can’t really see what it is. I like the shift of this album though, they’re kind of like, the heavier, louder songs. So just pushing people to expect something a little bit different, less sweet from me especially live shows.

Do you enjoy touring? I love touring! I love being there in the moment, the only thing I don’t love is what isn’t there – my friends and family, and my house. But love that I get to read more than when I’m home. Because when I’m home, it’s all about connecting with those people and catching up. And trying to make up for lost time and all of the disconnects that inevitably happen. But touring is one of the best parts of the job. I don’t drive, but I like the act of travelling, I like seeing new places. In fact, in Europe it's even better because it feels new, and much shorter distances. I love touring Europe because every night is a different language whereas in the US, some cities look really similar. I know I am gonna be on the road from noon to 4pm between these cities in like two months and who knows what I'm gonna do during those hours. I can fill it with the reading and no one's going to require anything from me during that time and it's built in alone time.

We’re also avid readers, what’s your current pick?  Well right now I’m reading Susan Sontag’s, Regarding The Pain of Others. She’s great, I’ll read literally anything she’s written. I bought it yesterday at this place called Broadway Books. It’s so great, I bought five books. Why is it that British editions of books are better looking than the US editions? Why do you guys just have better taste? But I think what has influenced me a lot when writing this album is Anna Karenina, it has these two character who are grappling with life and death. I love characters, poetry and watching movies, these things all help me. I think external things help you to each inside.

What kind of child were you? Very dreamy. I was kind of too creative for my own good. My parents had a rule when I was young, that I could never say that I was bored. They taught me that the word bored was like a curse word. Like the equivalent to legitimate curse words so I had to find ways to not be bored because I would be punished by having to draw. They’d be like; "you can’t be bored, sit in the corner and draw your favourite animal." Which is hilarious punishment within itself. And I still feel that I don’t get bored, ever.

How do you feel about giving a lot of yourself? You’re writing about you, your life and real relationships. When I'm writing, I'm not giving myself to somebody else I’m just giving it. What I'm saying is what I am saying to myself. And that is step one, is to give yourself to yourself. That’s the most important thing and beyond that, sharing it is separate. I think it was more of a pull from the community that I grew up in. Asking me to play shows. I had friends in bands who just wanted to hear it. It actually took people telling me, like ‘you should do this, I want to hear it.’ And that’s why I think children’s programmes are so important like creative programmes that say; ‘what you make matters’.

What advice would you give to young women who want to be sitting in your seat right now? I don’t want to say anything too cheesy but don’t get caught fulfilling other people's dreams. I've had to learn recently that a lot of people want to do music and a lot of people want to be in the limelight and just want an audience and think they know what that looks like and what that feels like. Your journey is different to anyone else’s and also if it's your work, it's your work. Don’t be bugged down by industry people or your own band. Especially men, but people in general: don’t let people live out their wildest wet dream of being a rockstar on your belt. I've dealt with that a couple times over now. I’ve had conversations with people asking what going on or asking for change and then if people can’t break out of their expectations then you can’t carry that weight around and I can’t so specifically if I’m talking to ladies, that’s my advice.

Give Lucy a follow on Instagram, @lucydacus.

What we're eating: Pancakes with blueberries

Photos: Sophie Davidson

In our early spring issue, we asked three women who know a lot about food to share their cupboard comfort recipes. And, given that today is Shrove Tuesday, we thought you might especially enjoy Ravneet Gill's recipe for pancakes with blueberries...

"Every time I have a day off, my joy is making pancakes. It’s repetitive, it’s easy, and the process of making them is so calming after working as a chef in a busy kitchen. I always have the ingredients for pancakes stored away in my cupboard, and I always have tons of maple syrup ready to drench my pancakes in. I love eating them with blueberries that I just cook down with a little bit of sugar and lemon until they’re soft."

You will need: 

1 cup plain flour

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp fine salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup of whole milk

1 cup of yoghurt

50g butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

Method

1 Place all dry ingredients into a bowl, stir to combine, crack the eggs into the middle and whisk in with splashes of the milk until a batter forms.

2 Whisk in the yoghurt, pour in the melted butter and vanilla.

3 Allow to sit for half an hour before spooning into a buttered pan and cooking on each side until golden. Serve with maple syrup, blueberries and dust with icing sugar.

Ravneet Gill does magic things with sugar and flour. One of our favourite pastry chefs, she’s worked in some of the capital's finest kitchens. Now she creates incredible desserts at Llewelyn's in south London. 

See more cupboard companions in issue 41, the early spring issue of Oh Comely, available to buy now

Dolly Alderton on love

Dolly Alderton is the kind of woman we all wish we had in our lives for those nights when we need honest advice and a well-made martini. Her words are warm, witty and always relatable. A true triple threat, she's a writer, director and podcaster, as well as an expert on false eyelash application. We spent a cosy evening with Dolly chatting about growing up, relationships and her new book Everything I Know About Love... 

Portrait of Dolly by Sophie Davidson 

Everything I Know About Love is brilliant and deals with every aspect of love from friendships and family to the boyfriends of your twenties. What did writing about your real-life relationships reveal to you? "Writing a book affords you a great retrospective awareness of the patterns in your life. It’s definitely a movement and journey. I knew when I started writing that my friends were relationships that were incredibly important  to me but I hadn’t been aware that in my twenties they had been my great loves. It’s affirmed the strength and bond that we have for sure. Making myself vulnerable, writing a book is an act of total vulnerability. It was horrible to write certain bits of it. It felt like the next stage of becoming a women, before that it just felt like a lot of bravado and accommodating other people. There’s a world now in which who I am is okay, it’s great to be vulnerable."

Read our full interview with Dolly in issue 41, you can order a copy from our shop (postage is free). Dolly's book Everything I Know About Love is out now, too.