MOYC-25

Future Hackney's Dalston Stories

As part of Future Hackney's Dalston Stories exhibition, a group of young writers took part in a workshop creating creative responses to the exhibition on show.

In collaboration with the Museum of Youth Culture and Sutton House.

Text by Various Young People | 08.03.2023

Arnie The Beta
@ArnieBeta

Resolution Compelling
Black and white foretelling
Joy embrace composition
Present stares into recognition
Position, working class adrift
Uplift in moments of radical history
No longer mystery
How captivating whenever the polaroid
Capture these who believed to be null and void
Society captured in still pigments of sobriety
No longer deemed secluded, when melanin is
Conveyed in its vibrancy
Shoutouts to Dalston narrative,
Youth, Black Atlantic, Pan Africanism only added depth
There is never a tragic death,
When creatively digitise inseribles the different vibes,
Street exhibits abstract and visualise,
Project abolish the false news and visual lies
Heart and Soul of Dalston lies in the communal struggles,
Told stories better than printer reels
Oral history displayed in monochrome exuding the
Food for thought for real,
Black and white speaks a thousand verbs
Social construct in East London projected in
Grass roots of thousands of still words 

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4

My friend just finished cleaning my sick off the floor
Hands on my head cuz the sound of my flatmates slamming
Is too hard to endure
Why did I drink so much for?

For breakfast everyone ordered mackey dees
But instead I had a bowl of baked beans
Because I am a uni student, 23
And all I have to my name is 47p 

Laying on the sofa, hating the fact that I’m awake
Since entering my twenties i feel like i can never catch a break
Everyone has a vision, ambition, a plan, a drive
I just wanna be young forever and have fun the rest of my life
I don't know what I want to do in the future
I'm not good at anything, that's a fact not my low self esteem
So I’m going back to sleep now coz that’s the only time I get to dream

Arkadia
@Arkadiaartist

The community is full of stories.
Each as rich as each other
You can't judge a book by its cover,
Nor a story by its words.
It’s always fascinating how a place that on the outside can look a certain kind of way,
but the feelings never match.
As beautiful as community can be
It can feel like there's no way out. If you mix that with gradual relaxed trauma, it can be a recipe for disaster.
However it doesn't take away the angelic radiance people still carry.
Addiction happens to the most beautiful people.
Evil transitions do happen to those who are in need of the most help.
Often we don't look deep enough into the realms of why addiction occurs.
Angels come in all shapes and sizes.


There’s peace inside a piece of mind that wants the worst for us
Our subconscious is a part of us and we can't escape it. That's where drugs come in. To the most intelligent of beings, wanting to escape can be the highlight of the day. Not having a way out can become a lifestyle.
Community can be a blessing and a curse, just like our brains.
We wouldn't wanna live without it.
It can take one good story to change a mindset.
That's the power of art. Art can offer us a way out
An escape that's more than a mentor. It’s an angel.
Just like people that need it.

send to don
Tony

No birthday cakes, no hugs
Yet still you have always been worthy of love
Way more than just another Black King
Caught up in the system
With a whole lot of offering to bring,
‘Keep your head up king’

Renaldo (Red)
Companionship
@redfrederick_official

There’s something about men and dogs. Men-are-dogs-are-man’s best friend.
We all see ourselves in them.
That yearning, that overzealous excitement, that fear of abandonment … men are lovely being, being lonely, not as lovely. Brotherhood forms as easily as a matching pair of shoes.
Men are simple. Men get confused by simple things. Men get excited over little things and it takes next to nothing to make a man's day. Men are dogs cause men like to play. Men seize the day. Some men need men to feel okay.
Loyalty makes men. Loyalty makes dogs fond of men. Loyalty makes dogs man’s best friend.
Lets normalise what make men… dogs… not the bad parts
But the good ones instead
Cause we need them
Men-are-dogs-are-mans-best-friend.

Joshua