Where Are The Youth?
Representing Young London Lives
95 Berwick St, Soho, W1F 0DW
Opening Saturday January 21st
On until February 5th
Thursday - Friday: 11am - 6pm.
Young people are today and the future, they represent possibility. Young people are bold and rude, brave and lazy, determined and stuck on their phones. Young people don’t get to choose the labels they’re given.
Youth voices in society are rare to find, often spoken for and lost in political discourse. Thoughts, feelings and ideas aren’t heard but the labels stick. How can young people feel valued in society if they’re not invited to contribute?
This exhibition explores the lives of young people in Hackney today by handing over the mic. These photographs and films offer a platform to voice their experiences as young Londoners. We speak of community and belonging, of discovering and learning, of becoming. We question how society views young people, how assumptions are built and how with time they can be broken.
This exhibition was produced in collaboration with Mouth That Roars, Rise.365 and Future Hackney, with support from the New Stories New Audiences grant from the Association of Independent Museums and National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery Players.
Mouth That Roars is a Youth Media Organisation which was set up with the sole purpose of training young people in film production who wouldn’t ordinarily have access to media resources. They enable young people who are misrepresented, a space to be heard and a medium in which they can voice their thoughts and feelings.
RISE.365 is a grassroots charity to Reach Inspire Support and Empower young people and the community in Hackney, London. Their aim is to enable young people to go after their dreams and not be held back by the limitations that society places on certain groups of young people.
Future Hackney documents social change in East London. Working at the intersections of social engagement and photography they co-author with communities, creating living archives. They are a grass roots led initiative who use digital mediums to tell stories through street and documentary photography, oral histories and current issues. They create community dialogues, living archives, online platforms, social media, print and press. Working with intergenerational communities and young people they produce large format street exhibitions as free public galleries.
