Brackets & Jam

At 2pm Wednesday Simon, Bowson, Mark Eliott & myself had a meeting with Beth & Anne Marie from the Redfern Community Centre, Hugo St. Chippendale. We (B&J) will be providing the entertainment for a monthly markets to be run at the Centre to showcase local talent (that is, the market will have an emphasis on local talent & culture rather than the same earrings found in every other market). There will be an emphasis on showcasing local talent with the entertainment but this will not be exclusive of outside performers (& initailly might rely on non-local performers until enough locals have heard how to be involved). We will also be running a weekly workshop called 'Jam Sills/Skills Jam.' This will be to help people develop the skills to express themselves creatively & play with others (the Jam Skills) and will eventually involve help with recording (including learning how to run a sound desk) & development of music industry skills and knowledge. No doubt some of the old B&J faithful will want to get involved and this might be expanded to acting & theatrical skills. It will also be a place for locals to pass on their knowledge without having to go through all the formalities involved in setting up a workshop (the Skills Jam).

Both B&J and the people of the Redfern Community Centre are aware of the concern that we could come in as an organisation & book time in the Centre while a lot of locals have not been organised enough to do this, but hopefully we can be the interface between those artists who aren't all that organised & the requirements of the Community Centre as Brackets & Jam has been so good at in the past. People at the Centre are making an effort to get the details of all the locals who have come along with ideas for things they could be doing & a couple of people have been charged with the job of getting in touch with each one and working out how what they want to do can be fitted into what the Centre is doing (and for that matter what one another are doing & where they can be helping each other), & B&J is looking forward to providing one outlet for some of this.

Everyone is pretty excited about the whole thing. Workshops are something that has been part of our vision from early days but is something we've never managed to make happen before. This venture with the Redfern Community Centre will allow us to do part of our vision we have never before been able to iplement. Also pretty well everyone involved in B&J has a burning desire to pass on what we've learned and a keen interest in learning from locals. Actually living 2 blocks away from the centre I fit both of those categories & this will be the easiest venue for me to get to we've ever been at.

"Something good is going to happen, something good is in store..."

Also we start at Club 77 on the 10th of May at 8pm.
Blessings,
Joe :-)