2022: A year in review
Oitij-jo Kitchen
Throughout the year, Oitij-jo Kitchen has provided paid training opportunities to 20 local women and supported them to achieve recognised credentials through Westminster Kingsway College's Culinary Department and Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency.
We've catered for over 60 events, including Stand Up to Cancer's gala at York Hall and for the Create Community Hub's work with mild to moderate learning disabilities. We also launched our Street Kitchen at Lighterman House this year, which ran from January 2022 and has provided lunch for hundreds of council workers, community members and local people.
In 2023, Oitij-jo Kitchen will be opening our new cafe at St Hilda's East Community Centre! The space will also feature work from local artists and activities facilitated by community members. Stay tuned!
If you or anyone you know is interested in getting involved with Oitij-jo Kitchen in 2023, contact info@oitijjo.org.
Naach
We ended our year by welcoming members of our community to our fundraiser and cafe launch! It was a night filled with an experimental mix of music genres, amazing artists from our Ajker community and delicious food from Oitij-jo Kitchen!
Ajker Exhibition
2022 saw the launch of our Ajker exhibition! Celebrating contemporary Bengali artists, we launched our exhibition with a preview night that featured live performances and food provided by the wonderful Oitij-jo Kitchen. We've got more to come from this creative collaboration so keep your eyes open!
Cholo Chitro Film Klab
We launched our very own film club! Presenting Bengali films and independent shorts, we are also providing a platform for upcoming filmmakers to present their work. Our premiere screening began with a presentation of the short film 'A Night in the Park' (2021), directed, edited and scored by Sosa and starring Seyi Ola. Our feature film was the wonderful 'Charulata' (1964), written and directed by Satyajit Ray. We have a marathon of movies to screen in 2023 so stay tuned!
Community Garden
We set up a community garden that plants with a focus on creativity, medicine, food and knowledge sharing. We built this garden from the ground up! We made our own hanging baskets, painted our planters and made our own compost bin. Our most recent harvest featured lettuce, tomatoes, chillies and Bangladeshi beans which we then cooked up into a tasty communal meal. We're always excited for people to get involved!
Community Library
We're creating a public access library of Bengali, Bangladeshi and South Asian books covering genres that include fiction, non-fiction and poetry! We have an amazing collection at our space in Piazza Unit C, Lighterman House, E14 2BE that's ready for all the keen readers in the community! We're also always looking for more donations to add to the library so let us know if you would like to donate!
TATI Textile Project
Over the summer, we worked alongside the House of Annetta and the local community to create a textile hanging to be displayed at the House. Led by the wonderful Shama Kun, the sessions centred around using the traditional Nakshi Kantha method to create textiles that reflect the community and our kinship. The final piece can be viewed at the House of Annetta!
Creative Women Arts and Crafts Workshops
Throughout the year, we delivered a variety of free arts and crafts workshops for local women. We worked alongside artists including Husna Parvin, Jannat Hussain, Asma Istwani and Nodee Niranjana to curate sessions on still life painting, air drying clay modelling and collage art. We also found the time for some gallery along the way! We ended the year with our very own exhibition that celebrated all our participants by showcasing their work to the public!
Holiday Playscheme
Over the summer and October half-term, offering a playscheme offering fun activities for young children that ranged from arts and crafts, gardening, cooking, reading, sports and much more! We had great fun working alongside Republic and Coffee with Kids to create fun and engaging sessions. Some of our sessions alongside our Creative Women workshops to ensure that the entire family was getting involved!
The Role of Arts and Crafts in Establishing Culture
As part of A Season of Bangla Drama 2022, we brought together a panel of expert practitioners and producers of arts and crafts in the UK to explore the relationship between culture and crafts! Facilitated by Dr Natascha Radclyff-Thomas, our panel included Shama Kun, Rukia Ullah, Momtaz Begum Hossain and Ihitashri Shandilya.