October 2024
A collective collage mural facilitated by Roxanne and her husband for her daughters school Black Culture Event. The collage celebrated black culture and in particular highlighted local black activists that worked for civic change, black people and black womens rights and liberation.
In particular Olive Morris,Leila Hassan-Howe and Darcus Howe.
Children and parents were encouraged to draw/write or collage and engage with black history and culture.
September 2024
Roxanne’s first collective community mural initially stemmed from a question of how to engage people in social civic change through art. In collaboration with Parents for Palestine and Soanes Centre campaign to Save the Soanes Centre, Roxanne facilitated a workshop based on the writing of Ghassan Kanafani’s The Land of Sad Oranges and artist Ismail Shammout.
The community were encouraged to pick up a paintbrush and add to the mural. Everybody passing through, young and old, added their paint strokes and reflections of the given prompts. This will be the first of many collective community murals.
Roxanne facilitated a community collective mural event at Soanes Centre with Setpoint, an educational charity based in Tower Hamlets that offer a range of STEM workshops for children in the local community. This day was part of a campaign to Saves the Soanes Centre.
February 2024
As part of International Womens Day and in solidarity with Palestinian women, Roxanne with Parents for Palestine organised a collaborative effort to build a giant puppet for International Womens Day March.
The puppet making brought together people from all walks of life. We had parents come down with their new borns, a collective of artists, a puppet maker who brought our vision to life, people at Pelican House (where we held the event over a span of 5 days) who were in the building or on their lunch break and comrades who saw our public call out.
The frame of the puppet was made with willow sticks and bound with glued gauze strips, next sponge and tent material was used to flesh out the face and hands. The body is a metal frame secured onto a baby carrier. The hair was strips of black tent material, the dress was painted with oranges to represent the orange groves in Palestine and the top was spray painted with a tatreez pattern.
Every part of the puppet was hand stitched and tended to by a beautiful soul who donated their time and engaged in conversations about Palestine.