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London Symphony Orchestra Jerwood+
In the Spring of 2025, I was appointed to the London Symphony Orchestra's Jerwood Composer+ programme. Over 15 months, I'm developing, curating and delivering two new creative projects with the LSO team and musicians, including programming concerts and writing new works.
The first showcase will take place on Saturday 21st February at LSO St Luke's. Follow the link above for more information.
The first showcase will take place on Saturday 21st February at LSO St Luke's. Follow the link above for more information.
Preamble
Preamble is a new music education programme at St John’s Waterloo, designed to introduce children and young people - especially those with limited access to live music and music education - to the joy of orchestral music and shared music-making. Through a series of workshops, the programme is providing an entry point for participants to engage with the rich cultural offerings of the South Bank. It also encourages an interest in music education and instrument learning.
Inspired by our yearly programme of orchestral music, and in partnership with local partners, we developed Preamble to extend music opportunities at St John's Waterloo to younger audiences.
The programme is built around two key strands:
Introducing the Orchestra: Launched in October 2024, this series of workshops explores orchestral music through practical activities, including music history, drumming, singing, and composing. Participants also have the rare opportunity to sit in on live orchestral rehearsals at SJW. These workshops are delivered in partnership with Sinfonia Smith Square and Oasis Academy South Bank, a local primary school.
Music in the Digital Realm: This strand invites young people to create an improvisatory piece using software and student-made sound effects and recordings. Delivered in partnership with IKLECTIK and Notre Dame Secondary School for Girls, the project introduces participants to digital composition and sound design, expanding their creative expression in innovative ways.
Inspired by our yearly programme of orchestral music, and in partnership with local partners, we developed Preamble to extend music opportunities at St John's Waterloo to younger audiences.
The programme is built around two key strands:
Introducing the Orchestra: Launched in October 2024, this series of workshops explores orchestral music through practical activities, including music history, drumming, singing, and composing. Participants also have the rare opportunity to sit in on live orchestral rehearsals at SJW. These workshops are delivered in partnership with Sinfonia Smith Square and Oasis Academy South Bank, a local primary school.
Music in the Digital Realm: This strand invites young people to create an improvisatory piece using software and student-made sound effects and recordings. Delivered in partnership with IKLECTIK and Notre Dame Secondary School for Girls, the project introduces participants to digital composition and sound design, expanding their creative expression in innovative ways.
"The Spirit of the Bullring lives on..."
Approaching St John’s Waterloo‘s (SJW) bicentennial celebration in late 2024, we started working on a heritage project to remember the Bullring (also known as Cardboard City), the North Lambeth Day Centre and the related ephemeral and neglected heritage of people experiencing homelessness in the area. This is funded by Historic England’s Everyday Heritage grant programme, celebrating working class histories.
‘The Lost City of Cardboard’ initiative is being spearheaded by artists and project leaders who have experienced homelessness, and it is engaging directly with individuals who resided in the Bullring, those who provided support to its inhabitants, and local residents with recollections of or an interest in shedding light on this heritage. Additionally, the project involves participants of our wider community programme and the devoted churchyard garden volunteers.
Through our ongoing conversations and discussions, we have been gathering accounts of love, support, and solidarity prevalent in both Cardboard City and the North Lambeth Day Centre. Simultaneously, we've come across narratives that shed light on the fear, distress, and profound destitution that characterised life in the underpasses. These narratives are swiftly vanishing, as more residents pass away, underscoring the urgency of creating an archive as part of this project. This imperativeness has been emphasised by those already in contact with us, who have been instrumental in shaping this collaborative proposal.
Co-creation is at the heart of this project. We engaged Bekki Perriman (an art therapist and artist whose work focuses on homelessness and mental health) and David Tovey (an artist, educator, and activist with experiences of homelessness). They are supported by journalist Samir Jeraj who has written on housing, homelessness and Carboard City, Saz Denny (an artist, poet and former resident of the Bullring) and the team at SJW and The Bridge At Waterloo (TBAW).
In February 2025, we presented the first outcome of the project in the form of an exhibition within the Crypt at St John’s Waterloo. It sought to remember and memorialise the community of the Bullring and the North Lambeth Day Centre. Through the lens of photographers Liza Hamlyn and Moyra Peralta, alongside personal accounts, artworks, and historical commentary, it preserved the stories while supporting the ongoing campaign to help those experiencing homelessness today.
As with the nature of the whole wider project, this exhibition didn’t aim to provide a comprehensive account of the origins, history, significance, or lived experiences of the Bullring. Instead, it offered a heartfelt endeavour to conserve and reflect upon the memories shared by and archival fragments of those whose lives were shaped by it, while honouring the legacy of those who are no longer with us.
The exhibition title - "The Spirit of the Bullring lives on..." - was adopted from a late 1990s photograph by Moyra Peralta, capturing an inscription made by a resident of the Bullring.
‘The Lost City of Cardboard’ initiative is being spearheaded by artists and project leaders who have experienced homelessness, and it is engaging directly with individuals who resided in the Bullring, those who provided support to its inhabitants, and local residents with recollections of or an interest in shedding light on this heritage. Additionally, the project involves participants of our wider community programme and the devoted churchyard garden volunteers.
Through our ongoing conversations and discussions, we have been gathering accounts of love, support, and solidarity prevalent in both Cardboard City and the North Lambeth Day Centre. Simultaneously, we've come across narratives that shed light on the fear, distress, and profound destitution that characterised life in the underpasses. These narratives are swiftly vanishing, as more residents pass away, underscoring the urgency of creating an archive as part of this project. This imperativeness has been emphasised by those already in contact with us, who have been instrumental in shaping this collaborative proposal.
Co-creation is at the heart of this project. We engaged Bekki Perriman (an art therapist and artist whose work focuses on homelessness and mental health) and David Tovey (an artist, educator, and activist with experiences of homelessness). They are supported by journalist Samir Jeraj who has written on housing, homelessness and Carboard City, Saz Denny (an artist, poet and former resident of the Bullring) and the team at SJW and The Bridge At Waterloo (TBAW).
In February 2025, we presented the first outcome of the project in the form of an exhibition within the Crypt at St John’s Waterloo. It sought to remember and memorialise the community of the Bullring and the North Lambeth Day Centre. Through the lens of photographers Liza Hamlyn and Moyra Peralta, alongside personal accounts, artworks, and historical commentary, it preserved the stories while supporting the ongoing campaign to help those experiencing homelessness today.
As with the nature of the whole wider project, this exhibition didn’t aim to provide a comprehensive account of the origins, history, significance, or lived experiences of the Bullring. Instead, it offered a heartfelt endeavour to conserve and reflect upon the memories shared by and archival fragments of those whose lives were shaped by it, while honouring the legacy of those who are no longer with us.
The exhibition title - "The Spirit of the Bullring lives on..." - was adopted from a late 1990s photograph by Moyra Peralta, capturing an inscription made by a resident of the Bullring.
Simon Bainbridge's online archive
An online archive website dedicated to celebrating the legacy of the late composer Simon Bainbridge. The goal of this project is to maintain appreciation for Simon’s music, ensuring it connects with audiences and performs around the world.
The website features a compiled list of the composer's works, including published and recorded pieces, performances, as well as related images, videos, articles, and reviews.
Simon Bainbridge (1952-2021) was a British composer whose works draw inspiration from and respond to architecture, visual arts, poetry and jazz. His music has been commissioned by the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh Festival, Cheltenham Festival and performed by the London Sinfonietta, the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra amongst many others.
Born in London, Bainbridge studied with John Lambert (Royal College of Music) and Gunther Schuller (Tanglewood). His early successes Spirogyra (Aldeburgh Festival 1971) and Viola Concerto (1976) were followed by large-scale commissions such as Fantasia for Double Orchestra (1983) and the horn concerto Landscape and Memory (1995). Ad Ora Incerta (1994), awarded the Grawemeyer Award in 1997, Chant (1999), a re-working of Hildegard von Bingen for York Minster, as well as Counterpoints (2015), a double bass concerto for jazz musician Eddie Gomez, are notable examples of his unparalleled sound and subtle craftsmanship.
Simon was Head of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music. He taught and lectured internationally and was an active conductor, particularly of contemporary music. In 2016, he was awarded the inaugural British Composer Award for Inspiration.
Cover: an extract from Simon Bainbridge's Eichá (published by Novello & Co)
The website features a compiled list of the composer's works, including published and recorded pieces, performances, as well as related images, videos, articles, and reviews.
Simon Bainbridge (1952-2021) was a British composer whose works draw inspiration from and respond to architecture, visual arts, poetry and jazz. His music has been commissioned by the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh Festival, Cheltenham Festival and performed by the London Sinfonietta, the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra amongst many others.
Born in London, Bainbridge studied with John Lambert (Royal College of Music) and Gunther Schuller (Tanglewood). His early successes Spirogyra (Aldeburgh Festival 1971) and Viola Concerto (1976) were followed by large-scale commissions such as Fantasia for Double Orchestra (1983) and the horn concerto Landscape and Memory (1995). Ad Ora Incerta (1994), awarded the Grawemeyer Award in 1997, Chant (1999), a re-working of Hildegard von Bingen for York Minster, as well as Counterpoints (2015), a double bass concerto for jazz musician Eddie Gomez, are notable examples of his unparalleled sound and subtle craftsmanship.
Simon was Head of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music. He taught and lectured internationally and was an active conductor, particularly of contemporary music. In 2016, he was awarded the inaugural British Composer Award for Inspiration.
Cover: an extract from Simon Bainbridge's Eichá (published by Novello & Co)
Waterloo Festival
Waterloo Festival is an annual celebration of arts, heritage and community in Waterloo, on the South Bank fringe. It draws inspiration from the local community and its neighbourhood's heritage. The Festival, organised by St John's Waterloo, has run regularly in summer since 2010, including an online edition in 2020.
Highlights:
- IKLECTIK: concerts in partnership with IKLECTIK, including a Deep Listening workshops and live music by Abul Mogard, NWAKKE and softshadows. (2025)
- The Messengers: a 30-piece band made up of students and graduates from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and inspiring musicians with lived experience of homelessness, workshopping and performing a show of original songs. (2021)
- COMING GOOD (Come Hell or High Water), Nothing Endures But Change, Coming Up for Air, Landscapes, HERE: five outdoor exhibitions of sculpture in the gardens of St John's by The London Group collective of artists. Supported by a digital art exhibitions in the Old Crypt and visual art at The Cello Factory. (2018, 2019, 2021, 2024, 2025)
- Spotlight Chamber Concerts: intimate concerts featuring international artists Steven Isserlis, Angela Hewitt, the Doric Quartet, Samson Tsoy and Alina Ibragimova. (2021)
- Waterloo's Artists: two mixed media exhibitions in the Old Crypt featuring work by artists who live, work or are related to Waterloo. (2024, 2025)
- The Horse Improvised Music Club: a concert of live improvised music curated by musicians local to Waterloo and featuring some of the UK's finest improvisors such as saxophonist John Butcher. (2025)
- Secret Garden: storytelling events for adults in St John's gardens, lead by Connection with Wonder following a 9-month series of storytelling workshops at St John's. (2024, 2025)
- A Jewish Jesus: Art and Faith in the Shadow of WWII: a conference exploring the works of Jewish artists featuring the figure of Jesus in the late first half of the 20th Century. Part of St John's Waterloo's campaign to restore the Hans Feibusch mural. Featuring Edmund De Waal, Aaron Rosen, Monica Bohm-Duchen and Marc Allum. (2021)
- Run Away and Embrace Your Circus: a participatory day of creative exploration in collaboration with the Mental Fight Club: singing, folk and jazz music, dance, and theatre and mask workshops. (2023)
- Bach, Music and the Mind : travel writer Horatio Clare's new book Heavy Light, a gripping account of his recent mental breakdown, treatment and recovery, alongside the Orchestra for the Earth. (2021)
- bangs, ghosts and mutterings: a collaboration with IKLECTIK and Coin Street. A new audio work made from recordings made by local children on a walk around the neighbourhood, discovering the usual sites through sounds rather than visuals. (2019)
- London's Housing Crisis: a panel featuring voices from across the political spectrum, including James Murray (London Labour Deputy Mayor responsible for Housing), Anna Minton (writer of 'Big Capital: Who is London for?) and Tony Devenish GLA (Conservative Member of the Housing Committee of the Greater London Assembly). (2018)
- Waterloo Carnival: a communal feast, featuring dance, costumes and processions, in tribute to the rich cultural and creative heritage of the neighbourhood, in partnership with local businesses, community groups and school. (2023)
Waterloo Festival 2020 - Special online lockdown edition [April to June]
The onset of COVID-19 in London led us to promptly cancel our June 2020 plans. Instead, we opted to regroup and channel all our efforts and energies into providing an online experience for our local community.
The digital iteration of Waterloo Festival 2020 was unveiled on April 27th and featured multiple daily posts focusing on history, heritage and local artists, together with online creative projects, podcasts and audiowalks. This edition reached new audiences and pu new voices in the spotlight through online community building at a time when social life as we knew it was inexistent.
To build our online platform and design we commissioned Hart Club, a local gallery working with neurodiverse artists.
Photos: Eleanor Bentall for Waterloo Festival
Highlights:
- IKLECTIK: concerts in partnership with IKLECTIK, including a Deep Listening workshops and live music by Abul Mogard, NWAKKE and softshadows. (2025)
- The Messengers: a 30-piece band made up of students and graduates from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and inspiring musicians with lived experience of homelessness, workshopping and performing a show of original songs. (2021)
- COMING GOOD (Come Hell or High Water), Nothing Endures But Change, Coming Up for Air, Landscapes, HERE: five outdoor exhibitions of sculpture in the gardens of St John's by The London Group collective of artists. Supported by a digital art exhibitions in the Old Crypt and visual art at The Cello Factory. (2018, 2019, 2021, 2024, 2025)
- Spotlight Chamber Concerts: intimate concerts featuring international artists Steven Isserlis, Angela Hewitt, the Doric Quartet, Samson Tsoy and Alina Ibragimova. (2021)
- Waterloo's Artists: two mixed media exhibitions in the Old Crypt featuring work by artists who live, work or are related to Waterloo. (2024, 2025)
- The Horse Improvised Music Club: a concert of live improvised music curated by musicians local to Waterloo and featuring some of the UK's finest improvisors such as saxophonist John Butcher. (2025)
- Secret Garden: storytelling events for adults in St John's gardens, lead by Connection with Wonder following a 9-month series of storytelling workshops at St John's. (2024, 2025)
- A Jewish Jesus: Art and Faith in the Shadow of WWII: a conference exploring the works of Jewish artists featuring the figure of Jesus in the late first half of the 20th Century. Part of St John's Waterloo's campaign to restore the Hans Feibusch mural. Featuring Edmund De Waal, Aaron Rosen, Monica Bohm-Duchen and Marc Allum. (2021)
- Run Away and Embrace Your Circus: a participatory day of creative exploration in collaboration with the Mental Fight Club: singing, folk and jazz music, dance, and theatre and mask workshops. (2023)
- Bach, Music and the Mind : travel writer Horatio Clare's new book Heavy Light, a gripping account of his recent mental breakdown, treatment and recovery, alongside the Orchestra for the Earth. (2021)
- bangs, ghosts and mutterings: a collaboration with IKLECTIK and Coin Street. A new audio work made from recordings made by local children on a walk around the neighbourhood, discovering the usual sites through sounds rather than visuals. (2019)
- London's Housing Crisis: a panel featuring voices from across the political spectrum, including James Murray (London Labour Deputy Mayor responsible for Housing), Anna Minton (writer of 'Big Capital: Who is London for?) and Tony Devenish GLA (Conservative Member of the Housing Committee of the Greater London Assembly). (2018)
- Waterloo Carnival: a communal feast, featuring dance, costumes and processions, in tribute to the rich cultural and creative heritage of the neighbourhood, in partnership with local businesses, community groups and school. (2023)
Waterloo Festival 2020 - Special online lockdown edition [April to June]
The onset of COVID-19 in London led us to promptly cancel our June 2020 plans. Instead, we opted to regroup and channel all our efforts and energies into providing an online experience for our local community.
The digital iteration of Waterloo Festival 2020 was unveiled on April 27th and featured multiple daily posts focusing on history, heritage and local artists, together with online creative projects, podcasts and audiowalks. This edition reached new audiences and pu new voices in the spotlight through online community building at a time when social life as we knew it was inexistent.
To build our online platform and design we commissioned Hart Club, a local gallery working with neurodiverse artists.
Photos: Eleanor Bentall for Waterloo Festival
Banned By Beijing
An exhibition calling out transnational repression through art and featuring the works of Badiucao, Lumli Lumlong and Vawongsir. It was curated by Euchar Gravina in partnership with Index on Censorship and launched at the Old Crypt of St John's Waterloo on Tuesday, 27th June 2023.
Making art is a defining and treasured trait of being human. Its story is not only weaved into the that of humankind but showcases its essence and wonder – spiritual, philosophical, functional, decorative, conceptual. It is utterly human.
A string of ignominious episodes in history tell of those who recognised the unique power of creative expression and sought to crush it. Again and again, it’s been judged an enemy of subjugation and a mortal danger to despots. A clear case is the Chinese Communist Party’s repression of its peoples’ right to freedom of expression. This has been widely documented, from the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre and the more recent Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang to the countless number of writers and artists locked up in jails or under house arrest.
However, few realise that its ceaseless attempts to stifle all criticism of the party and country extend beyond its borders, including into Europe. According to Freedom House, the CPP is currently conducting the most sophisticated, global campaign of transnational repression in the world.
Banned by Beijing highlighted the CCP’s transnational repression in Europe by and through the works and stories of dissident artists. It was part of a project seeking to raise awareness of the CCP’s subversion of freedom of expression in Europe by creating a repository of reports, articles and other resources that will enable us to understand the extent to which we need to protect our fundamental rights and our democracies from Chinese interference.
At St John’s Waterloo, the focus was on artists and musicians who have been subject to repression outside of the Chinese borders. The exhibition aimed to not only warn but also to celebrate those who, whilst in forced exile, keep facing down the long arm of censorship with the vigour of artistic expression. The launch featured a concert by the Uyghur musician and human rights activist Rahima Mahmut and the London Silk Road Collective at St John's Waterloo.
Making art is a defining and treasured trait of being human. Its story is not only weaved into the that of humankind but showcases its essence and wonder – spiritual, philosophical, functional, decorative, conceptual. It is utterly human.
A string of ignominious episodes in history tell of those who recognised the unique power of creative expression and sought to crush it. Again and again, it’s been judged an enemy of subjugation and a mortal danger to despots. A clear case is the Chinese Communist Party’s repression of its peoples’ right to freedom of expression. This has been widely documented, from the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre and the more recent Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang to the countless number of writers and artists locked up in jails or under house arrest.
However, few realise that its ceaseless attempts to stifle all criticism of the party and country extend beyond its borders, including into Europe. According to Freedom House, the CPP is currently conducting the most sophisticated, global campaign of transnational repression in the world.
Banned by Beijing highlighted the CCP’s transnational repression in Europe by and through the works and stories of dissident artists. It was part of a project seeking to raise awareness of the CCP’s subversion of freedom of expression in Europe by creating a repository of reports, articles and other resources that will enable us to understand the extent to which we need to protect our fundamental rights and our democracies from Chinese interference.
At St John’s Waterloo, the focus was on artists and musicians who have been subject to repression outside of the Chinese borders. The exhibition aimed to not only warn but also to celebrate those who, whilst in forced exile, keep facing down the long arm of censorship with the vigour of artistic expression. The launch featured a concert by the Uyghur musician and human rights activist Rahima Mahmut and the London Silk Road Collective at St John's Waterloo.
Utopia
Utopia - A New World for Everyone was a creative residency project over Spring and Summer 2022. St John’s Waterloo has a long association with homelessness and with its own visionary £5.2 million restoration project underway, the creative team invited people affected by homelessness to work with architects to consider what makes for a perfect place.
At the heart of this project were students from Accumulate, the Art School for the Homeless, who along with professionals from architecture firm Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) put together the Utopia project.
From April to June 2022, around 20 Accumulate students (adults of all ages) attended weekly workshops where they were supported by AHMM to conceive, design and create models of their personal utopias. The students also had input from music, textile, visual arts and creative writing tutors for an all-encompassing creative learning and exhibition experience.
The project has revealed hidden talents and forged new understandings between all involved and for some students has resulted in fully-funded scholarships to study on Access to Higher Education courses in Fine Art, Design and Digital Media, and Fashion at Morley College.
The final exhibition was also accompanied by a concert at Milton Court featuring The Choir With No Name and The Messengers, a 20-piece band of strings, wind, brass, vocals and rhythm section, made up of students and graduates from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and inspiring musicians with lived experience of homelessness.
The Utopia workshops were funded by generous grants from The Foyle Foundation and Arts Council England.
At the heart of this project were students from Accumulate, the Art School for the Homeless, who along with professionals from architecture firm Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) put together the Utopia project.
From April to June 2022, around 20 Accumulate students (adults of all ages) attended weekly workshops where they were supported by AHMM to conceive, design and create models of their personal utopias. The students also had input from music, textile, visual arts and creative writing tutors for an all-encompassing creative learning and exhibition experience.
The project has revealed hidden talents and forged new understandings between all involved and for some students has resulted in fully-funded scholarships to study on Access to Higher Education courses in Fine Art, Design and Digital Media, and Fashion at Morley College.
The final exhibition was also accompanied by a concert at Milton Court featuring The Choir With No Name and The Messengers, a 20-piece band of strings, wind, brass, vocals and rhythm section, made up of students and graduates from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and inspiring musicians with lived experience of homelessness.
The Utopia workshops were funded by generous grants from The Foyle Foundation and Arts Council England.
The Daphne Festival
Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb on 16 October 2017. She is one of a string of journalists across the world who have faced threats, torture, imprisonment – and death – for investigating organised crime, corrupt politicians and shady institutions. Her family have fought for justice and her alleged killers go on trial in Malta next month.
The Daphne Festival, which took place at St John’s from 3-16 October, not only highlighted Caruana Galizia’s work and look at how her investigations have lived on and led to her alleged killers, but also focused on threats faced by journalists, particularly female journalists, across the globe. The Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak was killed just a few months after Caruana Galizia’s murder, and since then, journalists have been killed in Greece and the Netherlands. In May 2022, the Palestinian American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh was shot dead in Israel.
Partners in the festival included major press freedom organisations from around the world, such as Reporters without Borders (RSF), Index on Censorship, Women in Journalism (WiJ), PEN International and The Frontline Club, as well as democracy and human rights organisations such as Repubblika, Article 19 and The Foreign Policy Centre.
There were sessions on the threats, bigotry and misogyny that has been weaponised to undermine the reporting of female journalists, the story on how Daphne’s work was kept alive by journalists at Forbidden Stories with investigations uncovering leads to her killers, as well as readings from Caruana Galizia’s work and an exhibition of art inspired by her murder and the subsequent fight for justice.
There was also a panel on the growing momentum in the EU and the UK for introducing anti-SLAPP legislation. SLAPP, or Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation, are intended to silence critics, often journalists, by burdening them with the crippling costs of a lawsuit and London is the “hotspot” for libel tourism. This event, one of the first since the UK Government announced proposals which would give courts in England and Wales new powers to dismiss such lawsuits, was led by the UK Anti-SLAPP coalition partners and preceded a major Anti-SLAPP conference in Strasbourg on 22 October.
Rebecca Vincent, director of operations and campaigns at Reporters Without Borders (RSF); Dr Julie Posetti, global director of research at the International Center for Journalists; writer, filmmaker, broadcaster and academic Juliet Jacques, and the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola MEP were just some of those whom audiences had the chance to hear speak and debate.
The festival concluded with a vigil at St John’s Waterloo, honouring Caruana Galizia’s memory, led by Maltese people living in London. It was linked online to other vigils in Malta and elsewhere.
The Daphne Festival, which took place at St John’s from 3-16 October, not only highlighted Caruana Galizia’s work and look at how her investigations have lived on and led to her alleged killers, but also focused on threats faced by journalists, particularly female journalists, across the globe. The Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak was killed just a few months after Caruana Galizia’s murder, and since then, journalists have been killed in Greece and the Netherlands. In May 2022, the Palestinian American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh was shot dead in Israel.
Partners in the festival included major press freedom organisations from around the world, such as Reporters without Borders (RSF), Index on Censorship, Women in Journalism (WiJ), PEN International and The Frontline Club, as well as democracy and human rights organisations such as Repubblika, Article 19 and The Foreign Policy Centre.
There were sessions on the threats, bigotry and misogyny that has been weaponised to undermine the reporting of female journalists, the story on how Daphne’s work was kept alive by journalists at Forbidden Stories with investigations uncovering leads to her killers, as well as readings from Caruana Galizia’s work and an exhibition of art inspired by her murder and the subsequent fight for justice.
There was also a panel on the growing momentum in the EU and the UK for introducing anti-SLAPP legislation. SLAPP, or Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation, are intended to silence critics, often journalists, by burdening them with the crippling costs of a lawsuit and London is the “hotspot” for libel tourism. This event, one of the first since the UK Government announced proposals which would give courts in England and Wales new powers to dismiss such lawsuits, was led by the UK Anti-SLAPP coalition partners and preceded a major Anti-SLAPP conference in Strasbourg on 22 October.
Rebecca Vincent, director of operations and campaigns at Reporters Without Borders (RSF); Dr Julie Posetti, global director of research at the International Center for Journalists; writer, filmmaker, broadcaster and academic Juliet Jacques, and the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola MEP were just some of those whom audiences had the chance to hear speak and debate.
The festival concluded with a vigil at St John’s Waterloo, honouring Caruana Galizia’s memory, led by Maltese people living in London. It was linked online to other vigils in Malta and elsewhere.
Walking the Festival
An audio-tour of the London South Bank site as it looked during the Festival of Britain of 1951. Led by Alan Powers and Elain Harwood, of the Twentieth Century Society, and accompanied by Nick Rampley, former Vice-Principal at Morley College, and Euchar Gravina, Artistic Director at Waterloo Festival.
The podcast was sound engineered by Morley Radio. This is part of a series of podcast episodes around Waterloo Festival called 'Festivalcast'.
Main image courtesy of The Twentieth Century Society.
The podcast was sound engineered by Morley Radio. This is part of a series of podcast episodes around Waterloo Festival called 'Festivalcast'.
Main image courtesy of The Twentieth Century Society.
selected works
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