Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust x Ed Webb-Ingall

GROWING UP BRENT

A PROJECT BY ED WEBB-INGALL IN COLLABORATION WITH MOSAIC LGBT+ YOUNG PERSONS’ TRUST

Growing Up Brent is a radio play by artist and filmmaker Ed Webb-Ingall produced in close collaboration with Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust, as part of a series of four community-led commissions. Spanning the past and present of Mosaic, and working through the genres of documentary and fiction, the project delves into the history and legacy of Mosaic in Brent to explore what it means to create communities of kin, particularly for individuals to whom such communities might initially seem out of reach.

The play takes as a point of departure the initial founding of Mosaic as a group for Gay and Bisexual men in Brent in the year 2000, which was made possible with funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and support from Brent Council. Mosaic subsequently became one of a handful of LGBTQIA+ youth groups in London and ran until 2016, when it closed its doors in the borough due to austerity cuts, registered as an independent charity and moved to its current location in Camden. Having found no information for the group in Brent’s archives other than a photograph of its founder, the artist began a search for Mosaic’s records, most of which were collected together and later passed on to Webb-Ingall by former staff. It was this unofficial archive—composed of newsletters, emails, minutes, guidelines and workshop descriptions, amongst other documents—which provided the founding material for a radio play imagining what it might have been like to attend the first few meetings of Mosaic, within the context of rampant homophobia, street hostility and the influence of Section 28.

Throughout the process of researching their archive, Webb-Ingall also met monthly with the young people who currently attend Mosaic. Through various workshops they explored the history of the original group, and began to imagine and create an archive of their own—the contents of which, along with the original archival materials and ephemera collected while writing the script, now covers the surfaces of the installation at The Library at Willesden Green. This collectively produced material, detailing and exploring their time spent together and their contributions to shaping Mosaic’s history, is now in the process of entering the library archive. The young people also spent time making audio recordings to punctuate the radio play, exploring the politics and problems of coming out, and the ongoing importance of safe spaces for LGBTQAI+ people.

Commissioned in partnership with Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust.

Ed Webb-Ingall is a filmmaker and researcher working with archival materials and methodologies drawn from community video. He collaborates with groups to explore under-represented historical moments and their relationship to contemporary life, developing modes of self-representation specific to the subject or the experiences of the participants.

Website: www.edwebbingall.com

Instagram: @edwebbingall

Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust is London’s biggest LGBT+ youth charity, serving the community through the delivery of outstanding services and events. Mosaic Trust runs Pride Prom and Homoween, as well as offering a youth club, mentoring and counselling, making sure to support LGBT+ young people holistically. It’s their mission to support, educate and inspire in order to build a proud, strong, cohesive LGBT+ community that is healthy, safe and thriving.

Website: https://www.mosaictrust.org.uk/

Access key: wheelchair accessible, creative captions, online access (link below).

Click here to listen to Growing Up Brent on SoundCloud.

Ed Webb-Ingall’s project was commissioned as part of the Brent Biennial 2022, titled ‘In the House of my Love’. The second edition of the Biennial asked how, and why, the act of making home can be a form of resistance and survival within the context of hostile environments—including those of racism, homophobia, ableism, climate catastrophe and political austerity. The Brent Biennial 2022 was curated by Eliel Jones, in collaboration with a curatorial committee comprised of artists Adam Farah, Abbas Zahedi and Jamila Prowse. Find out more by visiting the Archive.