Barking & Dagenham College students produce and perform own work at The Broadway

Since March, the 14 to 16 year olds have being taking part in a nationwide project called Barbican Box; the Barbican arranged a box of various items to be sent to the college to be used as the creative inspiration for new work. 

The box they received contained bits of retro music technology and artefacts such as cassette tapes and compact discs.

The teenagers used the items as inspiration to come up with ideas of how to turn them into their own music/raps.

It was an opportunity for them to express themselves using their imagination and think about how they would survive without technology.

15 year old Tiana Seraphin from Walthamstow said:

“It was amazing, I have never performed before. I was nervous, but I really enjoyed the performance and I would like to thank my teachers Femi and Teddy for working with us on this fab project.”

Junior Ndjaka, 16 from Romford (pictured) added:

“This was so amazing and what an opportunity to perform! I can’t wait for the next one.”

Creative Learning Manager Femi Akinyemi said:

“I am so proud of all the students, especially considering none of them had ever produced music before nor had they performed on a stage. So, for them to come from learning something brand new, to then actually performing on stage to an audience was a fantastic achievement.

“It was great for their confidence, as it was firmly outside of their comfort zone.

“In fact, they performed so well that the Barbican themselves commented on their professionalism and the music and energy they gave the audience.”

14-16 year old students performing their own music and raps on stage at The Broadway Theatre as part of the nationwide Barbican Box project.