Review of 2021

by Ian McCartney, Development Director

There is no doubt that this last year has been a difficult one, for society as a whole, for the charitable sector and for everyone’s mental health and wellbeing. We started the year in lockdown, with a roadmap back to something like normality, that lasted until June. Throughout those months, Mental Fight Club continued to provide an on-line service, artistic events and support, via the Dragon Café every Monday and Dragon Café in the City every other Wednesday.

The artists and activity leaders, who continue to give their wonderful support to us all, reimagined their practice in order to continue to provide quality activities throughout. We salute you and your imagination and hard work. Thank you all so much. Regular activities and events such as the Dragon Café Singers, Danceworks and Shareworks, self-massage, chess and yoga were joined by practitioners new to us and old favourites such as mindfulness, theatre groups and workshops, cartoons, animations, walking and drawing, art classes, paper art and work life balance classes to name just a few. 

We started the year with online sessions including our ‘At The Table’ project. This project consisted of four hour long sessions with the acclaimed artist, Liz Atkin, whose lived experience plays a pivotal role in her artistic process. To ensure that the opportunity was accessible to everyone, The Dragon Café provided free art materials for all participants of the sessions.

This project was incredibly well received by Patrons of The Dragon Café and brought together over 60 artists who worked together with Liz to build confidence in their drawing and to engage in a creative mindful activity, being fully in the moment, and engaging imagination in the creation process.

In March, as the first steps of the roadmap out of lockdown began, we were delighted to collaborate with Team London Bridge on their celebration of International Women’s Day with Vivien Ellis and the Dragon Café Singers writing and recording their song ‘Southwark Rebel Women’.

Throughout Spring we were gardening for wellbeing with Damien Newman and nutrition sessions with Andrea from Balance Garden at Dragon Café in the City. We also worked with Dr Tamara Russell on mindfulness and the ‘Feed Your Dragon’ sessions.

In July, we finally managed to have a physical get together in Brockwell Park. Mindful of safety we chose an outdoor venue and were blessed with lovely weather. It was so good to see everyone together in a physical space again and everyone who attended really enjoyed the event with Vivien leading the Dragon Café singers and Ariella and Renzo the dancing. Also in July, we commissioned “Seeing Small Worlds” – a special article by photographer Olivia Hemingway where she focused on the connections between creativity and mental wellbeing.

Following our regular break in August, we had our first inside event at the historical home of The Dragon Café – the Church of St George The Martyr in Southwark. The crypt that held so many Dragon Café’s over the years is now re-purposed as a food co-operative so we started to try to find other venues.

In September, through Dragon Café in the City, we presented a musical and historic Ballard Walk through the streets of old London setting out from Shoe Lane Library and taking in Farringdon and The City. Themes included the birth of printing, plague, poverty, prison and execution and the first performance of The Tempest.

On the 4th October, after months of planning, we presented the Globe On Tour’s production of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ at Rudolf Steiner House. The talented cast unravelled these tales of lovers, exiles, dreamers, and wanderers, sharing what the Globe is all about – storytelling, laughter, tears, nature and of course, theatre. With beautiful choreography, fantastic music and stories with real heart, this latest production left us bursting with joy. We look forward to collaborating with the Globe on Tour and the lovely people at Rudolf Steiner House again as they complete their refurbishment plans and re-opening as a theatre space.

We followed the production of ‘The Tempest’ with The Globe Workshop at Shoe Lane Library where we joined together to learn about the plot, characters and language of the play. Through active participation in exercises and games, this workshop encouraged us to explore Shakespeare’s play in a lively way. 

Also in October, in honour of black history month we worked with Andy D’Cruz with his ‘Playful Drawing Workshops’. Andy produced two online workshops that explored key aspects of drawing from observation. The exercises taught us to look, and more importantly, to see. They gave us a glimpse of what it feels like to see with razor sharp concentration and sensitivity, when you see in this way you allow the drawing to take on a life of its own.  

Early November saw us at a new venue. We joined together at Draper Hall for a Dragon Café Live Celebratory Event. In recognition of Black History Month our activities were focused on music, artists, and dance forms which recognised and celebrated the importance of black history. We had The Singing Group with Vivien Ellis, Ariella & Renzo’s Danceworks  and ended with a Special Performance by Helen McDonald of her self-devised piece ‘Time Travelling with the Jazz Queens’, listening to the iconic music of Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone, together with band leaders Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong.

Dragon Café In The City hosted two animation workshops as part of Movember. With Men In Mind we joined together at Shoe Lane Library with artist and animator Reza Ben Gajra for two sessions, using different techniques and experiences to make short films.

We had a very special event staged on Monday 6th December held at the Streatham Space Project, to celebrate the completion of a creative journey Mental Fight Club began whilst still in the midst of lockdown. This work culminated in a mesmerizing piece of filmed physical theatre which was devised, written, and performed by Mental Fight Club Patrons, facilitated by award winning theatre practitioner Lee Hart, acclaimed filmmaker Alice Cafrae and stunning artist Jason Brownlee. The screening of this short film, Bound-Unbound-Boundless, was followed by an opportunity to discuss the work with all contributors in a Q&A panel. 

We ended the year, having gained some additional funds from the NHS, launching a joint Winter Project with another charity - Self Management UK. This enabled us to offer drawing workshops with Shelly Wain, Papercraft with Tracey Bush and Creative Writing with Naomi from Wordsmith Workshops.

These workshops were to be a mixture of online and live events held at Draper Hall. Unfortunately, due to Omicron, we had to move the live events online for the safety of everyone concerned. This will continue throughout January when we will take stock according to the situation at that time.

Once again, I would like to thank every single person involved with Mental Fight Club and our various projects. Our small staff team, Trustees, artists and activity leaders continue to invigorate and inspire, their hard work is absolutely amazing. I would also like to thank each and every person who attends our events. We will face the future with hope and courage.

Very best wishes,

Ian McCartney - Development Director