Empathy Museum

From Where I'm Standing - The Local Strand

Photograph by Amit Lennon

Empathy Museum - “From where I’m Standing”

Kate Sebag runs the Brockwell Park community Greenhouses. She has been helping with educational project during the Covid19 lockdown. The greenhouses are calming sanctuary in the middle of the city.

Her significant object is the Sunflowers that grew dramatically during the lockdown.

“These huge sunflowers, have done literally all this growth since Covid. They’re just a symbol really of the time that’s gone by, and maybe a symbol of recovery as well.

At the moment, during Covid, we’re just open two days a week - on Saturdays and Sundays. But actually, all through Covid we’ve had volunteers coming here to garden and look after the plants. And people have really benefited from coming here. I mean, they always benefit from coming here but I think, particularly during Covid, it just felt so special to be able to come to this safe, spacious outdoor space, which is just filled with so, so much beauty

I think what Covid really brought into focus was just how differential the access to outdoor space is. And also, how much better people who were able to get to their own private gardens or a decent park – how much better they felt.

Gardening definitely brings me closer to my mother, who died three years ago. Around the greenhouses, there are so many things from her and my father’s garden.… I suppose it just sort of feels like she lives on a bit. You’ve lost the person, but you’ve still got their memory. And that’s part of the healing process.”

Empathy Museum - “From where I’m Standing”

Avi (Avantika) Patel spent lockdown alone. But throughout, helped her 88 year old neighbour and her next door neighbour Katie, keeping in touch with them and making them food and drinks.

Her significant object is the cup of chai tea that she would make and share with her next door neighbour.

“This is how every Indian household would have tea. This is a proper Chai. It goes down your throat and you can feel a nice heat in your neck.

So when lockdown started It was scary, very, very scary. It was really worrying because I’m on my own. And I didn’t know what was going on. I was panicking.

And then I heard that, yes, I have to isolate for 12 weeks. I thought: how am I going to spend my whole day indoors? And I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it, but I told myself, everybody has to do it. And I tried my best.

When I get up in the morning and look out of the window, and it’s completely quiet, there’s no one walking around. No cars. In fact, no noise. And all I could hear through my window open, was the birds. And I think that was just so beautiful: that you can actually hear the birds singing, you know. And going for walks, it was just so peaceful. And I used to make a habit of going quite early so there was no one and I could walk in the middle of the road.

I’ve got a lovely lady living next door to me, She’s called Katie. I used to message her to say please don’t have your lunch now – I’m making lunch. And while it was hot, very hot. I used to just put my gloves on, put it on her car bonnet, ring the doorbell and come back in. So it was like a sneaky little neighbourly running in and out.

Katie: Avi’s always been an amazing neighbour anyway. Lovely. And she’s just looked after me all the way through.

I’ve become very confident and just throw myself into doing anything. I don’t have any negative thoughts anymore. So I just take each day as it comes. I embrace it and I hug it and I just carry on.”

Empathy Museum - “From where I’m Standing”

Natalie Maddix runs the House Gospel Chior. She has been running online, Zoom rehersals and performances with her chior, calling them re//choired videos.

Her significant object is her money plant. She spent lockdown alone in the flat and looking after her plants was a great comfort.

“I name my plants, to help encourage me to look after them better. And I named them after people I love. My money plant is called Rebecca – that’s my younger sister.

There’s so many leaves, and there’s so many directions that they’re growing in. And I can’t control it. I can’t control which leaves are gonna flourish … it’s not like they’re all growing in the same way. It’s the same thing with the choir. It’s the same unit. And it’s, completely together. As long as I do my bit, it stays together. They’re all on their own journeys.

House Gospel Choir is a live music experience, where the spirituality of Church and the euphoria of the dance floor come together and just create something really epic for us all to enjoy.

My big thing is that we’re supposed to be together. I fully believe we’re supposed to come together and have communion and share space. And music is one of the best ways of doing that, of linking people together. Because you don’t have to be the same colour, you don’t have to have the same political beliefs. A song can talk to people from across all different divides.

At the start of Lockdown there was, like, this sense of heaviness that potentially is, you know, just… just depression.

My balcony plants if you have a look out there, they look really tragic. They’re really sad, they’re really scorched. They’re not getting on very well in life. But the ones inside are flourishing. And I think that’s like a wicked analogy for how life has been during lockdown. Like, you have to take care of what’s inside, take care of what you can control, nurture and nourish the things that you have access to. And don’t worry about what’s outside quite so much. I’m happy because I’ve got this in here as well.”

Empathy Museum - “From where I’m Standing”

Dorell Bravo runs Tumbles Laundrette on Railton Road. During lockdown he did a collection service for his older customers who were unable to leave their houses. He often had to deal with with issues of incontinence.

His significant object is the laundromat which has stayed open throughout.

“Being locked down, It’s like being in a storm. You’d not leave your house while the wind is blowing out in 100 or 200 miles per hour, you’d definitely not. But how do you pick up the pieces after the storm? How do you survive during a storm?

What happened in Covid lockdown, I got a few phone calls where people couldn’t get access to their mum or dad or uncle or aunt. And there were older folks and they weren’t allowed to leave the house. So they would ask us to go pick up their clothes for them and then get it cleaned and delivered.

We wanted to do it the right way. We tried our best not to come in contact with our customers by having them leave their clothes at the door. Letting them know that we’re outside first before we go in, and then picking up after. At the beginning people were scared to even talk to me. Especially the OAPs, they talk to me from behind the door.

I remember one of my close customers. He’s been suffering with prostate cancer for five years. He calls me Mr. Nice Guy. Even though I told him my name was Bravo he says ‘No, I call you Mr. Nice Guy because you’re Mr. Nice Guy’.

So, this is what it is, to recover from a storm. The community, which is families, know how to take care of themselves and to take care of their friends. You know, the lady next door might be an elderly person, so her daughter is not going to be able to come. So let us look out and see how we can help her, and what is it that she needs. That is recovering. That is moving forward. You know, to be there when you’re needed. To be there and not be selfish.”

Empathy Museum - “From where I’m Standing”

Jenny Byrne, has worked for Sainsbury's for 20 years. She is based in the Brixton Water Lane store. She allways has a smile for all the customers and knows many of them by name.

Her significant object is the teddy, as she has really missed hugging customers and the physical contact with them during the pandemic.

“I must admit customers do like to come to my queue.

Sometimes I feel a bit like an agony aunt.

They just like to have a conversation about anything and everything, and I’ve had customers say to me before, they’ve walked through the door, not feeling on top of the world. But they come to my till, and by the time I finish serving them and speaking to them, there are so grateful.

I used to have lots of customers saying, ‘Oh, not just for the NHS, I’m clapping for you too’ and that made me feel really, really good. Because I know that, yes, we’re out here doing a job that, you know, a lot of people, as I say, would be scared because, you know, it’s a supermarket, it’s going to be filled with so many people.

When I’m on my till, I’ve just got a lot of love to give.

Love costs nothing, you know what I mean: a smile, a hello. And it’s just love, love, love.”

Empathy Museum - “From where I’m Standing”

Charlene works as Pavillion Pharmacy in Brixton. During the Covid19 lockdown they delivered a lot of the essential medicines that their customers needed, as well as acting as a consultant for minor ailment for those that were too scared to go to the doctor.

Her significant object is the Rubiks Cube.

“Even though it’s a simple looking toy, it sums up Covid massively. Covid may seem simple, yes, it’s a virus, but there’s so many different layers of how it’s affected everyone. And it’s like a Rubik’s Cube: it’s so hard to complete.

In the second week into Covid being in the UK, the pharmacy workload increased massively. More people were calling, more people were demanding medications earlier, wanting deliveries, didn’t want to come out. The phone was off the hook! The government announced a delivery service, which we found out at the same time as the general public finding out. So basically we had to setup a delivery service for them straight away, which we did by reaching out to the local community.

We put this message out on NextDoor Brixton: ’Is anyone able to help?’ - the amount of replies we got back was surprising. I was shocked. I didn’t think people were that compassionate, and that willing to help. I think in the end, we had 40 volunteers!

Wearing PPE all day is the worst thing. I don’t know how hospital workers do it at all. It’s horrible. It’s very claustrophobic.

I’ve realised that I can handle a lot more than I thought I did. Before, if you’d asked me like last year. ‘Oh next year, you’re gonna be dealing with a global pandemic, and you’re gonna be working frontline for three months’ I’d have been like, ‘No I can’t do that’. But now, I realise I can handle a lot more. Yes, it was stressful. But if it came around again – touch wood it doesn’t – I would be able to handle it and be able to deal with it a lot better.“

Dermot Jones is one of the founders of the South London Makerspace. Durring lockdown he has been making free Masks and Visors for the community, local businesses and the NHS.

His significant object is the PPE Visor which they cut and construct, at the volonteer run workshop.

“The South London Makerspace, is a community workshop. It’s a workshop for people to make things. As long as it’s legal and it’s feasible to make it and you can make it safely enough – you can come and try and make it here.

Right from the start I was thinking, yes, this is kind of our time, in a way. We’ve got everything we need - we’ve got a workshop full of tools and equipment - but what do people need?

I assumed at that time that there were plenty of masks and shields available. It turns out that there weren’t. So, I started experimenting around the house for what I could do, and I was communicating with a lot of people online. Someone found that you could use A4 report covers. And I thought okay, well that’s something I’ve got. So I got a Makerspace annual report, I tore off the front cover, I found some rigid foam packing that I had lying around, I cut that up, I found some elastic, and I found a glue gun and I made, just a really quick face shield. And, and it really worked. I found enough materials to make more and then someone came up with a laser cut design. So then it became a little bit like factory work making PPE masks and visors.

I phoned up some care homes to see if they needed any and It was a shock. It was sad. Because you kind of hope that you’ll phone them up and they’ll go: no, we’re actually alright – it’s just a news story. But you know, just about everywhere you spoke to – they didn’t have anything. These places have been sort of left. So I just got them all in bags and I went round the next day and handed them over.

I’m sort of proud of the maker movement for coming together. We’ve made over 2,000 face shields, and I think for the masks, it’s probably about 3,000 so far – and we’re still busy.

We given hundreds away to local community groups and food banks and whoever wants them. And that’s a nice sort of bit of pride: when I go past somewhere, I glance in I go, oh yeah, they’re wearing some of our shields.”