Identity

Cohesion Plus are Gravesham-based organisers of community melas and culturally diverse festivals in Kent, and also run the Kent Equality Cohesion Council which provides free advice and support around a range of diversity issues. Cohesion Plus are making a new audio work and film for Estuary 2021, featuring local diverse communities and focusing on the multiple identities that people have which are often unseen as people are pigeonholed into pre-conceived boxes - so for example the baptised Sikh who is also a passionate Everton supporter, or the woman in the Hijab who is an online make-up artist online with thousands of followers. Not just about identity, this is also a discussion about race and diversity in 2021, at the time of the aftermath of the pandemic and the ongoing Black Lives Matter campaign. The making of the work will also involve young people and members of the local community in the production, to create a skills legacy.

Photo: Sarah Knight