Synopsis

In this black-and-white handheld video from the Basement Project, a primarily Black music troupe featuring steel pan players, percussionists, brass section, singers, and dancers takes a group of East End children through a crash course in how to play instruments, followed by some live tunes and performances by the band. The band leader teaches children about the symbolism of an African statue through a folk-tale, as well as the origins of the steel-pan drum in Trinidad. All this activity takes place in what appears to be the ruined foundations of a former building, with passers by watching the band from street level and an audience perched on a crumbling wall.

The band performs under a banner bearing the demand "New Amenity Open Space for Tower Hamlets". This event and banner allude to the community-led drive in the 1970s for investment in local arts and culture in the borough, which resulted in the Tower Hamlets Arts Project, the E1 Festival, and the Basement Project. In parts of the video, the filmmaker (Maggie Pinhorn) hands the camera over to the kids to capture the event themselves, in the spirit of the community video, resulting in eclectic perspectives on the action.