Thursday 29 August 2013

Bridge the Gap

Bridge The Gap, a project by Aysha, is an attempt to rekindle relationships between the elderly and younger generations. The project was kickstarted at Cotteridge Day Centre, Birmingham. The day was split up into two halves; the first being storytelling and getting to know each other and the second half consisted of performances by the group in an attempt to break down preconceived stigmatism the elderly tend to have about the younger generation.

I got to meet a guy named Clement, who didn't seem very forthcoming at first and I could tell, like me, he was fairly introverted, which I think helped us get on better when he did decide to interact with me. We had short conversations interspersed between comfortable shared silences. He told me how he used to be a jewel crafter working at the Jewellery Quarter, and how he served in the Navy as an engineer. I told him about what I did as a poet and workshop facilitator and we spoke a bit about what society is like now in comparison to back in 'his day'. We had the same conversation a few times but I'm used to that with my grandparents so I didn't mind.


I feel we got to know each other quite well considering the short amount of time we spent together. He also won twice in a row at Bingo and gave me his prize. It was a wonderfully pleasant experience that I haven't had
with someone who's so much my senior.

After lunch we all started performing for the whole group, collaborating between music, poetry and singing. They seemed to enjoy it considering it possibly isn't anything they've seen before, especially not combined in the way we did it. A lot of the time elderly people aren't too open about experiencing new things as they're rather set in their ways and sure about what they like, but after a while they really started to get into it. Including some clapping along to one of the more upbeat songs.


Overall the day felt like a great success, and as the interviews we filmed will show the entire group were inclined to agree and felt it was a deeply rewarding experience that none of us would have gotten otherwise. I feel this is the sort of project that should be happening more to help, as the project title suggests, bridge the gap between the generations. Ours is a generation unlike any previous and so that obviously creates rifts between the older ones, as there is no discernible link between them. One aspect of society this projects illuminates is the need to and a method for closing that rift and bringing people of different age groups together.



No comments:

Post a Comment