Connecting Dots will help young people in Croydon and beyond understand the decisions that shape their lives
Poet and rapper Jenniah Brown once dealt with complaints about potholes, kerbs and planning at Croydon Council, listening to people spitting feathers by day while spitting bars himself in his spare time.
Now, the Croydon-born artist is drawing on his work in music and poetry to make local government policy easier to understand, and improve the disconnect between young people and those running their hometown.
“When you think of policy you don’t think of colour, rhythm and storytelling,” he said. “You just think of words and jargon.”
Jenniah, 32, now believes he has found a way to help young and marginalised people in Croydon and beyond navigate the dry technical language that often shrouds what are really important decisions in mystery.
Through his new Arts Council England-funded programme, Connecting Dots, Jenniah wants to harness the storytelling power of poetry, spoken word and rap to translate complex policies and strategies into language people can understand.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), he said the challenge is not a lack of information, but making sure people can find it and feel confident enough to engage with it.
“In terms of Croydon Council providing policy documents, the interesting thing is that the majority of these documents are already publicly available online,” he said. “The problem is most people don’t understand the documents.
“We are using poetry to translate policy and engage with young people in a different way.”
He believes this is essential because these policies ultimately shape young people’s lives.
The idea behind Connecting Dots grew from Jenniah’s years working in local government, beginning with his time on Croydon Council’s highways team at 22, where he saw first-hand how councils operate and the challenges they face.
“Croydon Council was my first entry into local government,” he told the LDRS. “I can’t lie, it was boring. I was working for the highways team, going out inspecting drop kerbs and dealing with complaints coming in.
“However, I started to learn about governance, dealing with MP enquiries and understanding how powerful local government is. What stood out for me is that these are probably the most powerful institutions in our borough.”
Jenniah’s interest in rap and poetry stretches back to his school days, when he would rap on the 455 bus and when his best friend gave him his first rap CD, Nas’ legendary debut album Illmatic.
“After 10 years of building across music, poetry and local government, wondering how can I bring these worlds together, this feels like a huge milestone,” he said, referring to the upcoming launch of the programme.
Connecting Dots will focus on demystifying four key policy areas that affect young and marginalised people. These include devolution, the idea of health in all policies and creative health, the Creative Industries Sector Plan, and levelling up and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Over the coming months, Jenniah will hold Cultural Research Exchanges in Croydon, Lambeth, Bristol and Exeter, where members of the public and locally curated artists will explore and unpack policy documents through poetry, performance and discussion.
Jenniah believes these forums offer a new way of getting young people engaged in important discussions.
“Co-production is always the word that is always floating around local government,” he said, referring to efforts to involve young people and people from different demographics in strategies and policy documents. “But you have got to get them in the room first. They have to be interested first.”
Jenniah said it’s also about addressing what he sees as a general apathy towards politics.
But he stressed that the aim was not to get more young people to become councillors or MPs. “I am not trying to get more people into politics. I just want them to understand it, and how it works at a governance level,” he said. “People also get a bit of entertainment, arts and culture that makes it more enjoyable.”
The first Croydon Cultural Research Exchange will take place on Friday (August 14), featuring performances from local artists Big Scoop, Shaniqua Benjamin and Selorm, alongside a panel with representatives from King’s College, and the Department for Work and Pensions. It will also include It will also include Jenniah’s brother, spoken word artist Tariqq, co-founder and director of House of Vox, a creative community interest company that uses poetry and storytelling to uplift marginalised communities.
While the programme has been a long time in the making, Jenniah hopes Connecting Dots will prove successful and gain the support of local councils as a viable alternative to the low levels of participation often seen in public consultations.
Speaking just over the road from the Village Table café and events space in Park Lane, where the first event will be held, Jenniah concluded: “I think it’s time policy had a story attached to it.”
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