Dock Speak

An exciting evening of new work made in Canning Town and the Royal Docks shared for the first time.

The evening includes a screening of The Chains of Change, made by young people from Beckton and Canning Town; as well as performances and screenings from writers and artists: Djofray Makumbo, Salvatore Rubbino, Marilyn Fontaine, Tatenda Matsvai and Remi Graves.

Join Spread the Word, Boat Poets, Social Convention and the Royal Docks Team, for an evening of new work made in Canning Town and the Royal Docks.

The line-up will include artists who undertook micro-residencies; walking and looking through personal archives then recording voices to create new work for this show. Boat Poet Tatenda undertook her residency in Autumn 2022 on the Woolwich Ferry. And ten young artists from Beckton to Canning Town, supported by film -maker Mmoloki Chrystie and writer Remi Graves, have shot and edited their short film "The Chains of Change".

They will be supported by performances and screenings from Djofray Makumbo, Salvatore Rubbino and Marilyn Fontaine featuring headline poets Tatenda Matsvai and Remi Graves. The event will be hosted.

This event showcases young people from Shipman and Beckton Youth Zones.

The venue is partially wheelchair accessible. If you have access needs of any kind we would love to hear from you in advance at emma[at]socialconvention.org so we can make your evening as enjoyable as possible.

Here is some more info about accessibility at the venue:

Our venue is across two floors with 15 steps dividing it.

There is no lift so unfortunately upstairs is not accessible to those who use a wheelchair, however, downstairs is accessible with bathrooms of adequate sizing. There is a complete disabled toilet in the venue next door that we have permission to use.

ROYAL DOCKS TEAM is a joint initiative of the Greater London Authority and the Mayor of Newham. Our People and Stories is a developing strand of artist commissions providing a platform to highlight the breadth of voices who have a home in the Royal Docks of east London.

BOAT POETS is a talent development project which supports, encourages and inspires new poetry from young people across the UK and is hosted in London by Totally Thames Festival.

SOCIAL CONVENTION is an artist-led event space aiming to support early career artists with their exhibition and event ideas based in Canning Town since 2022 - they offer affordable artist mentoring and event space.

SPREAD THE WORD is London Literature Development agency and supports writers across the city. Its programmes include Deptford Literature Festival, London Writers Awards and Runaways London.