Spinning Plates Archives - Jericho Road

The New Cross Massacre / The Deptford Fire / The Black People’s Day of Action

Jess Steele — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 19:12:46 +0000

This is just me trying to be an ally. I went to school just up the road, starting in 1980 so I was there for January 1981 and felt the pain. Years later I worked at 441 New Cross Road, next door to the house where it happened. I was a local historian so I read everything, found the pictures, felt the punch in the gut from the tragedy and injustice of it, and the punch in the fist of the Black People’s Day of Action, 2nd March 1981. It’s not for me to say much here but I want... Read more...

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Thoughts about Hastings Pier 10 years after the fire

Jess Steele — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 18:12:46 +0000

Today is my daughter’s 20th birthday. A decade ago she spent her 10th birthday in the shadow of the still-smouldering Hastings Pier fire. I had been up all night, watching from the White Rock Hotel while our beloved pier was eaten up by omnipotent flames. Not quite everything was lost (Picture By Nigel Bowles) Those were dark, difficult days for the town. I’m proud of the optimism and ambition that we showed against such challenging odds. I’m delighted that Hastings has the best condition pier in Britain. Community effort and funder support brought it back from the very brink of... Read more...

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Crisis, Recovery, Transition, Legacy

Jess Steele — Sat, 11 Apr 2020 18:12:45 +0000

“Provide hope and inspiration for collective action to build collective power to achieve collective transformation. Rooted in grief and rage but pointed towards vision and dreams.” Patrisse Cullors, Black Lives Matter, 2013 “Hope offers us clarity that, amid the uncertainty ahead, there will be conflicts worth joining and the possibility of winning some of them… It is too soon to know what will emerge from this emergency, but not too soon to start looking for chances to help decide it.” Rebecca Solnit, Guardian 7/4/20 What does this mean in Hastings? The word crisis comes from the Greek for ‘decision’. In... Read more...

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Thoughts in a crisis

Jess Steele — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 00:07:36 +0000

I’m finding it hard to begin this but I want to share some thoughts and an update, so here goes: We are all reeling. We are what Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick called ‘Paranoid Readers’, desperately searching for information and meaning across a digital landscape the equivalent of a massive rubbish tip, and anxiously fearing the worst. Olivia Laing’s excellent piece published last Saturday describes Sedgwick’s alternative – ‘Reparative Readers’ who are “fundamentally more invested in finding nourishment than identifying poison… This is not the same as being naïve or heedless, unaware of crisis or undamaged by oppression. Instead it’s about being... Read more...

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Whoever is Hastings’ new leader, let’s go to Wigan!

6970@jrs — Sun, 16 Feb 2020 13:16:02 +0000

You and I and the other 95,000 Hastings inhabitants have no vote in the election that will happen tomorrow (17/2/20). Just 23 Labour councillors will choose the person who will lead our town for the next few years. Will we see puffs of white smoke coming from Muriel Matters House?! It bothers me that the character and loyalties of the individual chosen tomorrow will be so important. In reality the impact will be felt in structural terms: the balance of power between councillors and officers, what happens to the discredited ‘regeneration agency’ Seaspace and its progeny, how long the council... Read more...

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The Lion & the Unicorn

6970@jrs — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 13:16:02 +0000

The Lion and the Unicorn 1991 The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the Crown. The Lion beat the Unicorn all around the Town. Some gave them White Bread and some gave them Brown, And some gave them Plum-cake and chased them Out of Town. The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the Crown The Lion beat the Unicorn all around the Town. The Unicorn said “Fuck this, it isn’t you I hate” So they put their heads together and turned against the State. The Queen said “Oh, dearie me, we can’t be having this.” As the... Read more...

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Heart Break – Ore Valley let down again

Jess Steele — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 13:16:02 +0000

The decision to sell the former power station site at Ore Valley to a private developer rather than to Heart of Hastings community land trust is finally sinking in for me, a fortnight after it was announced. This is how I felt about the place in February 2017… https://jesssteele.wordpress.com/2017/02/05/i-am-losing-my-heart-to-ore-valley/ Ore Valley has been let down from above over and over again. We were determined not to do that but to work through the Bottom Up Development team and with an approach led by talking to local people, on site, at events around the area, online, and on their doorsteps. Between... Read more...

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A Great Leap Forwards

Jess Steele — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 13:16:02 +0000

Contracts have been exchanged for the purchase of the Observer Building in Hastings. Completion is expected on Weds 13th Feb 2019. The new owner is White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures (WRNV) (*1), a community-rooted developer owned by three socially-driven organisations, with voluntary covenants in the Shareholders Agreement to retain capped rents in perpetuity. Sounds really dull! Why does this matter? The Observer Building is a symbol of early 1920s optimism: a great big beautiful strong proclamatory edifice built out of pride to tell the stories of the town. Hard not to like… On the other hand, Robert Tressell’s name for the local... Read more...

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Statement regarding Hastings Pier

Jess Steele — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 13:16:02 +0000

STATEMENT FROM JESS STEELE REGARDING HASTINGS PIER February 2019 Since last summer there has been a disturbing level of polarisation within the town about the pier. I hope that this statement will help to tackle that and remind us of the positivity that was the hallmark of the campaign to save the pier. This statement comes from me as an individual and I’d like to lay out my involvement as clearly as I can. I was one of the local people who got together to try to save the pier in 2006 when it was closed for safety reasons due... Read more...

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A working life as a community activist

Jess Steele — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:17:30 +0000

I gave this talk today (25/1/19) to 200+ students at Helenswood School, Hastings, as part of ‘Get Hastings Reading’ (see end of post for slides) Hello, thanks for having me. My daughter came to Helenswood. She’s doing her A-levels at Bexhill College now. So I was thinking about what I would have wanted her to hear when she was your age… I think it’s: try to get ready for a future you can’t see yet. My sister always wanted to be a doctor. Well at first she said she wanted to be “a nurse in Africa” but our Dad said... Read more...

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