Space: A zine by Women's CHAI Project for Oldham Coliseum Digital Communities

Space A Zine Zine By

By Women's Women's Chai Chai Project Project

Digital Communities

About Us Women's Chai Project CHAI stands for Care, Help And Inspire and that is what we aspire to do.

The CHAI Project runs groups in schools. The CHAI groups are open to all women who have children or grandchildren at the school. Our Ethos is if you get the parents wellbeing right the children’s wellbeing will follow. @CHAI_Project www.womenschaiproject.co.uk

Oldham Coliseum Oldham Coliseum Theatre is one of the most established venues in the North West with a rich history in Greater Manchester dating back to 1885. Over 135 years after opening, Oldham Coliseum is one of the oldest theatres still operating in Britain today. @OldhamColiseum www.coliseum.org.uk

Digital Communities

‘Digital Communities’ is the Coliseum’s online shared space for groups and artists to reflect and share their work, with one another and the wider community.

Developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, the space has been designed as a meeting and conversation space for our ‘Coliseum Community’ groups; community groups who would usually make work for the Coliseum’s stage, both in their respective groups settings and then collectively. You can find out more about all the groups involved in Digital Communities here: https://coliseumdigitalcommunities.wordpress.com/

In Summer 2021, the Women's Chai Project were set the following provocation by the Oldham Coliseum: "What spaces have been important to you over the last year ... your home, a park bench, your garden? What spaces are you looking forward to visiting? How about your head space ... how have you felt?"

In digital sessions the group spent some time thinking about 'Space'. After a tough year with the pandemic, these workshops gave an opportunity to explore the spaces that are important, places we miss, what we're looking forward to and how we find headspace. This zine is the outcome of those sessions, we hope you enjoy reading it!

What Space means to us Space for me is a place where i can be me. A safe space with no judgement or assumption. My comfort zone is my home. A space I have tailor made for me and my family

Exercise is a great head space for me. I'm turning my home into a gym.

Thinking time

Space is very important for me as i can clear all my thoughts and give myself rest

Working from home has given me opportunity to cook dinner for my daughter and I, to sit down together and have a conversation at meal time getting things off our chest. it is a great space

Space means to me having time to read a book or just have time to sit still and think by myself

listening to calming music in the evening helps me think better also helps with my anxiety with better nights sleep

What Spaces are important?

Sitting by the window

Safe and honest spaces

Space for me is usually an emotion not a physical place

Bathroom nice hot long soak in bath with some candles lit helps me to destress

My garden

Favourite Spaces to be In the sessions, we spent time reflecting on some favourite spaces. After a year of the pandemic, there are lots of places that haven't been accessible - spaces we'd visit with family, seeing the people important to us.

There have also been many moments of appreciation for spaces we were able to go to during lockdown.

On the next few pages, we share some of our favourite spaces

Where would you like to be?

I would love to go to a family wedding where we can all see each other and have lovely food and just chill watching people dance and enjoy themselves - Sumaya

Being with my mum is where I like to be.

Cooking for her, taking care of her, getting her clothes ready and shoes out. Spending quality time with her - Yaasmin

I love to be in the countryside on a sunny day with a nice breeze. Sat near a small waterfall just observing nature. Listening to the birds, watching bees and looking for pollen. Looking at the little ants going about their busy lives and watching my kids playing nearby.

- Saddia

Sitting in my craft room with a hot cup of coffee and no interruptions.. Lots of ideas flowing through my mind and i'm able to choose whatever project I want to start crafting without worrying that I will run out of supplies!

- Samaya

The place I would like to be is in Sharm al Sheik in Egypt, by the Red Sea, just walking a long the sandy beach looking out to clear, blue water. Watching the fish swim in the shallow water, a comfortable silence, then sitting on the golden sand having ice cream, talking to my children about their best memories of growing up. Najma

I'd like to go back in time, see what I did, see what my siblings did.

- Farzana

Friday Walking Group

Over the last month, we've started meeting up for Friday morning walks.

This has been a great way to get together after only doing online sessions during lockdown. Some of us hadn't met in person before!

Finding Headspace In the sessions, we reflected on how important finding headspace has been over the last year.

Attending CHAI Women's sessions have been a great way for us to make time and space for ourselves, to catch up, be creative and connect with each other.

Over the next few pages, we share some of our favourite ways to find headspace.

Saddia I am a novice gardener! I went from having a fear of bugs in the garden and avoiding doing the gardening to becoming absolutely addicted to it.

Now I find any excuse to go into the garden. This year I have grown some mint, spinach, potatoes, garlic and some figs (with the help of my mum!).

The advice I would give to someone interested in gardening is just to tackle one small area of the garden at a time....sometimes looking at the garden as a whole can be a bit daunting but if you take a section and work on that you will get so much satisfaction out of seeing the transformation

Najma Naj’s Desi Pasta (from the Chai Ladies Cookbook)

This is my children’s favourite recipe, Italian with a South Asian twist.

INGREDIENTS 450g diced boned chicken 500g penne/shell pasta 1 onion, finely chopped 150g low fat mature cheese 1 tbsp rapeseed oil 1 tomato, finally chopped 1 tsp salt 1 tsp haldi (tumeric powder) ½ tsp red chilli powder 300ml water

METHOD Take a medium pan and add the rapeseed oil and chopped onion. Cook until medium brown (gas mark 5, moderate/medium).

2. Add the salt, haldi, chilli powder, chopped tomato and water and simmer for 10– 12 minutes (gas mark 3, low).

3. Add the diced chicken. Allow to cook for 10 minutes (gas mark 5, moderate/medium).

4. In a separate pan boil 300ml of water.

Once boiled add the pasta and continue to boil for 10 minutes (gas mark 6, moderately high) or until ready.

5. Drain the pasta and mix with the chicken.

Stir in all the ingredients and sprinkle some low fat mature cheese.

6. Cook for a further two minutes (gas mark 2, low) and serve.

Yaasmin

Bone broth recipe (with a slight twist)

This is a recipe i've shared a lot with friends and family to help with poor health. It's been a tough year for it with COVID.

INGREDIENTS Lamb 1/2 kg Butter 3 tb spoon 1 onion diced Ginger garlic paste 4 tb spoons Cloves 4_5 Whole black pepper 4_5 Black crushed pepper 1 tsp Black cardamom 3 Salt according to taste Wheat porridge 5 table spoons

METHOD Add butter in a big heated pot, add the lamb in it and saute it for a few minutes until the lamb changes its colour. Add onion and ginger garlic paste . Keep stirring so that everthing is incorporated well and ginger garlic starts to loose its smell.

Add all the spices mentioned .

After mixing everything up add the wheat porridge.

And fill up the pot with water and put in on slow to medium heat.

And forget that its on the stove 😉 Just kidding, but since you have filled up the pot with water, there is little risk of burning it. So you can leave it on for as long as you like. Lamb should be perfectly cooked and wheat takes some time to cook as well.

The twist is the wheat porridge, that makes the consistency like soup rather than plain broth.

Saddia I enjoy making crafting project with kids here's a mosque we built for Ramadan

Due to restrictions kids weren't allowed to visit the mosque so we buit one at home!

'Space' Collages with Brontë Palmer The fifth session was led by artist Brontë Palmer focussed on collage making. Brontë is a visual artist who uses a lot of mixed media in her work and creates bold images of figures in signature blues and yellows. Brontë shared with us different ways to get started with collaging including scribbling, making shapes and collecting different materials. Everyone created something very different and inspired by headspace.

"I've drawn some gym equipment - dumbbells and resistent bands. Exercise helps me with my mental health and I dedicate an hour every day to exercise. I've ripped up some post it notes to represent water and walking."

- Lisa

"Mine is lots of swirls of different colours. I've included words that make me happy such as 'love' and 'family'. I wanted to make it bright and fresh."

- Saddia

Writing about our spaces In the last session, we listened to 'This is the Place' by Tony Walsh which, reflects on Greater Manchester and the rich history of the city. We liked this poem, it made us feel 'proud', it made us think about the parts of the city that are important to us and, reflect on the 'sense of community' and 'coming together' that Greater Manchester is known for.

We then thought about our own spaces and what sounds, sights and smells there are. What memories and how they made us feel.

Poetry writing task: If you'd like to have a go at writing about a favourite space of yours. Start with writing down seven bullet points about that place.

Think about all of your different senses when writing them down.

What can you hear?

What sounds are there?

What is memorable about this space to you?

How does being there make you feel?

Try and make them as descriptive as possible!

Our tips for finding Headspace Colouring in Listening to calming music Cook for the family

Exercise Go out to the local park Take a nice walk

Have a chat with someone

Have a picnic

Shopping

Sit in the garden and listen to the birds

A cup of tea and some music

We enjoy attending the Women's Chai Group because...

"We get to know about new things we didn't know about. It's enjoyable learning about something new."

"Through the lockdown, there was a lot of isolation and being able to connect with other people and learn from them. Sharing ideas with each other for headspace has given me new ideas."

"It's always so good to see everyone."

Photo by Alan Hamer

"Motivation to try different things."

"It's good to connect with people and you find out what's going on locally too."

"I've met so many wonderful people attending this group."

"Coming along to the Women's CHAI group always gives me good headspace!"

Find more from the Women's Chai Project here...

The CHAI Circle Podcast https://soundcloud.com/user-894710240/ep1-chai-circle-podcast

The Chai Ladies Chapatti and Chat Cookbook (free download): https://drive.google.com/file/d/199YYNjjPa9gXOK4EKoXBj37UIL0m04cY/view

Video Showing CHAI AF testing by Health Innovation Manchester https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQq0aTTND9Y

A rap/spoken word video about Kindness in the Community – by the CHAI Project Https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=-gnyag6pnd0

This zine was created by Rose Sergent www.rosencrantzzz.com / @_Rosencrantzzz