Talkin' Bout my Generation

Highlights from the North London Story Festival, held on 21st February 2019. BY YVONNE ALEXANDER-TAYLOR

The North London Story Festival (formerly North London Literary Festival) is an annual event held at Middlesex University and the surrounding areas of North London. Running annually since 1996, the festival aims to celebrate all forms of storytelling through hosting a range of guest speakers and holding practical workshops at the Hendon campus of Middlesex University.

This year’s festival saw a line up of actors, theatre directors, producers, writers and journalists all focusing on the topic of ‘My Generation’. The phenomenal festival brought together the minds of these individuals to explore what it means to be young and living in the UK today.

There were interactive talks and workshops that students and the public actively engaged in. Not to forget the memorable performances of plays written and performed by Middlesex students.

The event started at 11a.m on Thursday 21st February. However, for the festival producers, work began three months prior.

Students ranging from Foundation Year, up to Second Year of the Media Department, worked tirelessly week by week leading up to the festival.

The most challenging part of the process was finding and confirming celebrities and well-known artists. With only a mere couple of months to get this done, the producers found tight deadlines laborious as publications could not be done without knowing who the guests would be. Eventually, everything fell into place nicely and the line-up was ready.

To start the day, Dalia Gebrial gave a talk about the book ‘Decolonising the University’ in which she is a co-editor. Attendees flocked the boardroom and listened intently as Dalia effortlessly spoke about the students and activists within the book. Simultaneously, the Google News Lab ran a workshop at Hendon Library, hosted by Abigail Edge. This was quite an interesting session as it explored the strengths and limitations of modern technology in journalism and the challenges that journalists faced in driving innovation in news in today’s society.

How could we have a festival without some extracurricular fun? As you stepped into the iconic Grove Atrium, you could hear and feel the buzz of excitement as people stood laughing at their friends and peers on the virtual reality experience. They had the opportunity to be amazed and entwined into the world of ‘Pearl’ and her dad as they travelled. Individuals were shifting, standing, crouching and bending as they immersed themselves in this virtual world.

In the afternoon, Vas Blackwood, actor, and Jade Lewis, theatre director, shared in a session about ‘Making It’ within the arts industry. Both, with their varied experience, delighted the audience and offered sound advice for those seeking to enter this field. With their contrasting age difference and experience levels, the audience gained an insight into the comparative and similar differences between the two.

The penultimate session of the day was the long awaited panel debate between the Baby Boomers and the Millennials. This panel was not just thrown together at random, oh no! The Baby Boomers consisted of highly academic lecturers and professors who battled against students. This long awaited opportunity, perhaps more so by the millennials, came and closed the programme on a high.

Not to forget - everyone who attended had free pizza!