The “Happy Together” Project was a culmination of work on other projects over a number of years. How does this project proceed?
Chip and I like to get as much input from the participants as possible. It must feel like they own the project, they have ownership over what happens, what subjects we cover, and what material is produced.
Obviously we had some parameters; we wanted to make a podcast, we wanted to produce some songs, get some photos taken, but regardless of that, these still had to be agreed to,
We had many discussions and the issues which arose were around Covid 19 became a focus. Information from the Inquiry was just coming out and there was a feeling that there was mismanagement, that there was dishonesty. Ordinary people would be told not to go out and yet there were parties in Downing Street.
Some of the carers lost friends, they lost family members. They were all still very angry about their experiences during Covid, where they couldn’t say goodbye to people they loved. They talked about having a plastic sheet, or a glass panel separating them from their loved ones.
They talked about not being able to out, not being able to go to funerals, and they said they felt that the discussions were cathartic. And from those discussions two songs emerged. One about Covid 19 and another called “Make me Smile” based on their experiences during the project.
As I said earlier, many of the participants would say to us that the two hours when they were participating in project were the “best” two hours of their week. We often agreed!
It seems that participation in the project brought people a lot of joy but it does suggest that the participants experienced dark times in their lives. Would that be reasonable to say?
There was one lady who said that she had attended other workshops and everyone would talk about their lives as carers and they would talk about how difficult their lives were, and she said she left those workshops feeling even more burdened when she left the workshop.
At our workshops there was a lot of laughter, a lot of support, a lot of discussion about other issues, issues beyond just the everyday difficulties about their caring responsibilities. AS an example in a previous project The participants also discussed the war in the Ukraine (it had just begun) so again the issues were well beyond their caring responsibilities. A song emerged from those discussions, “Forced Exodus”.
Was there anything else which emerged through the project?
Every time we finish a project I am amazed by the breadth of the discussion, the ideas and issues which interest the people we work with. And I think I really is a situation where you have to leave your preconceptions at the door.
During these projects we do share personal things because it is unfair to ask people to share intimate details about their lives and you sit there saying nothing. I think there was also a sense that everyone involved were concerned about our lives, myself and Chip’s, as much as we were about theirs.
