Free Speech
One afternoon the phone rang. It was the Deputy Head of a partner Secondary School:
“I had to tell you. It’s so exciting. Sunita* just got sent out of class for talking too much!”
An unlikely moment to celebrate? But Sunita had struggled through school, and for the past year had chosen to stay silent the whole day. Speech therapy and other offers of support had not really helped. She smiled and attended, but didn’t speak.
When I was working with the Deputy Head to set up our next annual intergenerational arts project for Year 10 students with older adults at the local community centre, I met Sunita and we invited her to join the group. We’d be taking photographs, exchanging experiences, I told her, focusing on what community means and who are our local heroes. She smiled and said nothing, but later agreed to join the group.
Was it fair to ask her to come? Could we support her in the no doubt bustling project sessions? I wasn’t sure.
I briefed the older adult group that amongst the students they would find young people who were bold and loud, shy and silent, comedians and serious thinkers – very much like them in fact. We’d give it a go and all see how it went.
At the first intergenerational meeting Sunita joined in, introducing herself through written word games, taking photographs, smiling. The women in the group were warm and welcoming, though slightly frustrated that they couldn’t chat and bring her out, as they successfully did with other shy students. But week by week they kept talking to her, nudging her, making her laugh and inviting her ideas.
One day we needed a volunteer to take centre stage and pose for a photo. Sunita stood up, walked to the middle of the room and said “I’ll do it” And we went on from there.
Once Sunita talked in the Magic Me sessions, she started to speak around the school, to her peers and staff. She took a leading part in the end of project exhibition launch and celebrations. And five months later got sent out for talking too much!
I remembered Sunita this week as I sorted through Magic Me’s archives – piles of heavy filing boxes full of paper, photos, artworks – and stories. Once organised, the plan is to deposit them in the Tower Hamlets Local History Archives, to make them available to anyone interested in the rich history of East End communities.
As I finish up my many decades at Magic Me, and leave on 13 November, I will be taking with me some precious copies of photos, poems and artworks. And I will always treasure many, many stories of the thousands of younger and older people, the artists and staff I have worked with, and the myriad ways in which they helped one another find their voice.
*Sunita’s name has been changed
Written by our Founder Susan Langford, October 2025