Stop patronising and pigeonholing young creatives

For more than 30 years, Theatre Peckham has been a venue firmly rooted in its south London community. Normally it is buzzing with the creative energy of children, young people and artists working in a space where they feel safe to express themselves authentically. But since the outbreaks of Covid-19, we have had to combat a fear that high numbers of people from culturally diverse backgrounds will be forced to leave the industry, undoing the vital impact the organisation has made over the years.

Showcasing the voices of young Black artists through its Young, Gifted & Black season has been a way for Theatre Peckham to reconnect, bring hope, ignite imaginations, and inspire creativity. This year it felt right that the reins to curating the season were handed over to 22-year-old associate director malakai sargeant, staying true to artistic director Suzann McLean’s mission and vision of Theatre Peckham as a venue that creates equitable spaces for young artists. 

malakai: Uncertainty seems to be the word of 2020 – have you shared this feeling? 

Suzann: To feel uncertain is the one thing that we can all be certain about right now. Everyone is feeling this right now. The creative industries face specific challenges, and venues are responding in different ways. While some are hunkering down for extended closure, others are navigating the economics of reopening and changing audience habits. This is naturally unsettling, but we cannot put our cultural life on hold waiting for a time when we can all go ‘back to normal’. This is a massive opportunity for positive change and a chance to imagine a different future. The future that you want to create. Remember the future is never certain as we each play an essential part in creating it. The challenge for you now is to have faith in the vision and trust the process of evolution. 

malakai: What are you doing to keep your brain healthy at the moment? 

Suzann: I’ve been focusing on these four S’s – self-awareness, self-care, self-compassion and self-talk, or cultivating my inner voice. The pandemic has been chaotic in so many ways and it can be easy to be drawn into fear, anger, prejudice, resentment. All of those – and more – have surfaced over the past seven months in the vilest of ways. Some habits and practices that have been adopted as the norm have wormed their way into our conscious and subconscious and they need to change. The pandemic has forced us to face these habits head on, and that’s a good thing. It’s important that I play a role in making that change in myself, in the people I come into contact with, and in the energy that I put out into the universe. 

malakai: What advice do you have for creatives to continue developing their artistry? 

Suzann: Now is a great time to ask yourself why you want to be an artist. What do you stand for? What’s your activism? We are in an industry in which we can get so easily get carried away by the desire to work that we lose sight of our own individualism. This makes the industry stale. What’s exciting is having a range of perspectives. Even if there are similar stories, it’s exciting to hear, see, and feel someone retell it from their own experience. That’s how we learn and grow.

Suzann: What do you think the sector needs to do to ensure you stay?

malakai: As a starting point, the sector needs to take a long look at who has been in gatekeeping positions and for how long. We need radical solutions – and part of that means people in authority training new talent who will eventually take up their decision-making positions. This could mean artistic directors serving a specific tenure and committing to developing two young deputy artistic directors during that time. It could also look like ensuring all NPOs, on agreement with the Arts Council, have annual staff-wide anti-oppression training in areas like gender inclusivity to ensure that trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming folks feel safe and legitimised. It means overhauling the language we use to invite so-called “hard-to-reach" communities to participate in projects. 

The training part is crucial here – it's all well and good recruiting young trustees to boards to diversify an organisation’s governance, but these young people will still be alienated and therefore ineffective if they don't know how to read a cash flow chart or annual accounts. If the sector is serious about people like myself staying, I want to see people in power actually talk to people like me, ask us what we need and, of course, pay us for our time. A lot of us are tired of being diversity and inclusion consultants for free on top of jobs that already don't pay us enough – if we have a paying job at all. 

Suzann: What do you think are the habits and behaviours of young people like you that would help the sector to engage?

malakai: I can't really talk on behalf of all young people and, in answering this question, I have to acknowledge that my landscape is incredibly London-centric, since that’s where I live and work. But it is also very Black, queer, creative, and therefore inherently political. For myself and my peers, that brings a level of challenge and nuance when approaching pretty much anything. We exist and are profiled at intersections of identity. I feel like Black queer folks are constantly questioning the status quo and the systems that oppress us and benefit others. The sector could benefit from asking provoking questions that enable critical thought and meaningful change; innovation is never found in echo chambers. 

Suzann: What can we learn from you?

malakai: It's hard not to sound up my own arse answering this question. My work really focuses on sustainability and legacy, not in a self-indulgent "low and behold: my impact" kind of way, but more in terms of questioning how we can create new structures that completely reject colonial, oppressive systems, and the mental conditioning that is still at play. If we can do this, we can create new industry precedents. In short, there is always another way. I hope folks begin to take younger people who are working in the industry more seriously and stop boxing us into being "emerging artists" just because we're under 26. It's boring and patronising. Fundamental, uncomfortable change will happen by force and by fire, with creatively and culturally unique young people at the helm of it.

Suzann McLean is artistic director/CEO and malakai sargeant is associate director at Theatre Peckham.