A HISTORY OF HACKNEY: CENTERPRISE'S YOUNG WRITERS
AUDIO TRAIL
Young writers
Copies of the work cited in the audio trail can be found in the archive at the Bishopsgate Institute. The collection is in the process of being catalogued. More information can be found here.
A Hackney Miscarriage
This is the front cover of the second edition of the magazine.
The magazine caused a huge stir, even featuring on BBC's Late Night Line Up in 1972.
Pages 7 & 8 of the second edition
The first edition
Vivian Usherwood
This is the front cover of the first edition of Vivian's poems. Drawn by Vivian himself, only 500 copies were printed in the first run. These soon ran out, and so a second edition was published. His collection would go on to sell over 18,000 copies and take its place on the English CSE syllabus.
Click here to see the printed collection in full:
The second edition
As Good As We Make It
by Centerprise Young Writers (1982)
As Good As we Make It is a collection of work written by some of the young people from Centerprise between 1980-1982. Their ages ranged from fourteen to twenty five. Some were still at school, while others were unemployed or working nearby.
This was Centerprise's second collection of writing by young people. The photographs that featured in the collection, as you can see on the left, were taken by the Centerprise
Young Photographer's Group.
Eveline Marius, author of Down in the Ghetto and whose interview featured in Audio Track II, Sandringham Road.
Photograph taken from As Good As We Make It
This poem was taken from the collection:
Future
From now on
I'm going to look to the future
And believe in my dreams
In my courage and faith never failing
By setting out with a song in my heart
I'll find a goal prevailing
I will hold on to faith
Whatsoever fate sends
Rought weather or fine I will take it
And I will show with love in sight
That life is as good as we make it.
Monica Chaplin