Reimagining the Great Tide
Guided walk and creative writing workshop with Breakwater (Youngsook Choi & Taey Iohe) and Friends of Lesnes Abbey Woods

Saturday 24 June, 1:30 to 4pm
at Lesnes Abbey Woods.
Meeting point: Lesnes Abbey Lodge, Lesnes Abbey Woods, New Road, London SE2 0AX.

INFO:

Join artist collective Breakwater (Youngsook Choi & Taey Iohe) for a guided walk and creative writing workshop in Lesnes Abbey Wood, where we will be transported to the year 2053, and work together to re-imagine ways of life in the aftermath of a Great Flood of the future.

We will start by hearing personal accounts of the Great Flood in 1953, when a tidal storm swept up the Thames Estuary causing immense damage and loss of life from Canvey Island to Abbey Wood, before time-traveling 100-years into the future to speculate on how we might survive in the face of another Great Flood in 2053.

Participants will explore the woods using historic watermarks as their guides, looking for the signs of a future flood, before taking part in a creative writing activity that will help us imagine ourselves as survivors of an underwater future!

The event is FREE & all are welcome - but booking is essential via the Eventbrite link HERE.⁠

ATTENTION!⁠!⁠

⁠The walk is not fully accessible for people with different mobilities.

The terrain is mainly flat, but there will be some stony ground, small inclines & road crossings. The Woodland can be muddy after rain so please wear appropriate clothing and footwear.

It will probably be a warm and sunny day, so please, bring a bottle of water if possible.

This is the third event for beneath the pavement, the marshes, a new creative programme bringing artists, activists and ecologists together with local environmental and community groups working in north Bexley, to explore the ground beneath our feet.⁠

ABOUT:

Breakwater

Breakwater is a London-based Korean diaspora artists duo of Youngsook Choi and Taey Iohe. With a mutual interest in counter-narratives of ancestral/indigenous knowledge and queer methodologies, Breakwater's practice centres around the socio-politics of neo/colonialism, climate justice, and migrants' lived experiences. Breakwater is the recipient of ACE project grant (2020-2022) for the diaspora healing project Becoming Forest which proposes mental health as a collective responsibility and adopts a folk healing approach of engaging seasons and nature as critical healers. Currently, Breakwater is developing a new work focused on Canvey Island that will be presented at the Estuary Festival in 2025.

Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods

The Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods is the official friends group for Lesnes Abbey Woods in the London borough of Bexley. It was formed in June 2021 to help support, promote and look after the woodland and abbey ruins that form the park. Since then the Friends have established walking tours of the site, supported events, held talks, organised litter picking and performed conservation and woodland crafting through its Forest Club. Most recently the Friends have successfully raised funds to install a defibrillator on the site which is a popular place for people to exercise.

This is the third event for beneath the pavement, the marshes, a new creative programme bringing artists, activists and ecologists together with local environmental and community groups working in north Bexley, to explore the ground beneath our feet.