Ukrainians find support in Medway, but more help needed
Plus new album from Medway musician, review of new Spotlites production, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more
It’s been nearly three years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While the conflict rages on, families across Britain opened their homes for those fleeing the country. Since then, 400 Ukrainians have made Medway their home. We’ve been finding out more via the work of the Medway Help For Ukrainians charity. Further down, we talk to Medway’s Mikey Brennan about his new album, which our music writer Stephen Morris has also reviewed, our resident theatre critic Anne-Marie Jordan has been down to The Modern Image of Dorian Grey at Spotlites Theatre, there’s our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more.
Ukrainians find support in Medway, but more help needed
There are currently over 400 Ukrainians living in Medway under the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme. Others came as part of the family scheme. Medway Help for Ukrainians have been at the forefront of the efforts to support the community.
It is unusual to immediately hear praise for a local council, but Medway Help for Ukrainians are keen to be clear that “Medway Council have been brilliant. They've embraced the scheme, and we have some really good examples of how Ukrainians have become integrated into the community. They're contributing to the community, they've set up businesses, they're working with us, they're working with other charities.” An argument could potentially be made that the reason that the positive outcomes from this scheme are not better known is that people don’t want to read a positive story about immigration in a political environment where immigration is seen as bad and needs to be stopped.
MH4U was set up as a charity almost immediately after the war started. “In the early days, it was around people literally arriving from Ukraine with a suitcase and little else.” As well as accommodation with a sponsor, arriving refugees needed clothes, toiletries, and most of life’s basics. The majority of the Ukrainians who came were mums with young children who could speak some English and older women who did not. They were unsurprisingly traumatised by their experience and needed a community in which they could communicate. The charity filled that gap effectively.
The trustees and volunteers initially just wanted to help by sponsoring Ukrainians and providing them with a room in their homes. Those families are still with them today. “When you saw the pictures on the news of them just obliterating whole cities and people running to get away from them, we just wanted to do something to help.” One family they have is a mother and son, who both speak English, though the mother hadn’t used it since university. “The loveliest people.” The charity has a strong working relationship with MidKent College, which set up English classes specifically for the Ukrainians. “We've got people that came here speaking no English that have worked so hard at it that they're now communicating as if they've always been here because of the effort they've put in.” The 400 individuals and families are placed all across Medway, which has become its own difficulty as MH4U works to bring them together as a community. “It's hard for them because they have to get everywhere on public transport.”
MH4U run the ‘Sunflower Café’. Initially in Strood at St Francis Church, it now can be found at the Victory Community Centre1 in Brompton. From the café, MH4U provide advice and guidance, English lessons for those unable to attend MidKent, as well as friendship and support over the universally loved tea and cake. “It provides that social aspect. It's quite hard for them to socialise because they don't have their own home. They are so spread out, and it is so expensive.”
The challenge for MH4U moving forward is that there are not enough host families to sponsor Ukrainians to come to Medway. “We are constantly hearing of families that would like to come to the UK, living in terrible situations in Ukraine.” The war is heading towards its third year and is rarely part of the news. If anything, the situation is worse in Ukraine now. There may be the idea that if anyone was coming over, they would have already done so, but that’s not the case. Some areas that were considered relatively safe during the outbreak of war are now not safe. “Lviv, there has been more than 5,000 missiles and drones this year. They don't aim at military targets, they aim at civilians.”
Some families that came over have found employment. One mother and son, who had a basic level of English when they arrived, have now established a small business, and the son has completed his education and is heading to university. Many would like to rent their own homes, but that in itself is a huge challenge. The council has been helping MH4U find housing, but the problem with private renting is the guarantees required. “They can afford the rent. They'll be fabulous tenants because Ukrainians are hardworking and clean living, but the hurdle of the guarantor scheme just makes it almost impossible for them.” MH4U were at the last full council meeting to ask for more help to promote the scheme and make it clear that there is still a need for sponsorship. “There's only so much as a charity we can do.” Thankfully, the reaction from the council was positive, and Deputy Leader Teresa Murray followed up by meeting with the charity to discuss what they can do. “She's been supporting us from day one, and the last mayor, Nina (Gurung), chose us as one of her charities. The council have just been brilliant.”
While MH4U doesn’t spend as much as it did when it launched, there is still a need for fundraising. “Our main expenditure now is the café, therapy sessions, and the cost of English teachers.” They have just received funding from Child-Friendly Medway to fund a Ukrainian cultural club as many of the young Ukrainians are losing touch with their home culture. They are also looking forward to participating in the ‘Christmas Around the World Event’ that Child-Friendly Medway are leading to get different nationalities living in Medway to take part. “We've got our Ukrainian group. They're going to sing a Ukrainian Christmas song at the event.”
If you are reading this, have a spare bedroom, and can pass a DBS check, you could help a Ukrainian. Under the scheme, you get £350 a month towards the costs, utilities, food, and other essentials, and if you go beyond a year, that rises to £500 a month. MH4U point out that “the diets are very different. Most of them cook their own food. It can be very meat-orientated and lots of cabbage. It's very nice.” You can contact Medway Help for Ukrainians and speak to them about sponsoring and finding a family. They guarantee “a really honest idea of what it's like. But it will be positive because I don't know if there are any negatives.”
In brief
🗃️ The Royal Engineers Museum has been awarded a grant of over £230,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to support preservation and digitisation. This will be spent on the museum’s plans collection and related artefacts of the Mulberry Harbours, floating ports used in the D-day landings.
🍻 A community group is trying to raise money to save the Flying Saucer pub in Hempstead. The Friends of the Flying Saucer need £900,000 to purchase the pub and make the required renovations.
🖊️ The winners of the Rosemary McLeish Poetry Prize have been announced as part of Medway River Lit. The first prize went to Connor Sansby for his poem 'Marine Snow'.
🔨 Homebase has collapsed into administration, putting jobs at its Chatham store at risk. The majority of stores are set to be bought by The Range, but it is unclear if the Chatham store is among them.
🪨 Dr Matt Pope, an Associate Professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology & Geoarch at UCL shared an excellent LIDAR map of Rochester, Strood, and the Hoo Peninsula on Bluesky.
🎬 Medway filmmaker Mark Young has appeared on the Film Lovers podcast. He discusses his filmmaking journey, content vs art, the future of indie film and whether Die Hard is a Christmas film.
Mikey Brennan screws the rules
In a different lifetime, Mikey Brennan was one of the best students I ever had. I first met him when I was the Course Tutor for Level 1 Creative Arts at MidKent College. Since then, Mikey distinguished himself graduating from the Level 3 course with Distinction* and going on to university. Last week he released a new album under the name Michael Mikey Brennan, the first of a trilogy. I talked with him to find out more…
Whilst Mikey specialised on the music pathway, he bullishly says, “Springsteen once said, I learnt more from a three-minute record than I ever learnt in school.” It wasn’t just records he learnt from, though. He loved pop culture, whether it be film, tv or books. His ADHD meant that he didn’t have the grades for higher courses, hence his starting on a pre-GCSE equivalent programme. It was here that, as well as studying music, he was able to develop his film tastes and cover a variety of the creative arts. “Ever since I was about three, I was drawing, I was singing. Before I could spell, I was trying to write stories,” he recalls.
What made Mikey want to be a songwriter were the films, the tv shows, and the books that he read. “I've got loads of musical influences. Two of the main role models being Michael Jackson and Elvis in terms of performance, vocals, but really behind all that, my first ever hero was Randy Newman and his work on the Pixar films.”
For Mikey, the point was to create an album you didn’t skip a track on, telling a story from start to finish. It’s his aim to do a trilogy, with the clearest comparison being the Cornetto trilogy, in that those films were not connected nor direct sequels, and all thematically different. “One thing I love about the Cornetto trilogy is how there's always references to the previous films.”
His album starts with the track ‘Nothing to You’ and ends with a song called ‘Everything To Me’. For Mikey, its loosely a concept album. “It's definitely not as good as Sgt. Pepper”, he admits. But the album tells a story, and whilst it doesn’t have character names, Mikey hopes that it leaves room for audiences’ imagination, and they could decide who the girl in ‘She's My Girl’ is. Elsewhere, the album features a character of a tramp, telling the story of a man who was once rich and wealthy becoming poor. “When I wrote that, the producer on my last album said it sounds like a Bob Dylan song, but I think that's an insult because I suppose in some ways it is like ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, but it's not as detailed. I like the simplicity”. Mikey doesn’t consider himself a poet, like Dylan or Cohen. “My words are much too simple, and the narrative is scattershot.”
For Mikey, the most important thing he got out of education, both at college and later through university, was his peers. “It's your peers you learn the best from”. It was whilst at university that Mikey met his producer and drummer DJ Azza. “I needed somebody to be as open-minded and as eclectic musically as I am.” Whilst Mikey can play acoustic guitar, his focus is on performing as a vocalist and writing his own lyrics. “I’m not the most technically proficient vocalist, but I have my own character”.
Michael Mikey Brennan’s ‘Screw the Rules, This is Rock and Roll’ can be found on Spotify.
Screw the Rules (This is Rock and Roll) by Michael Mikey Brennan
Review by Stephen Morris
With a title like Screw the Rules (This is Rock & Roll), you could be forgiven for expecting Michael Mikey Brennan’s album to be a riotous explosion of noise, chaos and rebellion. And in parts, it is - but The Sex Pistols, this is not. Instead, Screw the Rules… is an experiment with a wide-ranging mixture of genres.
It starts with the David Gray-ish ‘Nothing to You’ and then picks up the pace with the calypso-influenced ‘Falling in Love’. Even the confrontationally named ‘Stick it to the Man’ sounds more like a motivational pep talk than anything Rage Against the Machine might have recorded.
Elsewhere ‘On My Own’ recalls the innocence of 1950s pop. You have to wait until the album’s sixth song, ‘London’s Burning’, to get a sense of the album title’s promise of anarchy with a tune that owes as much to The Clash as its name does.
There’s a wide range of lyrical themes too: there’s the gushing romance of ‘She’s My Girl’ and ‘Oh Honey’ and the horny as hell ‘Falling in Love’, ‘Curtains’, and ‘Make Love to You’.
But there’s also the rather grubbier sounding Ruts-meets-Ramones-ish ‘Maidstone’ (“there’s under-age school kids smoking cigarettes - down in Maidstone”) and ‘Slag’ (recalling Jilted John: “You’re breaking new hearts every day/and sleep in a new bed every night”).
In between, there are rather more earnest explorations of alcohol dependency (‘Alcohol Free (I’m Never Drinking Again’)’) and homelessness (‘The Tramp’). At an hour and five minutes – and with 16 songs to play with – Michael Mikey Brennan has given himself the time to explore and experiment with his talent as a musician. Screw the Rules (This is Rock & Roll) is a rough-round-the-edges album which demonstrates Brennan’s ear for a good tune and a strong voice, hinting at much promise to come.
Don’t forget that Second Chance Medway’s charity art auction is this weekend, raising money for Medway families facing food poverty this Christmas. All artwork is viewable at Sun Pier House between 2pm and 6pm on Saturday, and from 11am until the auction itself at 1.30pm. Bids can be placed online, during the viewing hours, or at the auction event directly.
The auction features original work by Billy Childish, Zara Carpenter, Sam Collins, Michi Masumi, Carol Smith, Maggie Osborn, Kieron Poole, Sarah Crouch, Mick Hampshire, Rikard Osterlund, Heather Haythornthwaite, Sophie Young, Sam Hall, and more.
The Modern Image of Dorian Gray at Spotlites Theatre
Review by Anne-Marie Jordan
I'll be honest. After a furiously fun but full-on few days at Medway River Lit, schlepping over to Spotlites for the debut performance of The Modern Image of Dorian Gray was not really appealing to me on a dark and cold Sunday night. However, this contemporary twist of Wilde's classic by playwright Aimee Riddell is well worth your time. From the cracking soundtrack, MacArthur Park being the perfect tune to introduce the play, to the powerful physicality of the central performances, you are in for a theatrical treat.
Within minutes the electrifying acting from the three leads - definitely a trio to keep an eye on - drags you into a hellishly compelling world, where you risk becoming a slave to social media - and your moral compass is not so much skewed as smashed to smithereens.
By the end, you are left to chew over some uncomfortable realities, from our potentially unhealthy relationships with our phones to the perils of toxic masculinity.
And you're in luck - there are still two performances left, including Saturday 23rd November, which is being shown in association with Medway River Lit and which can also be viewed online.
So, from whatever device you're reading this on, do yourself a favour and head to the Spotlites website to book a ticket - unlike Dorian and his deal with the devil, this is one you won't regret!
Events this week
📚 Until 30 Nov - Medway River Lit // Month-long series of weekend events across Medway featuring writing masterclasses, panels, poetry, drama and more. Various locations. Highlights:
Sun 17 Nov - Panel: How To Write Better Short Stories // Writers Charlie Fish, Neil M. Thorne, and Maria C McCarthy talk about writing short stories. Rochester Library. Pay what you can.
Fri 22 Nov - Poetry Republic: Martin Figura & Helen Ivory + support // Helen Ivory and Martin Figura will be supported by local poets, Zack Davies and Pauline Holmes. Coffee Republic, Chatham. Pay what you can.
🎺 Until 16 Nov - Rochester Cathedral Jazz and Blues Festival // A week of jazz and blues in the stunning setting of Rochester Cathedral. Headliners include James Taylor Quartet. Tickets from £15.
♻️ Sat 16 Nov - Christmas Eco Fair // Sustainable gifts, climate-themed art exhibition, plastic-free refill products, and more. Rochester Baptist Church. Free.
🥕 Sun 17 Nov - Rochester Farmers’ Market // Wide range of traders selling food and gifts. Blue Boar Lane car park, Rochester. Free.
🖼️ Sun 17 Nov - Second Chance Art Auction // Charity auction with original art available from Medway artists like Billy Childish, Zara Carptener, Bill Lewis, Sam Collins, and loads more. Sun Pier House, Chatham. Free.
🥪 Sun 17 Nov - Sandwich Sunday // Sandwich competition! Can you make the best sandwich? Rams Micropub 12 Degrees, Rochester. Free.
🎞️ Sun 17 Nov - Moulin Rouge! // One-off screening of Baz Luhrmann’s sensory overloading musical. Cineworld, Strood. Tickets £5.
🪕 Sun 17 Nov - Wild Billy Childish album launch // Release show for legendary Medway musician. Medway Little Theatre, Rochester. Tickets £20.
🎤 Tue 19 Nov - Rob Beckett: Giraffe // New show from comedian and Taskmaster champion Rob Beckett. Central Theatre, Chatham. Tickets £30.
🏳️⚧️ Wed 20 Nov - Transgender Day of Remembrance Service // Remembering those whose lives have been cut short. Support and presence of allies is appreciated. Support available for transgender individuals. St. Margaret’s Church, Rochester. Free
🎲 Wed 20 Nov - D&D Social Night // Get together for people looking to find Dungeons & Dragons groups. Playopolis, Rochester. Tickets £4.50.
🎸 Thu 21 Nov - Scott Lavene // Singer-songwriter plays intimate pub show. Three Sheets To The Wind, Rochester. Tickets £10.
🗣️ Fri 22 Nov - Kent Dreams // Poetry and spoken word open mic night. Nucleus Arts, Chatham. Tickets £5.
🎸 Fri 22 Nov - Fightmilk + Jetstream Pony + Dreamcoaster // Top indiepop lineup from Careful Now Promotions. Oast Community Centre, Rainham. Tickets £8.
More Authority
With Medway Council entering the period where it has to start planning a budget for next year, new documents suggest things are financially bleak at the authority. On the other hand, council leaders seem fairly relaxed about the situation. We dug into the data to try and understand the outlook facing Medway over the coming year.
Remember that our Medwayish shop contains a wide range of Medway-related gifts and products designed by local creatives. We have books, mugs, t-shirts, prints, and other fun bits and pieces. Check it out!
Footnotes
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For transparency, this centre is run by Second Chance Medway and is overseen by Steven.