Riot Cleanup: a year on

One year ago today, I found myself on the couch of This Morning sitting beside Kate Nash and talking about what we did in the efforts to clean up London after the riots.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G9ZUCRioh0?rel=0]

It was a very different and unexpected place then where I was 24 hours previously when I grabbed a pair of yellow marigolds and my kitchen broom and a handful of bin bags and marched down to the Nandos in Clapham Junction to see if anyone would come to help clean up my neighborhood. They were there. And they kept coming and coming and coming until we were, as the press named us, the broom army.



A year on and I still can’t believe that it even happened. I can’t believe that people ransacked their own town, their high streets, their home and I can’t believe the massive support of everyone involved in the riot cleanup.



I find it amazing to have been part of such a inspiring, community driven moment that brought all walks life together. And so many people were responsible for getting the people there. Yes, I tweeted a meeting place and told each new group on Facebook and Twitter to help but those manning the lines online did such an amazing job helping spread the word, to encourage people to go back out and take back their neighborhood by showing it the love and attention it needed.

Without Dan Thompson, Sophie Collard, Jake Mulley, Patrick Socha, and Sam Duckworth, this would’t have happened. In fact without the hundreds of people that took to the streets with brooms in their hands, the local businesses that handed out food and drinks, the tea makers, the police officers, the councilors, and those around the globe cheering us on, this wouldn’t have happened.

Some great things came off the back of that day. I got to help with gathering volunteers for the Doddington Community Garden and helping transform part of their space by trading my broom for a shovel. Very excitingly, Dan Thompson and Sophie Collard have gone on to create We Will Gather (which looks awesome so please, please support them!). Channel 4 News covered some of the initiatives today on their site and I believe it’s just the tip of the iceberg. How could the sight of hundreds of brooms not inspire people around the world?

It’s been a hell of a year. But I look back on that moment in my life, I’m so honored to have been a little part of it. And it has truly made me believe that we can do anything. That community still exists. That people are good. Sometimes we forget that. But I won’t. Not now. And hopefully not ever.

PS If you want to read about my experience on the day of the cleanup, I captured it in a storify so that day could be remembered just as it happened.