The rapper turning council jargon into poetry
Jenniah Brown is using rap to explain council policy to young people
A poet and rapper who once handled complaints about potholes and dropped kerbs for Croydon Council is now using rap and spoken word poetry to explain council policy to young people.
Jenniah Brown, 32, from Croydon, has won Arts Council England funding for a programme called Connecting Dots, which turns policy documents into performance and discussion.
"When you think of policy you don't think of colour, rhythm and storytelling.
"You just think of words and jargon."
He joined the council's highways team at 22, inspecting dropped kerbs and handling complaints, and said the job pulled him into governance, MP enquiries and what he came to see as the most powerful institution in the borough.
Brown will also run sessions in Croydon, Lambeth, Bristol and Exeter
Brown told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the problem was not a shortage of information but whether people could find it and felt confident enough to use it.
"In terms of Croydon Council providing policy documents, the interesting thing is that the majority of these documents are already publicly available online," he said.
"The problem is most people don't understand the documents."
Connecting Dots will cover four areas: devolution, health in all policies and creative health, the Creative Industries Sector Plan, and levelling up and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Sessions called Cultural Research Exchanges will run in Croydon, Lambeth, Bristol and Exeter, bringing residents together with local artists to pick the documents apart.
Brown said councils talked constantly about co-production, "but you have got to get them in the room first. They have to be interested first."
The first Croydon session was held on Friday in Park Lane, with performances from Big Scoop, Shaniqua Benjamin and Selorm and a panel including King's College and the Department for Work and Pensions.
Brown hopes councils will take up the idea as an alternative to poorly attended consultations.
"I think it's time policy had a story attached to it," he said.
Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on , X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk
