Performed at Peopling the Palaces: Resistance in June 2025. Queen Mary University of London
Peopling the Palaces: Resistance was a five-day festival that engaged creatively and critically with the themes of resistance, especially how to rethink and resist in the face of oppressive forces.
My durational performance ‘Nagging’ interrogates housing precarity. It responds to community activism on Nags Head Estate, Tower Hamlets, where I have lived since 2009 and act as the Secretary of the Tenants Association. This densely populated estate, built in the 1930s, is run by social housing landlord, Peabody. Tenants are campaigning against our landlord’s lack of action on damp, mould and disrepair, which causes illness and excess domestic labour. Through embodied actions with materials, including bricks and mortar, the work responds to our fight for healthy homes. Featuring a soundscape that includes the diverse voices of the Nags Head community related through media interviews and protest recordings, the performance is titled ‘Nagging.’ This references how through our collective activism we positively mobilise complaint as a political strategy. We refer to ourselves as the ‘Nags Head Naggers’ and we know ‘you don’t get anything unless you nag.’
Our community campaign has involved producing high-profile media content which featured on BBC, Channel 4 and ITV, alongside a range of print media, and the production of a report on conditions on the estate with the housing and health charity MedAct. As a result of our campaign our landlord has committed three million pounds in investment work in the estate, which is underway.
Image credit: Image: Helena Walsh, Nagging at Peopling the Palaces: Resistance, Queen Mary University of London 2025. Photography by Kevin Biderman.
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