During Heritage Month and Newham’s Year of the Young Person, two young participants of Newham’s New Curators Project, Naima Iffat Ahmed and Zi Rong Huang, spoke to the team at Frames of Mind, Zoe Flynn and Bo Chapman, on their project Counter Culture to write this piece.

Frames of Mind is a participatory arts organisation based in Newham which uses film as a tool to engage communities and empower different voices.

On May 8, a week into the Newham Heritage line-up, Frames of Mind held an event to dabble into the world of stop motion using items which could be found in a corner shop. Watching back, the short clips added new meaning to the products and breathed fun life into them.

As part of the wider project, Frames of Mind also trained a team of volunteers in multimedia skills to become heritage producers. Together, they created three intimate short films by speaking to the owners of the corner shops about their pasts, presents and futures.

The films and insights from customers illuminated the spirit of community and the role that corner shops and the people running them, often migrants and their families, play in keeping things afloat.

The tremendous bond that shop owners forge with their customers will certainly ensure their survival.

The connection between a local popping in for a pint of milk and a shop owner who carries a long conversation is completely different to other shopping experiences. Certainly, with progression in the supermarket sector including changes such as contactless drop-offs, the humanity and warmth that the corner shop provides will be hard to match.

However, looking to the future, corner shops need to adapt to current times.

Caner Supermarket is a corner shop owned by Fatih Altun, which features in the Frames of Mind project, which has adapted to changing demographics and organic food trends, and even has a dedicated section for locally freshly baked goods.

Despite the threat of large companies, corner shops sustain themselves with their established ties within the community and the historical experiences.

Visit https://www.newhamheritagemonth.org/records/counter-culture-background/ to find out more about the Frames of Mind project.