The challenge was to create an immersive, music-led exhibition that brought the early 2000s African-Caribbean youth experience in Waltham Forest to life. Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Kanda Vol.1 – Bedroom Shut, Music Up centred on two brothers: a 16-year-old navigating school pressures and a 20-year-old experiencing incarceration. The creative challenge was to translate these personal stories into an authentic, emotionally engaging environment, using the teenage bedroom as a place of refuge, identity and musical discovery. The experience needed to celebrate local cultural heritage while opening conversations around educational exclusion, neurodivergence, systemic inequality and the impact of imprisonment on families.
SET DESIGN | Cleo Harris-Seaton
CREATIVE DIRECTION + PRODUCTION | Red Light Busking
FABRICATION | Mo Nasir
The design approach placed visitors inside a recreated 2000s teenage bedroom, combining period furnishings, personal belongings and era-authentic ephemera with oral histories and original grime, reggae and rap soundscapes. Familiar domestic details grounded the brothers’ stories in everyday life, creating an intimate setting for reflection and connection. The full concept included an expanded version of the experience which integrated a music workshop space and dedicated workstations for an alternative school programme bringing exhibition, music-making and learning together, carrying the project’s themes of identity and self-expression into practical opportunities for young people to participate and develop their own voices.
