Meet one of our new Directors, Jemilea Wisdom-Baako...
What have you been doing today?
Today I ran a 2-hour workshop for a group of global majority artists to support them developing their creative health practice. I had a lunch meeting about anti-racism training, developed resources for a CPD program for primary school teachers around Windrush and had a presentation meeting with international investors about a closed library we’re looking to turn into a community wellbeing hub.
Is that a typical day for you?
In that it is varied, involves lots of different projects, collaborations, and includes a mixture of facilitation, strategy, and new possibilities, yes.
When did you start working with culture, health and wellbeing, and how?
I started my journey delivering spoken word workshops to young offenders in Hackney in 2011 and the impact of that project led me to setting up my own creative arts organisation Writerz and Scribez CIC, in 2014. From a BSC in Psychology, MA Applied Anthropology, Community and Youth Work, lots of work in the criminal justice system, Public Health, Education and third-sector organisations I was always using art to connect people with each other, build communities and improve health and wellbeing. Since quitting my job in 2017 to run my arts company full time (much to the despair of my traditional Jamaican mother) I have continued to work at the intersection of art, wellbeing and social change.
What was the last project you came across that inspired you?
I am really inspired by work happening internationally. Recently on a business trip to Milan as part of The Moleskine Foundation’s Creative Pioneers Conference I met Victoria Dabdoud, Deputy Director of Seven Hills, a skateboarder-run non profit reaching displaced communities in Jordan, and Gift Chansa, Artistic Director of Circus Zambia, a circus company based in a notorious ghetto in Lusaka using circus arts in their community hub to reach marginalised young people. I am constantly inspired by the way people are using art and creativity to bring change to their communities across the world.
Jemilea Wisdom-Baako is the Director of Writerz & Scribez, an award-winning organization that reaches excluded groups through participatory arts approaches. With a BSc in Psychology and an MA in Community and Youth Work, she brings together clinical understanding and community engagement expertise to champion creative health initiatives.
As a creative director and community leader, Jemilea has designed and delivered significant programs including an Anti-Racism in Creative Health Training Programme and a year-long Creative Health programme sponsored by Wandsworth Council. She actively contributes to the Creative Health Community of Practice and has been a key speaker at the National Centre for Creative Health, addressing crucial topics like anti-racism and ethnic diversity in the creative health movement.
Her work with King's College London as a dissertation co-supervisor further demonstrates her commitment to advancing research in creative health, particularly in relation to anti-racism practices. Through partnerships both local and international Jemilea continues to champion accessibility in arts, center coproduction, and create safe spaces for creative development and healing.
Outside of this work you can find her writing poems, baking cookies with her little humans or singing on national rail platforms.