Excited to be hosting for the first time at this year’s Wimbledon BookFest, in conversation with two poets I deeply admire, Raymond Antrobus and James Massiah. It’s an honour to be part of a festival I have long enjoyed and to work with Fiona Razvi and her brilliant team.

This year’s Shine exhibition, Community Trailblazers, showcasing portraits taken by children aged 8–10 from Mitcham. It celebrates local change-makers across Merton and is currently on display at Elys, Wimbledon with support from The Wimbledon Championships Learning Programme.

This summer, I worked with The Green Arts Centre in Mitcham on Stories of Our Street, a community arts project supported by Arts Council England. I led a photography workshop with local children, asking them: What does your street mean to you? Armed with phones, they captured markets, gardens, pets and hidden corners. Their photos, later exhibited at Canons House, showed Mitcham’s vibrancy and intimacy, proving the power of young voices in celebrating community.

As a huge fan of hip hop in the '80s and '90s, the scene profoundly influenced how I saw life, how I dressed and it deepened my...

Blondey collaborated with Shine Merton to customise Mark Gonzales' drawings, creating limited-edition silk scarves sold through Thames.

Excited to announce our Shine Camera Club exhibition, curated by Fiona Freund! See stunning black-and-white photos by the children at Elys.

This year, I launched Shine Camera Club at Shine Saturday School in Mitcham, teaching children photography with analogue cameras. What start