{"id":739721,"date":"2026-08-16T10:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T10:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/739721\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T10:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T10:22:10","slug":"rapper-jenniah-brown-uses-rap-to-decode-council-policy-for-young-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/739721\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapper Jenniah Brown uses rap to decode council policy for young people"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brown told the Local Democracy Reporting Service<\/a> the problem was not a shortage of information but whether people could find it and felt confident enough to use it.<\/p>\n

“In terms of Croydon Council providing policy documents, the interesting thing is that the majority of these documents are already publicly available online,” he said. <\/p>\n

“The problem is most people don’t understand the documents.”<\/p>\n

Connecting Dots will cover four areas: devolution, health in all policies and creative health, the Creative Industries Sector Plan, and levelling up and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.<\/p>\n

Sessions called Cultural Research Exchanges will run in Croydon, Lambeth, Bristol and Exeter, bringing residents together with local artists to pick the documents apart.<\/p>\n

Brown said councils talked constantly about co-production, “but you have got to get them in the room first. They have to be interested first.”<\/p>\n

The first Croydon session was held on Friday in Park Lane, with performances from Big Scoop, Shaniqua Benjamin and Selorm and a panel including King’s College and the Department for Work and Pensions. <\/p>\n

Brown hopes councils will take up the idea as an alternative to poorly attended consultations. <\/p>\n

“I think it’s time policy had a story attached to it,” he said.<\/p>\n

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds<\/a> and follow BBC London on Facebook, external<\/a>, X, external<\/a> and Instagram, external<\/a>. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk, external<\/a><\/p>\n