Audrey’s rapping things up
Influencing decisions
A Rutherglen musician has found herself in a medical journal – after helping compose a rap about Glasgow’s Govanhill area.
Audrey Tait has been part of an Edinburgh University project, called Measuring Humanity, looking at how health services have been failing minority communities.
The work saw Audrey, a drummer and producer, joined by actor Belle Jones and musician Lauren Gilmour to write a song, Dear Human, which was then filmed as a video in Govanhill.
The overall project has now been spotlighted in medical journal the Lancet.
Audrey explained: “Measuring Humanity came about as Belle, Lauren and I had been writing a piece of theatre based around Belle’s experience of living in Govanhill.
“We were approached by Marissa [de Andrade, from Edinburgh University] and commissioned to write a song about her studies as she’d been working in the area, using arts and music to connect with the community.
“For us as writers, it was a unique opportunity to combine hip hop and academia along with using samples from local musicians.”
Audrey performs with singing duo the Miss’s and previously drummed with hip hop outfit Hector Bizerk.
The video features rapping that used data from marginalised community members, health and voluntary sector practitioners, and researchers from throughout Govanhill.
The hope of the project is that it will persuade academics and policy makers to re-think what they use as evidence when making decisions, and take the underrepresented into consideration.