"If you care about your community, invest in it."
That's the view of Manu Nandha, founder of the House of A.E.I.O.U. – a creative platform based in west London's Southall neighborhood. Also known as the House of Vowels, Nandha's platform regularly hosts music events and panel talks for its community in a bid to shine a light on the creative talent that the local area has to offer.
For many of us – including those who call Southall their hometown – it isn't the first place you think of when you think about creativity, but according to Nandha, it should be. Southall has a rich archive of textiles and live music alongside its history of ceramics and food, but its legacy is often overshadowed by cooler locations that appear to promise more recognition and opportunity.
For Nandha, putting Southall on the map and showcasing its incredibly talented roster of tailors, artists and designers is one of his biggest goals. Along with that, it's creating opportunities for the people in his community and convincing them that you don't need to pack up and move to somewhere like east London to be creative.
"I want people to realize that in your own area, you can work with your own community and engage and inspire them," Nandha tells us on a Zoom call. "Someone one day decided that Brick Lane and Hackney were going to be very cool. And they've become very cool. Now why couldn't you make your own area cool? Talk about yourself, talk about your own experiences, talk about your community's experiences, and really celebrate that. You don't always have to attach yourself to a huge brand or a huge space. A lot of us underrepresented communities don't always live in Zone 1 or Zone 2, we live out on the outskirts – so it's about celebrating that," he continues.
As a result, the House of A.E.I.O.U. aims to offer a place for both the legacy and new generation of creative communities to unite and work together to showcase their talents and uplift the area. What initially started as a humble concept store opening amidst a wave of regeneration eventually paved the way for a much bigger idea to come through. Now, the platform houses a varied calendar of events and creative projects alongside a clothing line made by Southall's tailors.
"Growing up, I remember thinking, 'damn, I don't belong here.' I didn't see people like me expressing themselves, in a positive way, The House of A.E.I.O.U was born from me suppressing my own expression,” Nandha explains. "For a long time, I didn't know how to express myself or my creativity and I kept blaming everyone around me for my decisions. The fact that I studied finance and didn’t study graphic design, fashion or art. I was blaming my family because I thought they were the ones who were suppressing that creative energy," he continues.
After going through therapy and interrogating his own beliefs, he realized that his desire to be creative actually stemmed from his different family members who, each in their own way, had gone against the grain and inspired him creatively. Each vowel aims to represent one of the family members who inspired him and looks to celebrate ideals of self-expression and freedom.
Beginning as a concept store, the House of A.E.I.O.U. was inspired by places like Goodhood, hoping to create a similar space for a community that didn't have the same access or the same considerations about sustainability. Located in a regenerative area known as Parkside Yards, the shop was in what Nandha referred to as the "bougie" area, a clear signal of rising gentrification.
"The way I saw it growing up, was that I had no access to art in Southall. I had no access to the books or sustainable homeware," Nandha tells us. For him, it was all about bringing the same curation and aesthetic to Southall but through local artists and makers and eventually, he began hosting open mic nights, DJ sets and panel talks within the space. The end of the store culminated with a huge event supported by Panjabi Hit Squad – an iconic collective of DJs and producers.
"It was such an amazing full-circle moment. And since then, we decided to leave the shop, because we felt, 'We've done our thing. We've created this lifestyle store. We've created a community through our events and we want to give people space to enjoy that. But we want to now be closer to the community," Nandha explained.
Closing the store allowed Nandha some time to focus on his other creative endeavors, including the first launch of his clothing line, the Immigrant Workwear Company, inspired by brands like Carhartt WIP and Dickies that didn't represent Nandha with their visual identities. Working with tailors known primarily for making Indian suits and wedding clothes, Nandha's aim was to keep Southall’s tailors front of mind for opportunities that they wouldn't typically receive. "By making a shirt, that tailor is now doing something different. She's realizing that she can make a sick shirt when she's only making suits and sarees every week. She's a designer and could easily be a creative director of a brand," he believes.
Outside of clothing, the House of A.E.I.O.U. wanted to continue its legacy as a platform for events and community. Jas Musicals is one of the oldest music shops in Southall and sits right in the heart of the broadway, founded by Harjit and Jasmeet Shah in 1985, with their son Sadhu now a core part of the team. "I did a shoot with them a couple of years ago, I did our first poetry night with them a couple of years ago, when we were just flirting with the idea of events, and Sadhu and I ended up becoming great friends." Eventually, the duo tested the start of a residency which now sees multiple events in the store each month, working with up-and-coming artists, musicians and people in the creative industry.
Along with the residency, Nandha recently became a co-curator of one of the first-ever exhibitions in the history of Southall. Housed at west London's Gunnersbury Park Museum, "People's Unite: How Southall Changed the Country" tells the story of Southall, from its pioneering music legacy and celebrity associations to its history of resilience amidst racial injustice. "Southall was a blueprint for culture and community and actually, the more people come here, the more people can understand our history," he adds.
In terms of the future of the House of A.E.I.O.U., "Less walls, more spaces," is Nandha's aim, looking at how else he can break down the barriers in our community and open them up to new possibilities. "We want to carry on doing events that drive and celebrate creative expression, but also give people access and keep inspiring people to actually go and do events and community engagement and creative pop-ups in their own area," Nandha concludes.
Ultimately though, the core goal is inherently clear. "Whether you like Southall or not, it doesn't really matter. The message is just go and do your thing. I often say to people, 'Don't buy my shirt, make your own. Work with the local tailor in your area and go make your own. Don't come to my open mic night, start your own.' You don't have to always attach yourself to spaces that are sometimes driven by capitalism, or spaces that are driven by creating more barriers."
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