Ever since my niece was old enough to express her first opinion, my sister has teased the two of us that we are clones. I have to admit, it's difficult to understand how else we could have a freckle in the exact same place on our palms and the back of our knees. But mostly this has been based on the amazingly close relationship we've had ever since she was born.
21 years have passed since then and now she is all growed up. We still have those freckles and we still share a mutual love of certain things (like chunky knitwear).
But now every time I see her, I get to hear about the exciting developments in her increasingly adult life. Her own artistic development as a photo journalist and her activism to make her college more trans friendly are just two things that come to mind.
I was so concerned about demonstrating how proud I am of her on this special day (her golden birthday!) that I put up two of these to make sure the council graffiti squad didn't scrape down her present before I could get photographs.
Fortunately, both of them survived so now Hackney has two Britney's to contend with.
Many thanks to James Broccoli, who provided the photo of my niece that I was able to combine with my love of this classic Toulouse-Lautrec poster. Happiest 21st birthday ever!
The yellow scarf Britney is pasted up on the back of the Hackney Co-operative Development building on Crosby Walk. The blue scarf version is pasted on Richmond Road on the strange building that houses Tata Shoes, Olympic Leather and the Empowering Church. Both in Dalston, London.
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