Well, that’s the second year in a row we couldn’t ride on the usual date, but had a lot of fun spreading the word through our #NotTheWorldNakedBikeRide activities. We set a theme of doing something to improve your local environment. The highlights of the week were, again, the photo competition and the two Zoom-Ins.
Photo Competition
You can read about the Photo Competition and see who won in our earlier blog, or you can see all the moderated photos by clicking here!
Zoom-In
At the time we should have been riding we held another Zoom-In, packed with content that reflected WNBR London’s campaign themes.
To host the Zoom-In, we brought back last year’s brilliant team of Dave, Sophie and Natasha. In the opening session, we heard from several other WNBR rides and from supporters.
The State of Cycling in London
We then moved onto a discussion about the state of cycling in London. We posed the question “now, after 17 years of WNBR London, how much has changed and what more is there to do. Our guest speakers were cycling campaigners Paul Gasson and Ruth Mayorcas, along with cycling author and journalist Charlie Allenby.
Body Positivity
The other main discussion during the Zoom-In was about body positivity. It was chaired by academic psychologist Dr Keon West. Charlotte, from the lifeocharlotte blog, was speaking about her campaigning to promote positive attitudes to people with stomas. We wrote previously about her ride with WNBR London. She was joined on the panel by two prominent figures in body positivity – Rosy Pendlebaby and Ruby Rare, who are also co-founders of the Body Love Sketch Club.
Live Body Painting
During the World Naked Bike Ride London 2021 Zoom-In, we ran live body painting with artists Peter and Raid painting WNBR volunteers Phoebe and Ken. Cy was also there to handle everything else while the others got mucky with paint.
This video captures the visits to the studio. It includes Sophie’s interviews with Ken and Phoebe. Ken talked about his interests in cycling provision for disabled cyclists and WNBR London’s accessible ride option. Phoebe talked about her experiences and getting more younger adults involved in the WNBR campaign.
At the end of the session, Peter presented the finished painting and described the themes behind the designs.
Zoom Afterparty
In the evening we again ran a Zoom afterparty. Just like last year we planned and prepared absolutely nothing. It was a great, random mixture of videos, photos, anecdotes, music, dancing, etc.
Let’s hope we can ride later in the year and have a real afterparty to celebrate!