PLATFORMAFESTIVALMANCHESTER OCT / NOV 2013

FESTIVAL OF ARTS AND REFUGEES

www.platforma.org.uk

INTRODUCTIONBy Almir Koldzic, Co-Director, Counterpoints Arts

The emergence of a more defined strand of artistic practice that engages with refugee experiences can be traced back to the early 90s, following the arrival of increased numbers of refugees to the UK. One of the key factors behind this development was the decision of various funders to introduce dedicated programmes for supporting cultural practitioners in addressing challenges that refugees and their supporters were facing both on local and national levels. Funders that have made a lasting impact in this context include The Baring Foundation, Arts Council England (ACE) and Paul Hamlyn Foundation, who in 2008 jointly commissioned a report, Arts and Refugees – History, Impact and Future, which eventually led to the creation of Platforma arts & refugees network in 2010. The aim of the Platforma project was to address a gap identified in the report and to develop a national framework for networking and promotion of this area of work. The initial approach – to run a dedicated website and series of national networking events – was soon expanded to include the development of regional networks and hubs, which have become indispensable collaborators on the project and hugely responsible for its various successes. The Platforma Festival in Manchester is a great example of this collaborative approach. The overall programme for the Festival has been developed by Counterpoints Arts (which runs the Platforma Project nationally) along with Community Arts Northwest and the input of all other regional partners. The University of Manchester and Manchester Museum have provided free venues and technical support. A number of other local and regional partners have organised their own fringe activities, provided venues or supported the event in other ways. The programme for this year’s Platforma Festival is impressively rich and diverse, featuring well over 100 artists, academics and other cultural practitioners working within and across a range of art forms and coming from all parts of the UK, as well as Ireland, Germany, Italy, USA and Slovenia.

For the first time this year we are introducing a new festival strand, Platforma Fringe – a programme of exhibitions, talks, performances and screenings organized by supportive groups at venues across Manchester and the Northwest. The 2-day Platforma Conference features workshops and presentations that examine a huge variety of topics, often combining practical and theoretical approaches. In presenting what seems to be a more sophisticated and reflective approach to the practice in this field, the Festival provides us with a glimpse at new possibilities emerging. It also perhaps suggests a shift of focus, where displacement is not seen purely as negative or damaging but also as creatively potent and potentially transformative experience. Edward Said and others have written beautifully about this idea, arguing that in operating across different cultures and settings, exiles & migrants develop a double perspective or sensitivity towards difference that can open up creative expressions and help us experience multiplicity beyond fixed categories and identities. More recently, in his book The Migrant Image, TJ Demos argues that in the present situation of huge demographic shifts and an increasing inability of nation states to respond adequately and fairly to the challenges associated with globalisation, there is a sense that cultural practitioners who operate in this field may have an exceptional contribution to make to imagining a more inclusive reality. Citing Giorgio Agamben, Demos expands on the idea that refugee/migrant can be seen as “the paradigm of a new historic conscience” and calls for a politics of migration – “a politics that leads to an openness to the unfamiliar and untimely, to a sensitivity regarding how one's own form of life connects inevitably to others far away and in the past, and does so in both positive and negative ways, with accompanying debts, responsibilities, solidarities.” There is no doubt that the artists and practitioners presenting their works at the Platforma Festival and coming through the Platforma project are perfectly placed to make an important contribution to testing, expanding and adding to these ideas.

EW Said, The Edward Said Reader, ed. by M Bayoumi and A Rubin, Granta 2001TJ Demos, The Migrant Image, Duke University Press 2013

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the undocumented. It highlights their daily struggles and vulnerabilities, but also their strength and resilience. Undocumented migrants are not allowed to work. They have no right to state benefits nor to a place to live. They are unseen and potentially the most vulnerable group in the UK today. Len’s work will be on display outside the Manchester Museum. lifewithoutpapers.co.uk

MACLADE BEZYMaclade Bezy trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa and has been making ceramics for over 30 years, working on commissions across Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA. Bezy creates masks and sculptures as well as drawings and paintings using bold and distinct shapes, earthy colours and intriguing textures. His work explores everyday life in Africa reflecting aspects of family, community, poverty and humanity.

2–2.30PM PLENARY– ‘THE WALK TO RAS AL-AIN’, ALEXANDRA KHARIBIANA promenade performance based on the true story of Alexandra’s grandmother Alice Kharibian and the events of 1915–1923 when hundreds of thousands of Armenians were forcibly removed from their homes and communities.

– Professor Maggie O’Neill (University of Durham) speaking on ‘Diasporic Communities and the Impact of Dispersal: Participatory Action Research and Participatory Arts’.

11.30AM–1PM WORKSHOPS1 – REGIONAL ASYLUM ACTIVISM Supporting artists and curators to enhance the potential of their work to shift public attitudes about asylum in the UK. The workshop will equip participants with the know-how, contacts and confidence to deliver positive public discussions and post-performance Q&A’s about some of the social and political issues their work may touch on.

2 – JUMPING THE HURDLESConsidering issues around employment and skill development for artists wanting to work in participatory arts. The session will be practical, fun, challenging and interactive. With Peter Moser from More Music and composer/producer/educator Serge Tebu.

3 – ASPECTS OF STEREOTYPING WITHIN AND ACROSS CULTURESAn interactive session presented by Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (to take place at The Manchester Museum). Discussing issues that have arisen in some of the Sainsbury Centre’s work with refugees. The focus of objects in the session will be the body, leading to discussions of social behaviours, norms and expectations. The aim is to take a lead from chosen objects to concentrate on taboos, including bodily appearance and dress, behaviour, customs, beliefs, sex and death.

4 – HOST-GUEST DYNAMICS OF PARTICIPATORY PRACTICES WITH ARTISTS AND REFUGEESThis session will document and critically reflect upon the collaborative process of artist/producers and refugee participants in the creation of the video/live performance work Double Dutch. Drawing from Isabel Lima’s experience of working with cross-cultural groups and Hannah Marsden’s research into hospitality theory, it will examine these complex relationships in terms of host and guest. Led by artist Isabel Lima with Hannah Marsden from GemArts.

5 – DECLARATION KRIOL FROM RAFIKI JAZZ (12–1PM)An interactive workshop from Rafiki Jazz touring their Declaration Kriol project: make your own algo-kriol mixtape. Meet Yaxu the live-coder & algorave pioneer, working with software, percussionists and multi-lingual vocalists from world music collective, Rafiki Jazz. You just bring your voice!

1–2PM LUNCH

1.30–2PMARTISTS IN FOCUSA chance to view and discuss work by a range of artists that will be on display throughout the Conference.

FAITH PEARSON Faith Pearson uses discarded materials to create images and constructions that reflect human existence and survival, both ancient and urban across the world. The work balances the chaos and destruction caused by this society with creativity and playfulness. She is inspired by the community engagement projects she does with people who are often on the edges of society, including refugee families.

RITAH NANTONGOShowcasing her work done as part of the Creative Focus Women’s Group at the Refugee Council in London using crochet, knitting, beadwork and embroidery. Ritah is also leading on a world map using crochet techniques, beadwork and embroidery which she will be displaying as a work in progress at the Platforma Festival.

LEN GRANT: LIFE WITHOUT PAPERS Commissioned by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Unbound Philanthropy, Life Without Papers is a blog by photographer and writer Len Grant telling the stories of

THURSDAY 31 OCTOBERPLATFORMACONFERENCE MARTIN HARRIS CENTRE,THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTERArtists, performers, academics, organisations and funders from across the UK and around the world showcase work, share practice and discuss aspects of the arts by, about and with refugees.

10AM REGISTRATION

10.40–11.30AM PLENARY– Welcome and introduction from Almir Koldzic (Counterpoints Arts) and Cilla Baynes (Community Arts North West)

– Alison Clark-Jenkins (Arts Council Director North and National Director of Combined Arts)

– Virtual Migrants present their new exhibition 90 Degree Citizen showing at The Manchester Museum

– Choral performance by Women Asylum Seekers Together

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2.30–4PM WORKSHOPS1 – WORKING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE – COLLECTIVE ENCOUNTERS AND NENA MOCNIKCollective Encounters uses theatre processes to explore and create work about current issues. Last year they produced Transparent Truths, which explored the experiences of trafficked young people from Eastern Europe. In this session they will present a video of the performance and some of the young people involved will talk, along with the project organisers, about the project and their experiences. Plus, Nena Mocnik from the University of Ljubljana/Slovenia will talk about the lessons from her work with young people on multiculturalism.

2 – PAST IS PRESENT: MEMORY, NARRATIVE, ORAL HISTORIES AND MEANINGA sharing and discussion that will address some of the questions regarding practice and approaches to the creation and reinterpretation of oral history and memory for 21st Century audiences. With: Community Arts North West’s, Lisapo – The Congolese Tales oral histories/music narrative project; and RASA Theatre’s Mrs. U, who has watched her beloved home and ancestral land, taken over by hotels and time-share apartments; survived the Sri Lankan civil war on her wits and on kool, the comfort stew that binds her community.

3 – THEATRE: ICEANDFIRE AND OPEN CLASP With Christine Bacon & Michael Ruf and Catrina McHugh & Maggie O’NeillChristine Bacon is the founder of Actors for Human Rights a project housed by iceandfire. The majority of their performances deliver first-hand accounts of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK. Michael Ruf runs a similar project in Germany. They will tell the story of their work and share some of the strategies for achieving greater impact within the project model. Catrina McHugh, artistic director of Open Clasp Theatre, and Professor Maggie O’Neill will talk about the play The Space Between Us. This was directly informed by young women from

the West End of Newcastle who identify as Slovak/Roma and Czech/Roma, as well as Travellers from Teesside and Arabic women living in the West and East End of Newcastle.

4 – SLACK CITY SPACES: NEW TACTICS AND EXHIBITION SPACES: STAGING REFUGEE AND MIGRANT ARTS PROJECTS‘Pop-ups’, ‘slack spaces’, ‘co-operatives’ and ‘community currencies’ are currently in vogue, but how do they work in practice and to what sustainable end? With Áine O’Brien, Antóin Doyle and Val Bogan from Learning Lab at Counterpoints Arts.

5 – WRITING FUTURESA practical and interactive session exploring the challenges and opportunities for participants in creative writing programmes for refugees and migrants and for the reading/listening audience. With poets Warsan Shire and Kayo Chingonyi and Rowena Sommerville from Tees Valley Arts. Presented in association with English PEN.

4.15–5PM PLENARY– DIGGING UP THE ARTS GARDENThe fight to put diversity at the centre of the arts, told by Hassan Mahamdallie, former Senior Strategy Officer, Diversity Team Arts Council England. A Learning Lab Film Production at Counterpoints Arts.

– The Lesbian Immigration Support Group talking about their present work, and a poetry performance by their members.

– Favianna Rodriguez from Culture Strike, an American organisation campaigning for rights on behalf of undocumented young people.

5PM CLOSE

THURSDAY 31 OCTOBERPLATFORMACONFERENCE THE MANCHESTER MUSEUMPlatforma events at The Manchester Musuem are free and open to the public.

11.35AM–1PMASPECTS OF STEREOTYPING WITHIN AND ACROSS CULTURESAn interactive session presented by Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts from Norwich.

Booking required, contact tom@counterpointsarts.org.uk

3PMACTION FACTORY PRESENTS REFUGEAn original piece of theatre, created and performed by those central to its storyline. Part of the ‘Integrart’ project, a European partnership project funded by the European Union. Co-funded by the Arts Council through Global Link’s Global Artists Network.

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PHOTO BY LEN GRANT

ALEXANDRA KHARIBIAN IN THE WALK TO RAS AL-AIN

OPEN CLASP THEATRE

COLLECTIVE ENCOUNTERS

SPOKEN WORD

KAYO CHINGONYIKayo Chingonyi was born in Zambia in 1987, moving to the UK in 1993. He holds a BA in English Literature from The University of Sheffield and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London and works as a writer, events producer, and creative writing tutor. His poems have been published in a range of magazines and anthologies.

MUSIC

DIDIER AND REMIETwo members of artistic powerhouse The Redeemed provide an intimate and relaxed insight into Congolese music. Remie Christian’s laid back West African guitar style slides easily and confidently under and around the rich vocals of Didier Kisala. At times soft and plaintive, at others passionate and intense, this predominantly Francophone performance draws in its audience and the music speaks clearly of love, spirituality, pain and joy.

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THURSDAY31 OCTOBER7.30PMPLATFORMALIVEJOHN THAW THEATRE,MARTIN HARRIS CENTRE,THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTERMusic, theatre and spoken word

Tickets – £5/£4

MUSIC

HAYMANOT TESFAHaymanot is a singer, originally from Ethiopia. She has performed extensively in London with groups and as a solo artist in venues including Foyles Jazz Café and the Wild Food Café. She is also a writer and artist.

THEATRE

MAZLOOMMazloom is a portrait of a young refugee, alone in London, whose life is being torn apart by the impending prospect of deportation to Afghanistan, where indiscriminate violence and Taliban intimidation await. This short, powerful theatre performance incorporates immersive film footage to recreate the long perilous journey to Europe and the agonising wait for the life-or-death decision on their asylum claim. Mazloom was developed by Sara Masters and Kieran Sheehan Dance Theatre in collaboration with Merton and Wandsworth Asylum Welcome. It was then taken on by film director Sue Clayton who made the award-winning film on this topic Hamedullah: The Road Home – she added film elements and cast new rising star Priyank Morjaria. The play has benefitted from advice from the Drama and Media Departments of Royal Holloway, University of London, and is undertaking a sell-out 7-city theatre/cinema tour, sponsored by Young People Seeking Safety.

SPOKEN WORD

WARSAN SHIREWarsan Shire is a Kenyan-born Somali poet, writer and educator based in London. Born in 1988, Warsan has given readings of her work extensively all over Britain and internationally. Her debut book, ‘Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth’ (flipped eye), was published in 2011. HAYMANOT TESFA

DIDIER AND REMIE

KAYO CHINGONYI

MAZLOOM WARSAN SHIRE

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FRIDAY1 NOVEMBERPLATFORMACONFERENCE MARTIN HARRIS CENTRE,THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTERArtists, performers, academics, organisations and funders from across the UK and around the world showcase work, share practice and discuss aspects of the arts by, about and with refugees.

10AM REGISTRATION

10.40–11.30AM PLENARY– Welcome and introduction from Almir Koldzic (Counterpoints Arts) and Cilla Baynes (Community Arts North West).

– PARTICIPATORY CO-WRITING WITH ANIA BASCo-writing is a method of developing fiction stories as a group. It is based on sharing and swapping ideas, characters, plot twists and meaty dialogues. Co-writing is a way of creating debate, exchange and dialogue between people through writing stories at the same time and at the same place. This method has been developed by Ania Bas as part of Elbow Room commission in Cardiff, in 2013. www.elbowroom.org.uk

– Ian Hunter from Littoral Arts on plans for a Merz Museum for refugee and migrant artists in the Lake District, inspired by the life and work of the artist, Kurt Schwitters.

– Artists Humberto Vélez, Glenmore Reid and Ouerdia Rabia talk about their collaboration on The Welcoming for the 2006 Liverpool Biennial in association with Sola Arts.

11.30AM–1PM WORKSHOPS1 – HAMEDULLAH: THE ROAD HOMEA conversation led by Áine O’Brien (for One Stop Doc at Counterpoints Arts) with film director and screenwriter, Sue Clayton, whose film Hamedullah: The Road Home powerfully chronicles a now commonplace journey through the eyes of 21 year-old Hamedullah Hassany. Hamedullah originally fled Afghanistan as a young teenager. He was deported from Canterbury several years later; barefoot and handcuffed.

2 – WORLD SPIRIT THEATREAfter a short introduction to their methodology and background, World Spirit Forum Theatre group will perform and 'forum' – with the essential help of the 'audience' (workshop participants) – their play, The Roundabout.

3 – THE ARTS AND REFUGEES Reflecting on experiences in the past 15 years and considering new possibilities. How, for example, do artists respond to the shifting nature of what it has meant to be a refugee, moving perhaps from the earlier work characterised by challenging negative perceptions of asylum seekers to the more recent work that might chime more with questions of multiculturalism or cosmopolitanism? With Alison Jeffers and Caroline Bithell (The University of Manchester) and Emma Cox (Royal Holloway University of London)

4 – SSSHHH… SILENCE: ITS ROLE AND NATURE IN THE CONTEXT OF (DIS)PLACEMENTMoving beyond silence as the absence of sound, this session takes a journey into individual and collective experiences of silence, with an emphasis on displacement. Connecting to external and internal sounds, through ‘deep listening’ participants ‘will hear in the present and past’. There will be the opportunity to explore this play between silence and sound through voice, placement within the body, movement, and extending the kinaesthetic into visual expression and colour using ‘automatic drawing’. Presented by artists Ximena Alarcon and Camila Fiori.

1–2PMLUNCH

1.30–2PMARTISTS IN FOCUSA chance to view and discuss work by a range of artists that will be on display throughout the Conference. JAMES RUSSELL CANT: HOME COOKINGHome Cooking is an on-going series of portraits, photographs, narratives and cooking that will take the form of a recipe book. The recipes are from contributors who have left their homeland. Some have been forced to flee as refugees, while others’ motivation to move or stay is controlled by a more nuanced balance of fluctuating practical and emotional forces.

SHELANU COLLECTIVE Shelanu Women’s Craft Collective is a developing craft social enterprise supported by Craftspace. Shelanu seeks to support migrant, refugee and newly arrived women to integrate in Birmingham through craft and making skills. Working with professional artists, members produce high quality craft objects inspired by their adopted city of Birmingham.

AMANG MARDOKHYAmang Mardokhy was born in Kurdistan where he trained as an artist. He graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2012 and was awarded the Ken Billany prize for his outstanding work. Amang is the chair of the Kurdistan Art and Culture group.

“I have come from Kurdistan, north part of Iraq. Since the early start of my art experience I also have learned how to live and express the suffering of my people through painting. It is true that I am living in a secure country now, and I am away from that pain. The Iraqi Al-Baath regime is no longer in power and there is a hope for a democracy process to be established in the new system, however, the effects of those dark days do not disappear easily.”www.amang-art.blogspot.co.uk

2–2.30PMPLENARY– Participatory co-writing with Ania Bas

– Poet Christina Fonthes from Community Arts North West's LISAPO project

– Laura Sicignano from Teatro Cargo in Genoa talking about their play L’odissea dei ragazzi (The Odyssey of The Boys) created with and performed by young refugees.

2.35–4PM WORKSHOPS1 – MIGRANT STORY SLAMS Jennifer Verson (Migrant Artists Mutual Aid) explores Migrant Story Slams as cultural activism and helps people create their own migrant story slam pieces. They bring together the lively world of slam poetry and the high stakes reality of storytelling that is part of the lives of migrants. From passport control through asylum hearings to

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the check-out at supermarkets, people who cross borders must continuously explain where they come from and why.

2 – ART THERAPY: CONSIDERATIONS FOR A REFUGEE EXPERIENCEAn experiential workshop exploring how art therapy can benefit people from refugee backgrounds. Beginning with a short presentation about working with refugee communities in Liverpool. Followed by a brief art therapy experience and group discussion to enable a better understanding of the value of creative therapeutic interventions. With Adele Spiers (Art Therapist, SOLA ARTS)

3 – HOW CAN MUSIC SUPPORT THE REHABILITATION OF WAR AND TORTURE SURVIVORS? STONE FLOWERS: A CASE STUDY. Stone Flowers is a groundbreaking collaborative music project developed by Musicians without Borders in partnership with Freedom from Torture NW as a positive reaction to the use of music as a form of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanemo Bay. Since 2011, over 30 torture survivors have attended regular singing and song-writing sessions in Manchester to support their rehabilitation alongside counselling services. Combining spoken presentation, film and practical demonstration, this workshop will explain the methodologies and approach used in this and other Musicians without Borders projects. It will analyse the impact the project has had on survivors, how this has developed over the life of the project, the unexpected outcomes and the lessons for refugee-arts practice generally.

The session will be delivered by Lis Murphy (UK Artistic Director, MwB), Emmanuela Yogolelo (Music Facilitator & Interpreter, MwB), Christine Adcock (Clinical Psychotherapist, FFT) with participants from Stone Flowers.

4 – LIVE ART, REFUGEES AND POLITICAL INTERVENTIONThis workshop presentation will consider how interdisciplinary work combining performance, film, installation and sound can be employed to explore the issues around being a migrant and being a refugee

in the Western world. Natasha Davis will perform a brief live excerpt from her recent work Internal Terrains and discuss the materiality of endurance, the body as a permanent site of trauma, and the politics of reclaiming and embracing a cultural background and state of bodily health (www.natashaproductions.com).

In 2011 Janina Moninska embarked on arts-practice research to investigate live art’s capacity to deal with ‘being a refugee’ in the 21st century, and to intervene in refugee and asylum policy. One of the outcomes of this research is a piece based around a legal case study, combining live performance and video to reveal the complex relationship between individual cases of asylum and refugee law.

5 – VOYAGETracy Evans from Valley and Vale Community Arts presents and contextualises a recent film project carried out by a small group of asylum seekers. The project culminated in three short films tracing the journeys of three African women to Wales. Rather than using a documentary style for the films, they were shot in a more stylised way.

4.15–5PM PLENARY– THE PAPER PROJECTA version of the collaboration between artist Mark Storor and seven young artists from migrant communities. Commissioned by Ovalhouse and Counterpoints Arts.

– The final participatory co-writing session led by Ania Bas

5PM CLOSE

CAMILA FIORI

NATASHA DAVIS PERFORMING INTERNAL TERRAINS

ZODWA NYONI AND PA MODOU, CARTOGRAPHIES OF JUSTICE . PHOTO BY MARK LOUDON

TEATRO CARGO

JEWELLERY BY SHELANU COLLECTIVE

MONCA BY JAMES RUSSELL CANT

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FRIDAY1 NOVEMBER

PLATFORMACONFERENCE THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM

Platforma events at The Manchester Museum are free and open to the public but, where specified, must be booked in advance.

For preformance times please check www.platforma.org.uk

FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ: MIGRATION IS BEAUTIFUL Favianna Rodriguez, artist and co-founder of American organisation CultureStrike, created the Migration is Beautiful butterfly image. “The butterfly symbol was not my idea. Immigrant rights activists have seen the butterfly as a symbol of fluid and peaceful migration for generations. To me, the monarch butterfly represents the dignity and resilience of migrants, and the right that all living beings have to move freely.” Participants will have the chance to make their own butterfly from templates and materials provided.

GEMARTSDOUBLE DUTCH Double Dutch is an endurance performance in which a participating asylum seeker/refugee will jump the ropes while two British

white persons are swivelling these around. This performance aims at portraying the complicated, convoluted and exhausting process of seeking asylum. As a starting point, the name of the game alludes to the confusing nature of the process. The common English usage of the slang term ‘Dutch’ means tricky or confusing.

ZLATA CAMDZIC: WELCOME TO DREAMLANDA theatre piece examining what rejected asylum seekers have to endure on a daily basis. Between reporting to the Home Office and being put into detention centres, through to barely surviving on charity from local churches and the Red Cross. This is a human story. A story that gives voice to the voiceless; a story that puts a face to yet another faceless immigrant in the UK.

5–6PM SONGS OF POLONIA WITH KATY CARR Singer-songwriter Katy Carr who is half British and half Polish, has a long-standing interest in Polish history. In particular, the stories connected to those who grew up with an Independent Poland between the years 1918 to 1939 only to see their beloved country occupied by both Germany and the Soviet Union at the beginning of WWII. Songs from her recent album ‘Paszport’ are connected with stories of resistance, Polish partisans and refugee status relating to the Polish WWII experience. Katy is keen to explore the reasons why Polish people were exiled to Great Britain and how the international Polish diaspora – Polonia – still manages to retain Polish traditions. Presented in association with www.manchesterinfo.eu HASSAN MAHAMDALLIE

MANCHESTERINFO.EU BANNER

HAMEDULLAH: THE ROAD HOME

KATY CARR

FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ: MIGRATION IS BEAUTIFUL ZLATA CAMDZIC

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FRIDAY1 NOVEMBER7.30PMPLATFORMALIVECOSMO RODEWALD HALL,MARTIN HARRIS CENTRE,THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTERTickets – £7/£5

MUSIC

KATY CARR AND THE AVIATORSKaty Carr is a singer, musician, songwriter and aviator. She has released four albums – with the most recent Paszport, sung in both Polish and English. Carr’s dulcet and often haunting vocals have been heard everywhere from the Royal Opera House to Womad and Glastonbury Festival. The inspiration for the songs on Paszport derive from stories gathered from Kazimierz Piechowski about his time in the Armia Krajowa, Polish Home Army and the Polish partisans between 1942 -1945 as well as elements connected with the Polish resistance movement in World War II. Katy does extensive outreach work with Polish communities in the UK and around the world and has an ongoing interest in the experiences of Polish exiles who came to the UK.

Katy Carr will also be presenting a free event at The Manchester Museum – Songs of Polonia from 5–6pm. (See page 14)

MUSIC

CROSSINGS BANDBased in the North East, Crossings Band is drawn from members of the Crossings project open music session and choir and is led by Fred Phethean. Band members bring their own unique music to the band, arrange songs created in Crossings open sessions and work together to create dynamic new musical compositions and fusions. The Crossings project creates a welcoming space where asylum seekers and refugees come together with local and international musicians, to collaborate on the development and performance of their music.

MUSIC

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL ROOTS ORCHESTRA (MIRO)The Manchester International Roots Orchestra is a new, musically diverse orchestra which nurtures musical collaboration between refugee and other culturally diverse musicians, including students from the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). The Orchestra is about creating exciting new music drawing on a wide range of music genres and is led by Romanian born Maestro Michael Cretu with support from Cameroonian musician/composer Serge Tebu. The project is produced by Community Arts North West as part of their Exodus Live music strand in partnership with RNCM.

CROSSINGS BAND

KATY CARR

MIRO

CROSSINGS BAND

MIRO

6 NOVEMBER

THE SATELLITE STATE DISKO PRESENTS KALMANCHESTER ACADEMY 3

Kal, Europe’s finest ‘Rock n Roma’ band are back in the UK with their new album – hosted by Manchester’s Balkan music DJs, The Satellite State Disko.

Blending traditional Balkan Roma music with influences of Tango, Middle Eastern grooves, and rock – Kal are one of the most famous and experimental Roma bands from Serbia. Led by singer Dragan Ristic, the band promote Roma heritage and actively challenge prejudice through their music. Celebrating the launch of their new album ‘Romology’ in November, this will be the first chance to hear Kal’s newest tracks performed live in the UK!

The evening will continue late into the night with more Balkan beats, Slavic Soul, Nomad ska, and Arab Surf brought to you by The Satellite State Disko DJs.

Tickets: www.manchesteracademy.net

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OCTOBER / NOVEMBERPLATFORMAFRINGEEvents independently programmed and produced by artists and organisations from the Platforma network.

10 OCTOBER – 17 NOVEMBER

90 DEGREE CITIZEN: AN EXHIBITION BY VIRTUAL MIGRANTSEXHIBITION OPEN DAILY 10AM–5PM

SPECIAL PERFORMANCE / DISCUSSION EVENTS ON 10TH AND 30TH OCTOBER, STARTING AT 6PM. THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM

A rare exhibition of work by a new wave of visual artists whose experiences include life as refugees in the UK, engaging with objects from The Manchester Museum.

From Kurdish Iraq, Amang Mardokhy, whose paintings touch on repression, history and resistance. Photographer Iseult Timmermans worked with refugee women at Glasgow’s Red Road Community Studio exploring “how military violence affects women’s lives”. Iranian photographer Mazaher creates detailed montages combining human forms with Persian-influenced designs. The International Women’s Group from North Glasgow use photographic mixed media in response to issues of violence against women. Bold paintings and prints by Tracey Zengeni from Zimbabwe reflect on influences between her homeland and the UK. Painter and mixed media artist Flora Alexander presents intricate paper-cuts,

subverting popular notions of her native Iran.

A special display of museum objects by curator Stephen Welsh (The Manchester Museum) challenges how cultures were categorised during the era of colonial object collecting, which among other things suppressed diaspora expression.

“Committed To Represent” pop-up exhibition will be on show Weds 30th October to Friday 1st November. This celebrates the critical work of legal caseworkers in the difficult lives of refugees.

Produced in partnership with Street Level Photoworks (Glasgow), The Manchester Museum and Immigration Aid Unit.

18 OCTOBER – 17 NOVEMBER

TRACING PRESENCE BY ELIZABETH KWANTTHE PEOPLE’S HISTORY MUSEUM

Tracing Presence is a series of large-scale portraits developed by Manchester-based artist Elizabeth Kwant during a residency with The Boaz Trust – a charity working to help destitute asylum seekers in Manchester. Tracing Presence questions the fragility of existence, at once beautiful yet haunting.

25–27 OCTOBER

KURT SCHWITTERS AUTUMN SEMINAR AND ENTARTETE KUNST MEMORIAL MERZ BARN, ELTERWATER

A free programme of workshops and presentations presented by Littoral Arts/

Merz Barn, Including The Reading of the Names – an annual event to commemorate all the modernist era artists, musicians, composers, designers, musicians, etc. that Hitler and the Nazis declared degenerate (Entartete Kunst). Held at the Merz Barn memorial MERZ Platz. www.littoral.org.uk

WORKS BY FLORA ALEXANDER AND TRACEY ZENGENI

EDEN BY ELIZABETH KWANT

KAL

www.platforma.org.uk