Telling tales

A fabulous event at University of Northampton today - thanks to Judith, Jackie and all participants. The seventh Making the Connections event focused on issues of narrative, storytelling and identity with a focus on the postcolonial, and was well attended by academics, activists and artists from Northampton and the wider East Midlands. The Avenue campus at Northampton provided a suitably art-full environment to explore these isses



After introductions and words from those working in Northamptonshire with ethnic minority communities, Rea Dennis gave a storytelling/performance that dealt with some key issues of origins/belonging and journeys of self-discovery. from Northampton to Greece to Australia and back, Rea showed how telling tales can help people come to terms with experiences of loss, separaton and anxiety, and provide a space for exploring questions of identity




Workshops focusing on objects and stories of movement and migration bought some of the therapeutic value of storytelling into sharper relief, while a film present by Doug Smith on Northampton's Irish populations shoed how oral histories can be used as a resource for education: at the same time, the film raised questions about who was being represented, and how.

The day finished with a conversation with Guyanese novelist, academic and poet David Dabydeen, who spoke about his move from social realist accounts of migration and identit to more magic realist tropes, inspired in part by Guyanese tribal beliefs. Dismissing the search for an authentic home, he nonetheless spoke about his movements between, and imagingings of, his Guyanese, Indian and Coventrian homes. He particular reflected on his own family's experience: "my parents, and other people's parents, would have seen England not quite as an Utopia, or an El Dorado in reverse, but certainly as a place where jobs were plentiful and the people hospitable, and wealth within your grasp. I think there was the belief that if you went to England and worked, you could become wealthy, whereas in fact when they came, they were not welcome as they expected to be...I felt a…sense of displacement, and lived with the reality that …there was always the threat of violence" (from http://www.humboldt.edu/~me2/engl240b/student_projects/dabydeen/dabydeenbio.htm).

An inspiring, provocative and entertaining day!

18th December - a date for your diary

John Perivaloris, who is heading up the Making The Connections image makers' subgroup, has drawn my attention to Radio 1812, a global event dedicated to International Migrants Day, producing and broadcasting programmes from radios worldwide. As well as clips from last year's broadcasts, the site has some of John's stunning photos

See:

http://www.radio1812.net/it/image_galleries/migrados_2003_2005



(rights reserved, John Perivolaris)

7th Making the Connections event

Telling Tales: a free workshop exploring issues of narrativity, diaspora and migration with a focus on the value of telling stories. The event is, as per usual, free with assistance available for the unwaged. Pre-registrations by 8th November.

AHRC award!

Maggie O'Neill and Phil Hubbard have been awarded a 12 month Knowledge Transfer Fellowship to extend and develop the activities of the network, developing an online database of artists and activist in the East Midlands working around themes of asylum, diaspora and migration and completing a Sense of Belonging project to explore experiences of dislocation. The award will involve the collaboration of Loughborough University with Long Journey Home, Charnwood Arts, City Arts and Soft Touch, and is an outcome of the ongoing collaborations fostered by the network.

More news to follow!

Distant voices: migrant workers, representation and the arts

A big thank you too all those who made the workshop so stimulating. Especial thanks to Francois for convening and chairing proceedings, and Rebecca for organising and running the event so smoothly.

A lot of themes were raised around the experiences of rural migration and migrant workers facing potentially poor working conditions and lacking access to cultural facilities and spaces which most take for grant. Issues relating to voice, representation and mistranslation were repeatedly emphasised, as were ideas of the sustainability of artistic interventions. There seemed to be a healthy consensus that positive representations of multicultural ruralities can change attitudes, with projects needing to think about the dialogue between new arrivals and ‘established’ communities lest their work becomes exclusionary and inward-looking.

A full report will be published on the website in due course. In the meantime, I will include some pictures of the event and invite all who were there to add their comments or thoughts!

New Workshop event

Culture East Midlands & ‘Making the Connections’ present ‘DISTANT VOICES

The 5th ‘Making the Connections' Research Seminar.
Wednesday 17 October 2007
Trinity Arts Centre, Grantham, 11am – 4pm

Culture East Midlands and Making the Connections: Arts, Migration and Diaspora Regional Network are pleased to invite you to take part in a seminar looking at how the arts and culture can represent the views and experiences of migrant workers within the broader context of relationships between culture, identity and migration.

These days, everyone seems to be talking about migrant workers. But while the views of politicians, academics, researchers and campaigners fill the airwaves, the voices of those most concerned are rarely heard. What are their needs and motives? How do they see their situations and this country’s response?

Art and culture are important spaces in which migrant workers can be heard and seen – directly and indirectly, and with all the complexity of artistic expression.

This regional seminar will present some recent experiences of this work, from within and beyond the East Midlands, in the context of EMDA’s research into the contribution of mi-grant workers to the regional economy. It has a particular bearing on rural issues, where migrant workers are now an important part of the workforce. It will be of interest to policy makers, planners, artists, creative entrepreneurs and anyone working in cultural services, economic development or rural affairs.
Speakers include EMDA, Rural Media Company, New Perspectives Theatre Company, Na-tional Institute for Continuing Adult Education (NIACE) and others; there will be exhibitions by Roaming Pictures, a sound work by Heather Connelly, an installation by Jo Da-combe from Colab and a short theatre performance.

Please see: http://ruralculture-em.org/cgi-bin/cemr.cgi

Welcome!

This is the first posting on a new blog to accompany the Making the Connections network. Launched in April 2006, this network aims to explore the role of arts in relation to newly arrived communities in the English Eats Midlands. The network is sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council with support from the Arts Council East Midlands, and is co-convened by Maggie O'Neill and Phil Hubbard, both at Loughborough university. The network focuses on a series of workshops in which questions of migration, diaspora and identity are explored from the perspective of newly arrived individuals, particularly asylum seekers and refugees. The network is supported by local asylum organisations, arts practitioners, academics and activists. Membership is open, and free, and most workshops are open to all.

This blog will run alongside our website makingtheconnections.org, and mailing list, and will be used for our reflections on the network as it proceeds. All are welcome to leave comments and suggestions, and we will hope to stimulate discussion through this blog both prior and subsequent to workshop events.