Creative Exchange - News from the Network - April 2008
Contents
Events & Training
1. Exiled Lit Café – An evening of Latin American Women: poetry and music (London, Monday 7 April)
2. Rare lecture to be given by legendary British fashion and celebrity photographer John Swannell in aid of PhotoVoice (London, Tuesday 8 April)
3. RAIN – a concert of new music and words inspired by an exploration of the themes of climate change (Glasgow, Thursday 10 April)
4. Magic Day – A three-day event for children and families in Lawrence Weston (Bristol, 17-19 April)
5. My City Mediascape (Bristol, 3-5 May)
6. Community Dance in the 21st century: challenges and opportunities? (Leicester, 10 May)
7. PhotoVoice Exhibition: Side By Side (London, 6 March – 1 May)
8. Bangladesh 1971 (London, 4 April – 31 May)
9. Performing the World '08: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (New York City, 2–5 October)
Opportunities
10. Chobi Mela V – International Festival of Photography – call for submissions
Other News
11. Dance4Life South Africa boosts Life Skills training for youth in the Eastern Cape
Events & Training
1. Exiled Lit Café - An evening of Latin American Women: poetry and music
Monday 7 April
at the Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, London WC2 (Covent Garden tube)
Invited guests:
Gisela Jachniuk: Argentinean poetry danced tango by Diana
Maria Eugenia Bravo: Chilean poet
Sofia Buchuck: Peruvian poetry and music
Luzmira Zerpa: Venezuela
Luz Martines: from Mexico
Colombian tales: by Miriam Ojeda Patino
Hosted by Fathieh Saudi, EWI Chair
£2 EWI members; £4 members (membership: £15 per year to include subscription to Exiled Ink! Asylum-seekers £10 per year)
For further information contact
Jennifer Langer, Exiled Writers Ink jennifer@exiledwriters.fsnet.co.uk
www.exiledwriters.co.uk
2. Rare lecture to be given by legendary British fashion and celebrity photographer John Swannell in aid of PhotoVoice
Tuesday 8 April 2008, 7pm, Royal Geographical Society
On 8 April, photography lovers will have a rare opportunity to hear one of Britain’s most celebrated fashion and portrait photographers speak about his extraordinary life in pictures: from his subtly lit portraits of the British monarchy to his classically composed nudes and distinctive panoramic rural landscapes. John Swannell is sure to captivate with his combination of opinion and anecdote, while a Q&A session gives the audience an opportunity delve deep into the world of the legendary photographer.
Swannell will be signing copies of his latest book Nudes, 1978–2006 (available to buy on the night). He has also generously offered himself up as a raffle prize – the lucky winner of which will enjoy a one-off opportunity to spend a day with him in his studio.
The lecture will be accompanied by a photographic exhibition of images by marginalised groups trained in photography skills by PhotoVoice.
Tickets are £10 advance, £15 on the door available from www.photovoice.org or 0207 0333878
Raffle tickets to win a day in the studio with John Swannell are priced at £5 each and can be purchased along with lecture ticket(s) and will also be available on the night. The winner will be contacted by telephone on the 9th April.
For more information about PhotoVoice visit www.photovoice.org
3. RAIN – a concert of new music and words inspired by an exploration of the themes of climate change
Thursday 10 April 2008, 7.30pm
CCA, 350 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3JD
Paragon presents a concert of new music and words inspired by an exploration of the themes of climate change, featuring Kaleidophone Ensemble with the Paragonies.
Thanks to a Youth Music Initiative grant, Paragon music creators have brought together young musicians from Drumchapel High School following their successful collaboration last year in Paragon’s ‘O King’ production.
Meeting after school, the group have been inspired to create their own music based on the most important global issue facing the world today – climate change. Known as the Paragonies, this group of young performers are also involved in the Carnival Art Group in Drumchapel and will be part of the Carnival Parade in the West End Festival in June.
Kaleidophone Ensemble will present words and music from Iran, Africa, Armenia, China and Scotland.
Tickets: Admission free with Ticket – phone CCA Box Office to check availability
CCA Box Office Tel : +44 (0)141 352 4900
Email : gen@cca-glasgow.com
4. Magic Day – A three-day event for children and families in Lawrence Weston
acta have secured funding from The Big Lottery Fund - Playful Ideas to hold three Magic Day events over the next three years. The first one will take place in the April school holidays at City of Bristol College Lawrence Weston, 10.00 - 1.00pm on Thursday 17th and Saturday 19th, and 10.00 - 3.00pm on Friday 18th.
Magic Day creates innovative play opportunities for children in the Lawrence Weston area of Bristol. It is delivered by acta, working in close partnership with local children’s organisations. Magic Day involves children in exploring their imaginations through a range of interactive activities including drama/role-play, creating (and playing in) whole environments, digital and sound technology, visual arts, participatory storytelling, music, shadow and light.
For further information, click here.
5. My City Mediascape
Constance Fleuriot and Clodagh Miskelly
Make your own digital landscape on this fun but focused introductory Summer School. Create your own interactive city story and walk through it, using headphones and GPS equipment. Design concepts for mediascape production will be provided along with software and necessary training.
Working in pairs, you’ll make interactive experiences that blend with the sights and sounds of the world around you. You’ll create the narrative, prepare and edit audio and images, and design, build and test a simple mediascape that communicates your view of the city.
Bring music, text, or an image to get you started.
3 days: Saturday 3 to Monday 5 May 2008,10am-5pm each day. A collaboration with The University of Bristol’s Computer Science Department.
Fee: £130
For information and to book:
Phone: 0117 954 5471
e-mail: drama-lifelearn@bris.ac.uk
Address for contact and information: Isobel Pierce, Department of Drama, Wickham Theatre, Cantocks Close, off Woodland Road Bristol BS8 1UP
Course Location: The Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol
Advance booking essential
6. Community Dance in the 21st century: challenges and opportunities?
The Foundation for Community Dance once again partners with De Montfort University to host a new conference, Community Dance in the 21st century: challenges and opportunities? This one-day conference, taking place on Saturday 10 May 2008, at the Centre for Excellence in Performance Arts (CEPA), brings together community dance practitioners, teachers, students and academics to present, share and debate ideas.
With a focus on current practice and research in community and participatory dance, the forum presents an opportunity to engage face-to-face with peers and colleagues, grapple with up-to-the-minute issues and to influence future directions and new developments.
Community Dance in the 21st century: challenges and opportunities? follows the successful research forum New Directions in Community Dance held in 2006 in partnership with De Montfort University. It promises to be a thought-provoking, challenging, controversial but most of all stimulating conference!
Speakers and Presentations
Writer and critic Donald Hutera opens the conference with a keynote speech.
Diane Amans, Sue Akroyd, Jacqueline McCormick and Ruth Spencer – The gospel according to…?
Ken Bartlett – Developing a coherent pedagogy for community dance in the 21st century
Sara Houston and Pauline Johnson – You were wonderful darling!
Helen Kindred – Extending good practice or diluting the dance?
Ruth Pethybridge – Governing Bodies: community dance values in capitalist society
Price
FCD members: £15 individuals / £25 Organisations
Non-members (includes membership fee): £20 students / £37.50 individuals / £70 organisations
Price includes lunch and refreshments
Booking
Bookings can be made with payment in two ways:
By phone: call 0116 253 3453 to book your place with a credit or debit card
By post: download a booking form here and return with payment by cheque
For enquiries and further information email rosie@communitydance.org.uk or call 0116 253 3453.
7. PhotoVoice Exhibition: Side By Side
6 March – 1 May 2008
The Economist Plaza
25 St. James’s Street, London SW1A 1HA
Open daily 10.00 – 18.00, Admission Free
A photographic dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian teenagers who have lost family members in the conflict.
For more information about the Side-by-Side project visit:
http://www.photovoice.org/html/projects/photovoiceprojects/africaandmiddleeast/sidebyside/index.html
8. Bangladesh 1971
April 4th – 31st May 2008
Autograph ABP, Rivington Place, London EC2A 3BA.
A photographic exhibition and film season that focuses on one of South Asia’s most significant political events: the foundation of Bangladesh as an independent state.
The Bangladesh war of independence in 1971 was one of the bloodiest conflicts in living memory. In an attempt to crush forces seeking independence for what was then East Pakistan, the West Pakistani military regime unleashed a systematic campaign of violence that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Bangalis. Many of the photographs from the unique collection of the Drik archives will be shown in the UK for the first time.
In 266 days Bangali, hill people and Adivasi resistance fighters and their allies defeated the military forces of Pakistan. The result was the birth of a new nation – Bangladesh – and the dismemberment of Pakistan.
It was only after the 16th of December 1971 when Pakistani troops surrendered in East Pakistan, that Bangladeshis began to realise the scale of the atrocities committed during the previous nine months.
1971 was a year of national and international crisis in South Asia. The history of Bangladesh is implicitly tied to the partition of India in 1947 and therefore the tragic events of 1971 are linked to Britain’s colonial past. For Bangladesh, ravaged by the war and subsequent political turmoil, it has been a difficult task to reconstruct its own history. It is only during the last few years that this important Bangladeshi photographic history has begun to emerge.
Now decades after the war, Autograph ABP in collaboration with Drik presents a historical photographic overview of Bangladesh 1971 at Rivington Place.
Shahidul Alam: Curator, photographer, activist. Gallery Talk (in Bengali) 2pm April 5th
Mark Sealy: Director of Autograph ABP. Gallery Talk (in English) 6.30pm April 17th
Many other talks and events to be confirmed
Bangladesh 1971 Film Season throughout April 2008 in partnership with Rich Mix and The Rainbow Film Society
Photographers included in the exhibition: Abdul Hamid Raihan, Aftab Ahmed, BegArt Collection, Golam Mawla, Jalaluddin Haider, Mohammad Shafi , Naib Uddin Ahmed, Rashid Talukder, Sayeeda Khanom and Bal Krishnan.
The exhibition is accompanied by the Bangladesh 1971 Film Season throughout April 2008 in partnership with Rich Mix and The Rainbow Film Society. Please see attached document for full details.
For further information or images, contact Indra Khanna: indra@autograph-abp.co.uk. Tel 020 7749 1261
David A Bailey david@autograph-abp.co.uk. Tel 020 7749 1264.
Open Tuesday - Friday 11am - 6pm
Saturday 12pm - 6pm
Entry is free. Venue is wheelchair accessible.
Autograph ABP, Rivington Place, London EC2A 3BA.
www.autograph-abp.co.uk
www.rivingtonplace.org
www.drik.net
9. Performing the World '08: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
The conveners of Performing the World, the conference/festiva of the growing international performance movement, are excited to announce that the fifth Performing the World will be held in New York City from October 2-5, 2008. The event will showcase innovative practice and scholarship and provide a rich context for learning and performing together.
A New Location, A New Kind of Conference
Performing the World ’08 (PTW ’08) builds on the momentum of 2007’s PTW 4, which brought together 300 practitioners, scholars and community activists – educators, youth workers, researchers, psychologists and therapists, health and helping professionals, business people, artists and activists from 27 countries. PTW ’08 is bringing the international performance movement to the streets of New York – and introducing the performance movement to the communities of New York City.
For the first time, the All Stars Project, an organisation recognised for its highly successful performance-based outside-of-school developmental programs for young people and its Castillo Theatre, joins the East Side Institute as a co-sponsor of the conference. PTW ’08 will be based out of the All Stars’ performance and development centre on 42nd Street near Times Square, and will be hosted by young people from around the city. Workshops and performances will take place there and at theatres, schools and other venues throughout Manhattan and other boroughs. New Yorkers from virtually every neighbourhood will open up their homes to out-of-towners, not only to save on hotel costs, but also to incorporate the diversity of family and neighbourhood into the experience of the weekend and to build person-to-person ties between ordinary New Yorkers and performance activists and scholars from around the world.
Fields of Interest: Applied Theatre, Improvisation, Performance Studies, Youth Development, Peace Making and Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, Participatory Research and Evaluation, Political and Community Organizing, Education, Drama in Education, Psychology and Psychotherapy, Community Development, Medicine and Health Care, Organizational Change, Business and Management
Some conversational themes, panels, workshops and performances:
- Performance as a Community Building Methodology
- Postmodern Creativity and Performance
- Knowing, Not Knowing and Performing
- Performance and Politics
- Performance in Daily Life
- The Therapeutics of Performance
- The Creativity of the Group, Ensemble and Community
- Theatre and Community
- The Creativity of Improvisation
- Performing, Improvising and Learning
- The Power of Play
- Conflict Resolution and Performance
Registration Fee
Before August 1: $195 (US)
After August 1: $225 (US)
http://www.performingtheworld.org/
Opportunities
10. Chobi Mela V – International Festival of Photography – call for submissions
From Shahidul Alam, Director Chobi Mela V
Drifting in cage and out again
Hark unknown bird does fly
Shackles of my mind
If my arms could entwine
With them I would thee bind
Rooms it had eight
And doors it had nine
Windows betwixt you find
Up above the glittering hall
Mirrors might make you blind
What fate alas makes bird do thus
Caged bird breaks free to fly
Of bamboo raw the cage I saw
This mind of mine still longs oh so
Lalon Fakir cries as he sees with his eyes
The cage wither and go*
The body, the soul, the self, the universe, Lalon saw freedom not as an entity outside oneself, but as a lived experience. Within yet afar. Ephemeral but tactile. With wings but encaged.
New forms of slavery form new forms of chains. Violence suffered in silence. Ancestral land commandeered. Resistance made illegal.
What mask does freedom now wear? Freedom to profit is the new elixir. Freedom to reach distant markets, to exploit cheap labour. The word that takes us to such dizzying heights leaves the deepest of wounds with its loss. 'Foreign' sounding names, 'wrong' coloured skin, 'different' passports, circumscribe our new freedoms.
Going beyond walls built to occupy territory. Beyond bombs dropped to coerce the unarmed. Beyond cells built to hold the other. Artists paint with colours that don't exist. Write with words as yet un-invented. Photograph where light is yet to reach. The cage. The door. The wing. The soul. Freedom.
Shahidul Alam
Festival Director
Chobi Mela V
We invite photographers working in the fields of photojournalism, fine art, conceptual or any other field of photography, to interpret the theme "Freedom" in the widest sense possible. Submissions may be made online (www.chobimela.org) from 1st March 2008 through to 31st May 2008. Selections will be made by 15th June 2008. Final work must be submitted by 31st July 2008. Festival opens 6th November 2008. Submission guidelines will be available online.
*Translation by Shahidul Alam from "khachar bhitor ochin pakhi" by Lalon Shah.
http://www.chobimela.org
shahidul@drik.net
Other News
11. Dance4Life South Africa boosts Life Skills training for youth in the Eastern Cape
HIV/AIDS and health-related issues affecting South African youth recently came under the spotlight when Dance4Life South Africa (D4LSA) introduced an innovative Communications Programme for 13–19 year olds to the Eastern Cape.
The project, which rolled out in 20 schools across the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in 2007, has hired six new facilitators - one of whom will be based in the Eastern Cape – as part of their 2008 programme expansion across Provinces.
Focusing on facilitator-led communication on HIV prevention and better sexual reproductive health, the D4LSA Schools4Life Programme is aligned to the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan (2007-2011). Programme content is presented in isiXhosa, isiZulu, Afrikaans and English.
Although recent reports have indicated that HIV infection rates in South Africa might be levelling off, 34% of all new infections occur in young people between the ages of 15-24 (Health Sciences Research Council: 2007 Media Brief).
The Eastern Cape is desperately in need of such programmes for young people. After a review of multisectoral interventions in the Eastern Cape, the Province’s AIDS Council (ECAC) has stated that there is a clear need for an intensified response to the pandemic. According to the Eastern Cape Socio Economic Consultative Council (ECSECC), HIV prevalence is increasing. HIV prevalence among youth specifically, is disproportionately high compared to adults, as well as in comparison to growth trends among youth in other provinces. The D4LSA Schools4Life Programme specifically aims to address the needs of these young people - who form the group that is highest at risk of contracting HIV and other STIs.
Following on from the D4LSA interventions in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape facilitator will actively encourage young people to learn more about HIV and AIDS in a funky, breathtaking and moving way. Employing an interactive ‘edutainment’ and communication platform, D4LSA endorses a participatory teaching method which incorporates drumming, dancing, poetry, role-playing activities and other creative techniques to actively engage youth in issues around adolescent sexual health, including HIV-prevention. D4LSA will work in 5 schools and 3 youth centres in the Province during 2008, empowering young people to make the best informed sexual health decisions for their futures.
For more information please contact Dance4Life South Africa on +27 (0)31 2020555, or visit their website.