Virtual Migrants

art, digital media, performance exploring race, migration, environment, global justice

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Dance the Guns to Silence III: Healing Separation, Mobilising Desire

Saturday 14th November from 7pm-10pm UK time, Zoom Webinar.

On the 10th November 1995 Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other people from the Ogoni people were executed by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. They were leaders of a non-violent campaign against the destruction of the Ogoni Delta in Nigeria by the oil industry, especially Royal Dutch Shell.

Virtual Migrants are proud to be co-organising this Global Arts Night in support of the Ogoni and other communities fighting extractivism around the world with Platform, in collaboration with MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People) and Voices that Shake!

Virtual Migrants contribution will be to showcase CCCTV, featuring chopped up Continent Chop Chop content hosted by Sai Murray, and including the launch of two unreleased films featuring Nigerian poet and activist Nnimmo Bassey. (The link to view these films will go live at the same time as the event):

I Will Not Dance to Your Beat – poem by Nnimmo Bassey
I Thought It Was Oil, But It Was Blood – poem by Nnimmo Bassey

The Climate Crisis Needs System Change – an interview with Nnimmo Bassey

The event links the murder of the Ogoni 9 to current global struggles, and features:

*Panel discussions

*Short film screenings

*Artistic presentations

*Performance, poetry and singing for justice

*Collective meditation/ Healing practice

*and much more!

*live English subtitles + translation in french & Spanish will be available

To book tickets:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dance-the-guns-to-silence-iii-healing-separation-mobilising-desire-tickets-125024105465

FB event here https://fb.me/e/356cJWlYy

WATCH OUT for further film launches:

On the 21st November we will be publishing two films documenting our ‘Breathe’ project:

In June 2019 Virtual Migrants and Numbi Arts collaborated on ‘Breathe!’, a protest/performance that asked who controls the local environment in Tower Hamlets, and questioned planning processes that are racialised and exclusive of the people who actually live in a given locality. These films show the protest performance created by young people and others as they occupied an abandoned community garden under threat from ‘developers’.

and on the 28th November two more films, from our 2015 touring production Continent Chop:

EPM – Ethical People Movement campaign promotion video – for the first time we’re making the spoof film from the show available, which looks at white saviour syndrome and charity ‘ethics’ – particularly relevant as Comic Relief stand down their celebrity offensive (or should that be the other way round?) and a film specially commissioned for the performance: Blind Spot – climate justice poetry video by Zena Edwards, which calls to account the ‘whiteness’ of climate campaigning.

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Breathe! reconnect: recover: reclaim social space

Virtual Migrants and Numbi Arts presents:

BREATHE!
reconnect: recover: reclaim social space

 

artwork: Amber Perrier

 

“Breathe!” takes inspiration from Numbi‘s legacy of local/global art for change and Virtual Migrant’s methodology of protest performance, to explore the internal and external space of our communities, calling attention to the privatisation and commodification of social spaces.

The history of struggle, resistance and community in East London is rich and vibrant. Yet perhaps now more than ever, our communal spaces are under pressure. The whirlwinds of rising property prices, rents, gentrification, surveillance and over-policing are destroying connections with neighbours and breaking up long standing communities; spaces that we rely on for solidarity, health and conviviality; places where we can meet, connect, share food, dance, sing, breathe.

 

Through a FREE one day creative workshop (as part of Arts Admin’s #2DegreesFestival) with artist/ activists we will explore and create performance artworks on the themes of reconnecting to community and reclaiming social space, to be performed in a location the following week.

WORKSHOP – Sunday June 2nd 2019
12pm – 6pm
@ Rich Mix, 39-47 Bethnal Green Rd, E1 6LA

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PERFORMANCE – Sunday June 9th 2019
– meet at 11am  – location tbc (3 hours)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS 

Virtual Migrants connect art, digital media and performance with new aesthetics and perspectives exploring race, migration and global justice. They create, exhibit, perform and distribute work that can be installed in galleries, performance venues, public or community spaces.

www.virtualmigrants.net | @VirtualMigrants (Facebook) | @VirtualMigrants (Twitter)

Numbi Arts CIC is a non-profit organisation based in London that creates cross-art projects and works collaboratively with artists, educators and peer organisations, providing a range of inspiring opportunities for communities to engage with local/global art for change, contemporary arts and heritage. Somali-originated African-centred, with globally inclusive programming and outlook. 

Numbi.org | @numbiarts (Facebook) | @numbiarts (Twitter) | @numbiarts (Instagram)

To sign up please send us your details via this online form

#2DegreesFestival

This event is also part of #NumbiFest 2019.

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Extremely Safe Radical Preventions

Earlier this year we were involved in a research project devised by the University of Manchester Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice and a series of interactive drama-based workshops led by Theatre in Prisons and Probation to faciliate conversations about radicalism.

The project was devised as ‘a collaboration between young people, school staff, interdisciplinary researchers, and creative artists, that focuses on developing an inclusive and open discussion about how schools approach extremism that speaks to, and is led by, young people’.

The government’s Prevent strategy has been accused of being more damaging than enabling; acting as a mechanism of exclusion that represses rather than encourages conversation. It was fascinating to hear the views and frustrations of teachers and pupils in dealing with Prevent and Safeguarding legislation highlighting even more the need to “talk about this”.

Here’s the poem that [Read more…]

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Refugee Week performance/talk at UniTEA

VM members Tracey Zengeni, Aidan Jolly and Sai Murray will be performing at this UniTEA Arts and Culture Event at The Brink in Liverpool today as part of Refugee Week. It’s a free event, open to all with tea, coffee and cakes of the world (!) available for the first 100 people.

refugee-wk-UniTEA

Full details from www.refugeeweek.org.uk below

Arts and Culture event to celebrate the positive contribution made by refugees to the culture, history and heritage of the UK

This is an arts and culture event, with 4 acts across the evening. The main theme of the evening is celebrating the positive contribution refugees have made to the culture history and heritage of the UK.

Tracey Zengeni is Zimbabwean artist who is bringing several pieces of her art to show and talk about, in addition to some acapella . Raj Govindarajah is a Sri Lankan film maker who has made a film about his friends experience of fleeing Sri Lanka and becoming a refugee in Britain. Aidan Jolly and Sai Murray are a musician and poet respectively, who have worked with many refugee and migrant groups.

There will also be a ‘Cakes of the World’ section, where desserts from common refugee origin countries will be available for attendees, and they can guess where the desserts originate.

In addition, there will be an ancestor mapping activity to plot the journeys of attendees relations throughout history.

The event is open to all, with free drinks tokens available to the first 100 people. It would be preferable if attendees could RSVP to: Jhughes@redcross.org.uk.

Date From 19/06/2013 to 19/06/2013
Time From 16:00 to 19:00
Venue The Brink
21 Parr Street
Liverpool
L1 4JN
North West
Organiser Joshua Hughes
01517025067
www.redcross.org.uk
Jhughes@redcross.org.uk
Category Arts and Culture
Price Free