Welcome to Refugee Week East of England
The web page for Refugee Week in the East of England is being co-ordinated by Shenaz Kedar Regional Refugee Week Coordinator.
Email: Shenaz@newwritingpartnership.org.uk
Please contact us if you:
- have information about Refugee Week events taking place in the East of England that you would like listed on the site.
- have any queries regarding the events.
This year is the
10th Anniversary of Refugee Week! The East of England will be celebrating with hundreds of exciting and diverse events throughout the region during Refugee Week 2008.
For a full list of events in the region check out the Events Calendar
Here's a few examples of what's happening this year
Connecting Worlds
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts,
Norwich, 5-8pm - Free A New Writing Worlds 08 event – a week of outstanding literary events, featuring authors from all over the world. In celebration of national Refugee Week.
An evening of exploration, discovery and global perspectives against a backdrop of stunning exhibits and objects. Featuring readings and talks from Mia Couto, Geoff Dyer, Gretel Ehrlich and José Eduardo Agualusa. In the breaks there will be the chance to watch a set of short films made by some of Norwich’s young people as part of a City of Refuge project; to watch Karen Boswall’s fascinating documentary about Agualusa’s research trip through South Africa; to enjoy drinks in the café and browse the gallery.
Norwich City of Refuge Film Poems Exploring Norwich Project
The film poems project entitled Exploring Norwich was organised as part of The New Writing Partnership’s City of Refugecommunity programme. The project was developed in partnership with BBC Voices and The Garage, with Michael Laskey leading the creative writing workshops.
The project provided an opportunity for young refugees, asylum seekers and local youngsters between the ages of 11-14 from five different schools to work together on the creation of film poems
Mia Couto
Mia Couto’s poetry, short stories and novels are widely recognized in the Portuguese-speaking world, and have been translated into a number of European languages. A River Called Time is his fourth novel to appear in English translation. Mia is also an environmental biologist. José Eduardo Agualusa was born in HuamboAngola. His most recent novel The Book of Chameleons won the 2007 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize; and My Father's Wives will be published this June. He spends most of his time in PortugalAngola and Brazil, working as a writer and journalist.
Jose Eduardo Agualusa
In 2005 Angolan writer Jose Eduardo Agualusa and British filmmaker Karen Boswall travelled around the coast of Southern Africa from Angola's capital Luanda to the Mozambican capital Maputo where Karen has been living since 1990. The footage (and photographs) shown were taken during this extraordinary road trip which formed the basis for Agualusa's novel My Father's Wives.
Geoff Dyer
Geoff Dyer cannot write a boring sentence. His passions are art, photography, travel and what makes a place a place. Tonight he’s presenting an illustrated talk on Land Art in Mexico that will be published shortly in Granta. Geoff has many awards for his work, which include three novels, critical studies and four genre-defying titles including Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It.
Gretel Ehrlich
Gretel will read from her recent work and discuss her many travels with subsistence Inuit hunters in Greenland and the Arctic. Gretel has written 13 books, among them A Match to the Heart, The Solace of Open Spaces and The Future of Ice. She is the recipient of Guggenheim and Whiting awards, among many others.
Norwich City of Refuge
As a City of Refuge, Norwich is part of a network of over 35 European cities that offers a place of safety for exiled writers under threat for exercising their freedom of expression. We are the first of these cities to root the scheme in an extensive community programme including schools projects, training programmes, public events and partnership work. To find out more about Norwich, City of Refuge go to www.newwritingpartnership.org.uk/cityofrefuge
Asylum Monologues
18 the June16:00 University of Bedfordshire Studio Theatre, Polhill Ave, Bedford. Tickets £3.50 (£3.00 Conc)
“.....imagine arriving in a foreign country, somewhere quite alien, like China for example, and being presented with a form, 19 pages long, in Chinese....you don’t even know where to buy a stamp or what a post office is..... your Chinese doesn’t extend beyond Dim Sum and MaoTze Tung......”
Directed by Cally Lawrence and using local professional actors the moving and frank Asylum Monologues are true stories of real people, highlighting not only events in their own countries that have forced them to flee, but their experiences of being asylum seekers in the UK.
Performance at 7.pm followed by a post show discussion between audience, actors and an invited panel and then concluding with refreshments and informal networking
Tickets available in advance from BREC 36 Mill St, Bedford
For more informationon all events happening in Bedford during Refugee Week
call Cally Lawrence on 07787 308970.
