Welcome to Refugee Week in Greater London!
This year was Refugee Week’s 10th Anniversary, and London celebrated with a fantastic range of exciting and diverse events throughout the city!
Over 100 events took place this year, ranging from community events to football tournaments and from big music festivals to art installations.
A big thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate our anniversary in style and made 2008 the biggest Refugee Week ever!
Remember to check the Events Calendar
There is loads of cool stuff going on throughout the year for Refugee Week. Keep checking the Events Calendar for a full list of events...
Check out the Events Calendar
Refugee Encounters
Wednesday, 16 July, 7pm, Level 5 Function Room at Royal Festival Hall
Refugee Week is hooking up with the South Bank Centre, to organise a very exciting event as part of their Literature Festival 2008.
Refugee Encounters will take place on 16th July and will be hosted by well known author and Book Slam presenter, Patrick Neate.
The event will explore how encounters between new and host communities influence their views of one another and the world around them. The participating authors include: Vesna Maric, a witty voice from Bosnia, whose amazing book-memoir will be published by Granta in spring next year; Xiaolu Guo, a Chinese writer whose book “A concise Chinese-English dictionary for lovers” has been one of the best selling books this year; and Choman Hardi, a well established and greatly respected Kurdish poet. Music on the night will be provided by Abdullah Chhadeh, a Syrian virtuoso who after spending his childhood in a refugee camp in the Golan Heights, has gone on to become the Arab world’s most innovative and exciting qanun player.
This event marks the beginning of a longer term partnership between Refugee Week and the Southbank Centre, and we would be delighted if you would encourage your colleagues and friends to come to support and enjoy the event.
As tickets are likely to sell fast, we also suggest that you make your booking soon:
http://www.londonlitfest.com/events/refugee-encounters/
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Take a look at a few events that took place in Greater London this year!
Celebrating Sanctuary London
Celebrating Sanctuary was a day long festival which gathered together established and emerging refugee musicians, dancers and artists to celebrate the positive cultural contribution of refugees to the UK.
This year’s headliners were Noisettes - an exciting 3 piece whose mesh of punk, funk and the blues has gained them a reputation as one of Britain's rowdiest live bands, and included in Rolling Stones’ 10 Artists to Watch list
Other acts included Angelina and The Gypsy Punks, Muka (featuring Eddie Noiman), Los Desterrados and loads more.
The festival also introduced the Spoken Word stage in partnership with Book Slam, providing a platform for some of London’s most exciting new writing.
Stalls selling mouth-watering dishes and thirst quenching drinks from all over the world were available in the festival marketplace alongside information stalls from Refugee Week, its partner agencies and others.
For more information about Celebrating Sanctuary 2008 please visit www.myspace.com/celebratingsanctuary
People On The Move
Mr. António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees gave a talk on the ‘The Challenges of Displacement in the 21st Century’.
All proceeds from the evening went towards the work of the International Rescue Committee.
HUNT
HUNT was a specially commissioned play for young people exploring one person’s experience of violent war and conflict.
It was a site-specific, promenade style performance that responds to the unique and historic Wilton’s Music Hall, the world’s oldest and last surviving music hall. This characterful and beautiful venue provided a sense of the unexpected evoking an energetic and emotive response from audiences as they joined this journey.
Refuge in Films Festival
For the second year running, Nueva Generation presented Refuge in Films, a film festival dedicated to raising awareness about refugees and migrant issues.
This years festival was entirely developed by a group of young people. They hoped that the festival would address issues of representation of refugees and migrants in the film industry and would be a space of celebration contributing to a more tolerant society.
Refuge in films 2008 developed a Film Challenge in which young people have produced short films about immigration and refuge in collaboration with WorldWRITE and Grain Media. Young people aged between 15-25 years old produced three films that were shown during the festival.
The festival will ran throughout Refugee Week in various locations including the British Film Institute.
For a full listing of events in London visit the Events Calendar
If you would like general information regarding Refugee Week in Greater London please contact us at info@refugeeweek.org.uk or on 020 7346 6752
