A heartwarming glimpse of multicultural Edinburgh
There is a sound people make when they are pleased to be with one another. Stan Reeves called it “the difference between false gregariousness and authentic comradeship” and there was plenty of authentic comradeship when The Welcoming celebrated the confirmation of new funding which secures a new programme of events starting in January 2010.
Continue reading “The Welcoming returns”
Grassroots at Redbraes during Edinburgh Festival 2008
On a stormy winter night it’s great to get a blast of summer. The picture shows the fantastic Grassroots Theatre Company when they visited Redbraes community garden in warmer weather. Now they are back for another tour of Scotland with what sounds like perfect timing for the St Andrews night party in Fort Community Wing on Monday 30th November – they are invited to give a workshop which should warm everyone up.
Great news in from the west. That’s the west of Edinburgh, where the Welcoming centre runs a terrific programme of events bringing together local communities with refugees and asylum seekers – sharing ideas and learning together through art, film, music, discussion and food. The cinema club starts again next week with an exciting list of films (and new comfy chairs). But that is not the only good news…
Continue reading “Welcoming news. The cinema club starts again”
We missed the unveiling of the Burns Banner at the start of the Fringe but couldn’t resist going down to Market Street this week to try to spot the letters painted by Leith groups. See if you can pick out Ola Kasprzak’s contribution to the giant mural.
Continue reading “Writing on the wall”Give me an ‘n’, give me a ‘y’, give me another ‘n’… Ok, this is going to take too long. Add up all the letters produced by community groups all round Scotland and it spells two verses of the Burns poem A Man’s a Man for A’ That which will be unfurled as a banner during Edinburgh International Festival at 11 am on 6 August. And at least two of the letters were created by the Leith group Swietlica.
Ola Kasprzak at the Swietlica art workshop
Continue reading “Many hands make the Burns Banner”
Warming up: Zawadi with choir leader Rachel Milne at their first public performance in April
Great to hear the Zawadi Women’s Choir is going from strength to strength. Since their first appearance in April this year they have been collecting a growing list of requests (and some new members). If you didn’t hear them in the Festival preview on Leith FM you can see and hear them in person at the Mela on Saturday 8 August in the Garden Stage from 5-5.30pm.
Continue reading “Singing out loud at the Mela”
Home is a controversial word for Iyad Hayatleh, a Palestinian poet who was born in a Syrian refugee camp. “The most controversial word of my life,” he told us. He has never been to Palestine but to mark Refugee Week, Iyad read poems about home in Arabic and English as we gathered round a dead tree in Edinburgh’s Poetry Garden.
Continue reading “A passion for poetry”
The ‘poetry tree’ in St Andrew Square Garden
Home is a dead tree in the garden. Well, not quite so dead now that it is fluttering with poems about home to mark Refugee Week in Edinburgh.
Continue reading “Home thoughts: poetry for Refugee Week”It is not easy for world musicians to enter Britain. So Scotland is lucky to be hearing the remarkable music of the Sufi band that survived the Taliban – and overcame obstacles to getting a visa. And we are luckier still to get the chance to hear them on our own doorstep. Thanks to Swietlica, the Ahmad Sham Sufi Qawali Group will take a detour to play at Fort Community Centre on Monday 25 May at 6.30 pm. It’s free but money raised from home-baking and books will go to help victims of war in Afghanistan.
Continue reading “Music without frontiers”
Zawadi Women’s Choir rehearsing for their first public appearance- membership of the choir is open to women from different ethnic backgrounds.
At one end of the hall they are preparing a banquet. At the other end the choir is warming up for their first public performance. Rachel Milne quickly gets rid of any nerves by making them laugh, “That sounds very nice,” says the musical director firmly asking them to start again with a bit more oomph, “You sound like nice Scottish ladies. Now try again.”
Continue reading “Women in harmony”