Come Dine in Blue

'Come Dine in Blue'  at hARTslane Gallery in New Cross (next to Sainsburys) is a participatory art project created and produced by Tisna Westerhof & Cristiana Bottigella. As part of the Lewisham Borough of Culture, more than 100 participants of all ages, from 8 different Lewisham based community groups took part in 'a year-long art programme aiming to investigate and bring to light the diversity of cultural heritage in Lewisham, giving voice to five different communities of people who left their country to find new homes in the UK: the Asian and the Latin-American communities of New Cross; first and third generation African and Afro-Caribbean Lewisham residents and Middle Eastern refugees'.

The outcome is a 'Blue and White dining room installation telling stories of identity and belonging' centred around a dining room table with ceramics as well as tea towels and other works. It really is very moving with objects embodying people's memories and journeys.

'No one can take away the dances you've already had'

The exhibition continues until 6 October 2022. If you miss it try and get hold of the excellent book that accompanies it.

Telegraph Hill Welcomes Refugees

Telegraph Hill Welcomes Refugees is making plans to support a refugee family locally - can you help?

 

Celebrating Sanctuary at the Horniman Museum

The Horniman Museum has won the 2022 Art Fund 'Museum of the Year' award and it is certainly one of the great treasures of South London (and indeed all of London).

Last month (25 June 2022) it hosted the 'Celebrating Sanctuary' Lewisham Refugee Week Festival. The festival marked 'Lewisham's status as the UK's first borough of sanctuary' and celebrated 'the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary'.

There was art from 'Create without Borders' and writing from ekō magazine, orginally founded by Goldsmiths students and publishing in English, Farsi and Arabic.

And in the gardens there was music and dance from the Flotsam Orchestra. This remarkable outernational band has grown out of the regular Flotsam Sessions at Catford Mews where people from different parts of the world come together to share and perform songs.

Anti-Refugee Bill opposed at Brockley Cross

Billboard poster at Brockley Cross denounces the Government's plain evil plans to deport refugees to offshore detention camps. Press reports today suggest refugees arriving in the UK could be flown to Rwanda.

 

Mourning the Channel Dead on the Thames by Deptford Creek

Cycling by the Thames yesterday we came across this impromptu memorial by Deptford Creek to the 27 people who died attempting to cross the Channel from France to England on 24 November 2021.

'It is a disgrace that we cared so little that we let you drown.
Let's hope our children have more humanity'

Imagine if it had been 27 English people drowned, say a group of people helping out with a cross-channel swim. Would people have more or less stopped talking about it a week later, would their names have been forgotten? If they had called for help, as seems to have happened here, would the authorities have quibbled about whether they were in English or French waters and left them to drown, or would they have mobilised every resource available to save them?

Thinking here of Judith Butler's question of' 'whose lives are considered valuable, whose lives are mourned, and whose lives are considered ungrievable...  An ungrievable life is one that cannot be mourned because it has never lived, that is, it has never counted as a life at all' (Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?, 2009).  Of course these lives are grieved by friends and families, but to many others they are merely migrants whose life or death is a matter of indifference. People attempting to block lifeboats, as happened recently in Hastings,  are basically saying that they would rather people drown than be rescued.   

So well done to the anonymous mourners of Deptford Creek, and let us not forget these names and faces-

Twana Mamand Muhammed

Khazal Ahmed, right, with her son Mubin Rezgar, older daughter Hadia Rezgar and younger daughter Hasti Rezgar

Maryam Nuri Muhamadamin

Harem Pirot

Donate to RNLI (lifeboats)

Support Channel Rescue (monitoring and support): 'We will not sit back and allow the English Channel to become a mass graveyard, like the waters of the Mediterranean'

Little Amal comes to Deptford

At least a couple of thousand people turned out last Friday (22/10/2021) to greet 'Little Amal' to Deptford: a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a young refugee girl that has been travelling  8000 km across Europe from the Turkish-Syrian border. Created by the Handspring Puppet Company (famous for The War Horse among other projects), the puppet is the centrepiece of The Walk ' a travelling festival of art and hope in support of refugees'. Deptford was the first stop in London.

The procession made its way down Deptford High Street to Giffin Square, where there was something of a festival arranged by Lewisham as part of its 'Borough of Sanctuary' role. There was a big wheel, various art happenings, and stalls from local community groups such as Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network and the Migration Museum (based in Lewisham shopping centre).

'Migration is not a crime' says Paddington Bear, picked up this bag from Migration Museum stall on the day. 'Disco Against Fascism' badge from 'We Do Good Disco', whose giant 'campotastic' disco washing machine was set up outside the Albany during Amal's visit.

The celebratory atmosphere was in stark contrast to the political mood music last week with the Government continuing with its harsh anti-refugee bill. The hostile environment was highlighted on Saturday (23/10/2021) at Lewisham Hospital where Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network along with hospital campaigners protested against the Government's punitive charges for migrants using the NHS.

Photo from LRMN

'your discovery was my land, my discovery is your borders'

'Freedom of Movement II' is a poster-based work by Glasgow-based Iranian artist Iman Tajik, recently displayed in the window of the new building on the corner of Borough High Street and Marshalsea Road SE1. Referencing the 1951 UN convention on refugees it proclaims 'your discovery was my land, my discovery is your borders'.  According to the artist the work explores the ‘right to travel as a human rights concept, encompassing the right of individuals to travel from place to place within the territory of a country, and to leave the country and return to it’. The bird featured, an avocet, knows no borders as it migrates between Europe, Africa and Asia.

I wonder whether the artist was aware that this building at 180 Borough High Street - which now houses Fora workspace - occupies what was until recently the site of the Overseas Visitors Records Office where 'foreign nationals' registered with the police, and that in a building on the site before that Marcus Garvey once rented a room.

The work featured in the Better Bankside 'From the other side' of exhibition displayed in local windows during October 2019.

Lewisham Refugee & Migrant Network Fundraiser

A fundraiser for Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network takes place this Saturday 19 November at The Ivy House, Stuart Road SE15. The family friendly event from 1 to 5 pm includes music from the LRMN women's choir, South London Songsters and others as well as a cake sale and raffle prizes. Further details on facebook.

Refugees Welcome Here meeting in New Cross

Tonight (Tuesday 1^st March, 7 pm), Stand up to Racism South East London is holding a 'Refugees Welcome Here' public meeting in Room 137a, main building (RHB), Goldsmiths University, New Cross, SE14 6NW

Speakers include:

Imam Shakeel Begg - Lewisham Islamic Centre

Vicky Foxcroft, MP - Labour, Lewisham Deptford

Shakira Martin - NUS Further Education Vice President

Denis Fernando - Stand up to Racism (Chair)

Maya Goodfellow - Journalist, Independent & LabourList

Laurie Heselden - Southern and Eastern Regional TUC

Jenny Leow - Student health worker, NHS Bursaries campaign

Marcia Rigg - Sean Rigg Justice and Change Campaign & co-chair United Family & Friends

Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild - Tzelem (Rabbinic Voice for Social and Economic Justice)

(further details on facebook)

The meeting takes place in the lead up the 'Refugees Welcome' national demonstration in London on 19 March: