You are warmly welcomed to the Writing East Midlands and Derby City of Sanctuary “Sanctuary Readings” event on Tuesday 20th December 2016 11.30 – 1.30pm at the Voice Box, Forman Street, Derby DE1 1JQ when some participants of the Creative Writing Project which ran weekly for sanctuary seekers at the Derby Refugee Advice Centre since October will share some of their writing with us. A celebration of sanctuary and creativity with light refreshments. The event is free. Please come along and support our writers.
“Twice Upon a Time” January 16th 2017 at Quad – a documentary from Syria about a rare friendship built on one of the toughest human struggles: war – made to support child refugees throughout the world. More details from Quad later.
Holocaust Memorial Day January 26th 2017 – events in Derby on Thursday and during that week will be up on their website in the new year https://holocaustmemorialdayderby.org . This includes a concert at the Multifaith Centre with proceeds going to the Derby Refugee Advice Centre
“The Transports / Parallel Lives” – A Tale of Exile and Migration in Story and Song at Guildhall Theatre Sunday 29th January 2017. Tickets available from Derby Live and on line here: Dates & Tickets . Join some of Britain’s leading folk musicians for a timely re-telling of Peter Bellamy’s legendary folk ballads The Transports. Here is a rare chance to see BBC Award Winners The Young’uns, Faustus, Nancy Kerr and members of Bellowhead together on stage. This new production combines The Transports’ incredible music with spell-binding story-telling. At a time when migration makes headlines daily, this tale of past migration shows how little has changed in the global movement of desperate people. The accompanying project Parallel Lives charts – town by town – those who once left Britain with those who have recently arrived. City of Sanctuary Derby and Voices ambassadors Derby are involved in the project. The Transports tells the incredible tale of a family destroyed by poverty and crime, but resurrected by exile to the new colony of Australia. With fresh script and musical arrangement, this famous show re-emerges within a modern context of mass migration.
“Night Light” Derby Studio Theatre Friday 10th February 2017 . Tickets from Derby Theatre or on line here. Somewhere in England two teenagers seeking asylum, fearing deportation, hide out in an abandoned factory. In the midst of sharing food and stories, they hear someone else arrive. Terrified, they creep toward the door where they find a familiar figure. The three of them talk through the night about home, belonging and the system… but the children remain wary: at any point he can reveal their hiding place, turn them over to the authorities and send them back o their countries and to danger. Followed by a Free Post-Show Talk – what happens to unaccompanied children in the UK when they become 18? On the Derby panel : Imti Choonera, Amnesty International Derby and Professor of Child health; Hevi Salih, law student Derby University, Voices ambassador and City of Sanctuary Derby; Mark Dunn, British Red Cross Support Derby; Colleen Molloy, City of Sanctuary National Coordinator; and Alison Birch, Founder and Manager of After 18, Leicester.