race

9.40am at the Stephen Lawrence Centre and all is quiet, waiting for participants to arrive and the final day's work to begin.  Read more

My name is Ed, and I teach about politics, religion and philosophy, and one of the other things I do is volunteer at PLATFORM. For Most of the past few weeks I've been enjoying the privilege of summer holidays, but this week I'm participating in an experiment. It's a course for young people called SHAKE!.  Read more

Monday 16th sees 14 participants aged between 16 and 25 meet with artists DJ Eric Soul, poets Zena Edwards and Simon Murray from African Writers Abroad, and Ana Tovey from Chocolate Films at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford, for SHAKE! Ben Amunwa, Jane Trowell and Ed Lewis from PLATFORM are coordinating...
http://remembersarowiwa.com/events-2/

This week-long course is a central part of our year-long residency with SLC called "Shaping the Future". http://remembersarowiwa.com/shaping-the-future-global-art-project-launch...  Read more

Dorothea Smartt (African Writers Abroad) joined the C Words closing Party and Benefit for the Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaigners live via Skype. She performed her specially commisioned poem, A Sense of Denial, together with several other poems written specifically to the C Words season and inspired by the issues raised.

A Sense of Denial

Denial looks black, panelled, silver-edged
and gleaming. Car-washed in water
enough to quench a dying village’s thirst,  Read more

Two poets from African Writers Abroad were commssioned to respond to the C Words season. To craft the poem below, Simon Murray (Sai MuRai) borrows the title of Dorothea Smartt's poetry workshop "Full Circle" and draws upon some of the many words, phrases and themes that arose throughout the C Words season. The poem was performed live at the closing Party and Benefit for the Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaigners on the 28th November.

*warning* contains language that some may find offensive

FULL CIRCLE

(for Jane Trowell, Dorothea Smartt & the C Words Family)

proposition I

enough words!  Read more

Dorothea Smartt, one of the commissioned poets from African Writers Abroad, today releases a beautiful, inspiring poem created out of the 7th November creative writing workshop: Killing T.I.N.A, Embracing T.A.B.O.O (see below).

The ink is still wet but Dorothea's willingness to share this piece is testament to the amazing Creativity, Connections & Co-creations that are springing up with the C Words project.  Read more

To capture the essence of C Words, African Writers Abroad have released a constant stream of poetry online and offline, on physical and virtual walls. A leaflet will also soon be made available in the Arnolfini for visitors to take away which features this poetry together with newly commissioned work, contributions from participants on the creative writing workshops, and from local Bristol writers and poets.

The first poem to be released in the season is below.  Read more

C Words seeks to avert a future where climate refugees clamour in vain at sealed borders.  Read more

TOTALLY EPIC DAY yesterday with African Writers Abroad, Virtual Migrants, and Remember Saro-Wiwa events. I was completely inspired by the energy flowing around all day - from the workshops in the Meeting Room to performances in Galleries 3 and 4. The place was buzzing. I had been having conniptions earlier in the week about getting audiences for the workshops and performances, BUT we had really good turnout, great vibe, and fantastic discussion. Good laugh til late on boat afterwards. Never has the Heloise Bay had so many poets on it at once.  Read more

On Sunday afternoon, Virtual Migrants presented a performance and talk: The Centre Cannot Hold, Part 1. The performance examined the social inequalities around the issue of climate change. The following discussion looked at why those most effected are largely not the industrialised economies causing it; the connections between environmental crises and migration; and local Bristol history that connects to these wider issues.  Read more