Refugee Week's Rousing Finale

bristol | miscellaneous | event notice Thursday June 19, 2008 15:34 by Nick Thomas - The Pierian Centre info at pieriancentre dot com The Pierian Centre, 27 Portland Square, St Pauls, Bristol BS2 8SA 0117 924 4512

4 different events at the Pierian Centre to round off Refugee Week!

Bristol’s Refugee Week comes to a rousing finale on Sunday with 4 different events at the Pierian Centre. From 11am to 9pm there are book signings, Indian vocals, a Tibetan Puja ceremony and an evening of Playback Theatre from Breathing Fire. Each of these events shines a very different light on the issue of asylum and refugees.

Monica Connell's photo of Cecilia Ndhlovu

The morning kicks off at 11am with Gathering Voices, a young people’s singing workshop organised by arts charity View to Learning. The workshop is run by Dr Joel, an Indian musician who specializes in the extraordinary vocal percussion technique of “konnakol”. Konnakol is a South Indian language of rhythm which enables anyone, of any age, and from any musical background, to enjoy and master Rhythm. Venue Magazine thought that Dr Joel “has all the makings of a cult star!” At the same time grown-ups can relax with an informal Books & Buns Morning. From 11am you can enjoy coffee and croissants, and chat to authors of books on the Refugee theme. Elisabeth Winkler will be there with “Eventful Journeys”, her book about refugees from the former Czechoslovakia who survived the Holocaust. Also present to chat and sign copies will be Monica Connell, whose book “A Universal Passion” was launched at the Pierian Centre earlier this week. Her work documents world musicians who’ve made the South West their home – and her photographs hang in the Celebrating Sanctuary exhibition.

Lunch will be available in the Old Kitchen, but at 2pm all thoughts turn to the adjacent Well Room. That’s where all week Jamyang Ketup has been creating a traditional Sand Mandala. Jamyang is a Tibetan Buddhist monk who has come over from Nepal especially to perform this ritual for Refugee Week. The process is a painstaking and sacred one, combining deep meaning with great beauty – and culminates in a ritual destruction of the whole week’s work! This Puja Ceremony will be performed at 2pm. The completed Mandala is consecrated and then swept away! The sand is then carried in procession to the nearby River Frome into which it is poured to disperse its healing energies throughout the world.

The final event of Refugee Week is a grand get-together to review the week’s events, emotions, impressions and achievements. It’s run by Breathing Fire, a company of women of Afrikan/Caribbean descent who are experts in “playback theatre”. This glorious technique allows individual members of the audience to see their comments and contributions given instant theatrical life by a fizzing team of performers. Breathing Fire is an impressive team of black women committed to giving a voice and a shared life to the experiences of individuals and communities. June Burrough, Director of the Pierian Centre, was keen to book them for this closing event. “Breathing Fire are the ideal people for Sunday night,” she says. “The final event needs to bring together all the different strands of Refugee Week, the happy and the harrowing, the colourful and controversial – and Breathing Fire are experts at this. This year’s Refugee Week has reached out to a far wider audience than ever before. And Breathing Fire gets people sharing their experiences – they play them back in a gloriously theatrical way – and before you know it a group of disparate people has turned into a real community.”

Breathing Fire performs at 7.30pm on Sunday 22nd – and, like all the other events, the session is free and open to everyone. And if you come a little earlier you can catch the Celebrating Sanctuary art exhibition at the same time! The Pierian Centre is at 27 Portland Square, St Pauls, Bristol BS2 8SA. For bookings and further information ring 0117 924 4512 or info@pieriancentre.com. For details of the whole city’s Refugee Week events go to www.bristolrefugeeweek.co.uk. For details of events at the Pierian Centre go to www.celebratingsanctuary.co.uk.

Dr Joel and friend