C Words Weekend on race, climate and resource justice

bristol | the environment | event notice Wednesday November 04, 2009 15:47 by jane Trowell - PLATFORM - C Words

5 FREE events: writing workshops, performances and discussion

Sat 7th and Sun 8th Nov: Immerse yourself in issues around race, climate and justice with African Writers Abroad, Virtual Migrants, and Remember Saro-Wiwa; 2 writing workshops, two performances, and discussion on race, climate and resource justice.

SATURDAY 7th NOVEMBER - 4 events!
KILLING TINA, EMBRACING TABOO, Creative Writing Workshop
Led by writer, performance-poet & activist Simon M Murray, African Writers Abroad.
We were told “There Is No Alternative” (T.I.N.A.). C Words helps prove that “There Are Billions Of Options” (T.A.B.O.O.)... Come and explore some of these and the power of your own creative voice to write back at the madness that surrounds us. Participants will get the opportunity to read their writing at this evening's event, No Condition is Permanent.
Age: 16+, 10.30 – 1.30pm, Meeting Room
Admission Free, booking recommended

FULL CIRCLE, Poetry workshop
Led by poet and performer Dorothea Smartt, African Writers Abroad
Using visual images and other eco-poems as inspiration, together with a mix of writing exercises, and group discussion we’ll develop and draft poems exploring the power of poetry to give voice to our environmental destruction and efforts towards ecological balance. “Poetry is a political action undertaken for the sake of information, the faith, the exorcism, and the lyrical invention, that telling the truth makes possible.” June Jordan’s Poetry For The People Participants will get the opportunity to read their writing at the evening event, No Condition is Permanent.
Age: 16+, 2.30 - 5.30pm, Meeting Room
Admission Free, booking recommended

Virtual Migrants presents
"PASSENGER 6: Third Resistance" - Multimedia Performance & Discussion
Artists, guests and participants - live and recorded - discuss the struggles of indigenous peoples and imperialist backgrounds to climate change interacting with sampled documentary, interviews, live music and video.
Special Live Guests: Reynaldo Mariqueo from Mapuche International Link who will discuss the Mapuche People's struggle (Chile and Argentina), and Ina Hume founder of Vanishing Rites who will discuss the Jumma people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh.
Presented by artists/activists Kooj Chuhan, Aidan Jolly, Tracey Zengeni and Graeme Evelyn, in association with Bristol's Pierian Centre. The event will also launch a set of video interviews from the Pierian's recent Conference on the Declaration of Rights for Indigenous People which will be integrated into this event and the installation.
This will add to the evolving new material continually added in response to contributions and global events that take place.
www.virtualmigrants.com/centrecannothold/
2 - 4pm, Admission Free

African Writers Abroad and Remember Saro-Wiwa: Poetry- performance night
NO CONDITION IS PERMANENT
Poetry and performance with Dorothea Smartt, Simon Murray, Zena Edwards, Bristol poets Edson Burton and Ros Martin, and participants in the day's creative writing workshops. Hosted by PLATFORM’s remember saro-wiwa project.
For over 40 years the multinational oil giant Shell has been flaring gas in Nigeria. This ‘poison fire’ releases toxins and carbon dioxide on a vast scale, devastating the environment and the global climate. But no condition is permanent. Join five leading performance poets and young writers, on intimate journeys that take you from the frontlines of climate injustice to radical hopes for a sustainable future. This event marks the 14th anniversary since the writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by Nigerian government for his campaign against the impact of oil companies, in particular Shell, on the environment in the oil-rich Niger Delta. www.remembersarowiwa.com
6.30 - 8.30pm, Gallery 3
Admission Free, Booking recommended

SUNDAY 8th NOVEMBER
Remember Saro-Wiwa
WHAT'S THE FUTURE OF THE NIGER DELTA?
Join a panel discussion with presentations from artist SOKARI DOUGLAS-CAMP CBE, Nigerian campaigner ALICE UKOKU, STAKEHOLDER DEMOCRACY NETWORK and REMEMBER SARO-WIWA. As C Words highlights our uncomfortable dependence on Nigerian oil, we ask what are the most pressing issues affecting Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta today? How can we respond, as artists and activists to the ongoing environmental devastation and injustice, corporate power and conflict. Where is the struggle for justice led by Ken Saro-Wiwa today, and what is the future ahead?
2 - 5pm, Admission Free