Voices of War and Peace: the Great War and its Legacy is a First World War Engagement Centre funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The University of Birmingham Centre is a joint initiative across the Midlands with Birmingham City University, University of Wolverhampton and University of Worcester, and further afield with Cardiff University, University of Durham, Manchester Metropolitan University and Newcastle University.
The Engagement Centre is based in the Library of Birmingham and supports a wide range of community engagement activities, connecting academic and public histories of the First World War as part of the commemoration of the War’s centenary.
Strike a Light – Arts & Heritage is delivering free families workshops in October and November 2018 in venues across Brighton and Hove to look at the theme of The Unremembered – commemorating the Labour Corps service personnel in World War I.
With support from creative facilitators, we’ll be creating articulated puppets on templates designed, created and compiled by children.
We will be using fabric scraps, wrapping paper and wall paper to create overlaid uniforms for these puppets and to bring them to life. A sample of the articulate puppets we’ll be making in our workshop, popular during World War One. We’ll be making simplified and much less militaristic versions of the image.
The puppet theme for this project is two-fold – An engaging and accessible way to teach young people and community groups who are unaware of this lost period of history about the Labour Corps, and also puppets as a symbol for the role of the Labour Corps in terms of having no control over their work or location, that they were moved around like mules and treated as such.
This will help to remember some of the soldiers who served with the Labour Corps and their link with Sussex and draw this forgotten history into the light.
We’re pleased to have been commissioned to become a hub in Brighton and Hove by the Big Ideas Company to develop activities with local community groups to explore the history of the Labour Corps – service personnel during World War I, and often forgotten in this part of history.
A new music theatre work commemorating in Brighton the contributions of ethnic minority soldiers during the First World War through music, theatre and puppetry.
Strike a Light has been part of the Trench Brothers project with HMDT Music and this great event is part of this on Wednesday 17th Oct at the Brighton Dome. There’s still tickets available here: https://brightondome.org/event/18306/trench_brothers/ Trench Brothers concert
Music: Julian Joseph and Richard Taylor
Libretto: Tertia Sefton-Green
Trench Brothers is a new music theatre work commemorating in Brighton the contributions of ethnic minority soldiers during the First World War through music, theatre and puppetry, bringing to life their hopes and fears, their longing for home, their camaraderie, courage and valour.
Directed by Clare Whistler and Freya Wynn-Jones to Neil Irish’s designs, it features over 250 children from local primary schools in Brighton, Newhaven, Lewes and Seaford alongside acclaimed jazz vocalist of the year and MOBO nominated Cleveland Watkiss and ‘superb’ (The Times) opera singer Damian Thantrey.
Renowned jazz composer Julian Joseph and award-winning composer Richard Taylor are joined by composers Michael Betteridge, Jenny Gould, Matthew King, James Redwood and Omar Shahryar in a unique collaboration drawing together work developed with schools across London, Lancashire and the South East since 2014.This powerful centenary event is made all the more poignant by its location in Brighton Dome, which served as an Indian Military Hospital during the war.
There will be a pre-performance talk about the creation of Trench Brothers with Julian Joseph, Richard Taylor and Tertia Sefton-Green. Tickets to the evening performance also give access to the pre-performance talk.
Hastings based festival of African and Caribbean heritage, arts and culture. AfriKàBa is an annual festival that showcases high quality work from artists with African and Caribbean heritage and engages audiences with unique and enriching experiences.
We’ve got funding to provide free activities that positively promote African Caribbean culture, crafts and food. These will take place on 29th September at Stade Hall, Hastings from 2 – 9pm. Get updates on the activities here!
At the Stade, Hastings –
Saturday September 29th 2pm – 5.30pm
African Caribbean family activities for the public, all ages and backgrounds.
Drumming and singing workshops
Storytelling for families
Demonstration and tasting of East African cooking at the flagship facility Classroom on the Coast.
Musa Mboob is at the Stade Open Space, Hastings – September 29th. FREE concert starting at 7pm.
Gambian master percussionist and lead vocalist Musa Mboob brings audiences an electrifying blend of Afro Manding fusion and tantalizing traditional West African rhythms stem from the deep roots of vibrant life and cultures of the smiling coast of Africa.
Blending and fusing the traditional instruments with modern electronic guitars to meet the demand of the 21st century diaspora, Musa has earned himself a reputation of a true entertainer and a master of the art through his creativity and innovative approach to the new style of West African Music. Come and share in the vibrant music from the smiling coast of Africa.
***************************************************** AfrikaBa cinema! All screenings at Electric Palace Cinema, Hastings Old Town – October 5th and 6th.
The story of Funk Queen with Q&A with the film’s director. 8pm £7/8
6th October:
Black Panther film screening – Noon (12pm). All tickets only £5! With a 12A rating this is for young people and the young at heart.
STASH a HKB FiNN film + performance by HKBFiNN + Q&A
Film Duration 1hr 48 mins
Event starts 7.30pm
HKB FiNN will do a live set followed by a screening of his new film Stash.
STASH is a film about a group of degenerates who live outside of society. The film centres on Stephanie having difficulties with love, life, her sanity & her safety. The film portrays the complexity of women in powerful positions, recognising that strength and power can also come wrapped in soft coating and vulnerability.
The performance will be with HKBFinn a spoken word artist with a difference. His work explores the connections between cultures. His music is a unique combination of Jazz, Hip Hop & World Music. FiNN blends this mixture with Poetry on a range of topics from love to spiritual upliftment creating a unique soundscape that is fresh and somehow familiar.
An engaging performer, HKB FiNN has collaborated with a number of musical luminaries including:- The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Nojazz, Roots Manuva, Soweto Kinch, Orphy Robinson, Nitin Sahwney, Kasse Mady Diabate, Tunde Jegede, The Royal Opera House, Robert Mitchell’s Panacea and many more. HKB FiNN is a cultural ambassador from the UK who has performed in over 25 countries. Background to our project
AfriKàBa started October 2010 in Hastings. It was conceptualised and delivered by Gwyneth Wint, supported by funding from Arts Council England, Hastings Borough Council and other strategic partners.
AfriKàBa works with schools, colleges, academies and libraries to give children and young people the opportunity to experience the rich diversity of Africa and learn of her universal legacy.
AfriKàBa also programs an exciting, annual program for Black History Month, a time to challenge clichéd ideas, re-contextualise history, and regain perspective on the rich and diverse continent that is Africa, showing her strengths and contributions seen in culture, creativity, in resources, minerals, scientific discovery and the legacy in her children across the world.
We’ve been lucky to receive funding from the Chalk Cliff Trust to deliver these activities and for this many thanks!
history, and regain perspective on the rich and diverse continent that is Africa, showing her strengths and contributions seen in culture, creativity, in resources, minerals, scientific discovery and the legacy in her children across the world.
We’ve been lucky to receive funding from the Chalk Cliff Trust to deliver these activities and for this many thanks!
The acclaimed ‘imaginative and inspiring’ Trench Brothers project commemorating the contributions and personal stories of ethnic minority soldiers in the First World War will culminate in Brighton and the South East this year.
Award winning charity HMDT Music is working with Strike a Light – Arts and Heritage, to explore the stories of the impact the Indian Army Military Hospitals in Brighton and the British West Indies Regiment training camp in Seaford, East Sussex had on local communities at the time. We will undertake visits to The Keep archives, The Chattri, Seaford Museum and Newhaven Fort as well as interview Sussex residents who may have links with this theme.
These findings will be captured and showcased as part of the interactive Trench Brothers Exhibition being shown at Newhaven Fort from 4th August 2018, which features a creative response to the research as part of a bigger event.
The final strand is an education project involving eight local schools using puppetry, composition, artefacts, costumed interpreters and cross-curricular learning, leading to them performing a newly commissioned music theatre work by composers Julian Joseph and Richard Taylor and librettist Tertia Sefton-Green alongside jazz and opera singers, musicians and puppeteers at Brighton Dome on 17th October.
Find out more about this fascinating yet complex period of history and the result of these epic global changes affecting a small corner of Sussex.
For more information about this project contact Project Coordinator: Nicola Benge: strikealight@rocketmail.com https://strikealight.org/projects/trench-brothers-wwi-project/
Strike a Light – Arts & Heritage CIC is a community arts and heritage organisation based in Brighton, working across Sussex.
A sample of the articulate puppets we’ll be making in our workshop, popular during World War One. We’ll be making simplified and much less militaristic versions of the image.
Trench Brothers
Hastings based festival of African and Caribbean heritage, arts and culture. AfriKàBa is an annual festival that showcases high quality work from artists with African and Caribbean heritage and engages audiences with unique and enriching experiences.
The acclaimed ‘imaginative and inspiring’ Trench Brothers project commemorating the contributions and personal stories of ethnic minority soldiers in the First World War will culminate in Brighton and the South East this year.
