Scenes from 68* Years is an amazing new script by Hannah Khalil about the lives of Palestinians in the shadow of occupation. The world premiere will be at the Arcola Theatre next year, as long as funds are raised…! If you can help, however small (or large) the amount, please do!
Here’s the link:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/scenes-from-68-years#home
Rich Mix, which made possible our East community storytelling project, is under threat of closure by London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Your help is needed to tell Tower Hamlets just how important this venue is to the local community, audiences and artists alike.
For more information and to sign the petition, click here: http://chn.ge/1F0tOQU
The Daedalus Radical Performance Reading Group is back. We’re meeting tomorrow to discuss Naomi Klein’s remarkable and timely hatchet job on the notion that capitalism can save us from climate change. (That’s a personal opinion, obviously. Cos if we all agreed, there’d be no point in having a reading group.)
If you’d like to be kept up-to-date on the group, drop us a line. We have a separate email group, rather than send info on every meeting to everyone on the mailing list.
As part of the research for the Daedalus/Black Smock Band Radical History Project (yeah, still a working title), a few of us visited the Disobedient Objects exhibition at the V&A. It was fascinating and inspiring. And a bit overwhelming – a lot of very emotive stuff in one room. Well worth seeing before it closes. Last day is 1st Feb. And it’s free.
Here’s a wonderful trade union banner from the exhibition; a nice update on tradition. Can we have one of those for our project please? (That’s not a joke. I’m actually currently trying to work out how to cost having one made for the band.)
The Black Smock Band, with whom we regularly collaborate, and in which our artistic director Paul plays fiddle, will be playing at the Old Red Lion in Kennington this evening. It’s free, and starts somewhere around 8pm, with the band on at 9ish. Or thereabouts.
There’s a Facebook event here, or you can look at the list of upcoming events on the band’s website.
In the afternoon before last week’s public performance, we shared East with Year 6 of Stebon Primary. It was a very interactive session and it was great to hear the children’s thoughts and opinions, as well as have a good old singalong and share some stories. Thank you, Stebon!
Photo credit: Eeshita Azad
Various people involved in A Season of Bangla Drama were on ATN Bangla TV channel last night, to be interviewed about their shows. Sef and Paul were there to talk about East. And on Wednesday evening, Shamim and Paul will be on Betar Bangla radio. Massive thanks to the A Season of Bangla Drama team for giving us these opportunities.
For more info about East, including how to book tickets, please see our project page.
One of the great privileges of being part of A Season of Bangla Drama is meeting the other people involved. There’s an amazing community of performance-makers here in Tower Hamlets, and this festival really illustrates how Bangladeshi culture in the borough can become a catalyst for something truly diverse and cross-cultural. Our project is a perfect example: a collaboration between Daedalus and Bisho Shahitto Kendro.
Here are some photos (credit: Ziaur Rahman Saklen) of members of our East storytelling group with other participants at the SOBD sharing event last weekend.
You can see us perform at Queen Mary, University of London, on 7th November, 7:30pm. More details are here or you can just go ahead and book tickets online here.
The latest reading group meeting took place last week. Get in touch for the details of the next one.
In the meantime, as a follow-up to that, here’s the speech in which Subcommandante Insurgente Marcos announced the end of his existence, and, to whet your whistle, a rather good quotation from it:
It is our conviction and our practice that in order to rebel and to struggle, neither leaders nor bosses nor messiahs nor saviors are necessary. To struggle, one only needs a sense of shame, a bit of dignity, and a lot of organization.
We’re very excited to be part of this. Details to follow, but in the meantime, here’s the festival trailer: