Celebrating Sanctuary
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I went along to the Yardbird, Birmingham to DJ in between bands from all across the globe; celebrating in style the end of Refugee week. It was a wonderful opportunity for the breadth of talent residing (unfortunately in exile) in the second city to share music. There was Kurdish and Albanian folk, Afro fusion an Iranian Tar player and some local youth playing jazz and funk grooves. I was particularly struck by the talent of percussionist Steve Yimga. He was wicked! Such energy, rhythmical prowess and commanding stage presence!!! As my buddy Tone rightly pointed out, it was fascinating to be in a venue and witness grown men hold hands, dance, jump around and smile at one another. If folk music hadn’t disappeared from mainstream music culture, I wonder whether English men would be willing to dance together? Morris dancing anyone? |
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How the Fr*&g is it February Already?
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Thanks for the write-up. It really was a special night. A very big thanks should go to Sid Peacock for organising the music side and bringing everyone together in his inimitable and understated way. If you want to see more grown men (and women and children) holding hands, dancing and generally sharing the love, come along to the Celebrating Sanctuary Festival which will launch National Refugee Week 2009 next year in Victoria Square (probably on Saturday 13th June – keep an eye on celebrating-sanctuary.org.uk for details). We’re also considering organising a follow-up evening event in about 6 months’ time – would be nice to know whether people would be interested in coming to this. For more pictures of the Yardbird event go to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=17942378340 and for pics of CS on Victoria Square look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2008/06/16/celebrating_sanctuary_2008_gallery.shtml