Tag: World Refugee Day

Leith event to celebrate New Scots as part of Refugee Festival Scotland

A special multicultural event celebrating the contributions of New Scots to Scotland’s cultural life, is set to take place in Edinburgh this weekend as part of Refugee Festival Scotland.

The New Scots Extravaganza, organised by Hibernian Community Foundation, will bring together performers from Scottish, Ukrainian, Crimean Tatar, African, Afghan and Indian communities through music, dance and storytelling. 

Taking place on World Refugee Day, this Saturday 20 June, at Edinburgh’s Norton Park, the performances will celebrate community, art and culture, championing the diverse cultures that contribute to life in Scotland and exploring themes of roots,  memory, displacement, resilience and belonging.

Combining authentic cultural expression with moments of artistic collaboration, the event highlights how diverse traditions continue to live, evolve and enrich the cultural life of Edinburgh.

The New Scots Extravaganza aims to create a space where communities are seen, heard and valued, and where Scotland is celebrated as a place shaped by many voices, stories and cultures.

Organiser Vitaliia Melnyk said: “For me, this event is important because it creates a space where people from different backgrounds can be seen, heard and valued. It is an opportunity to celebrate cultural diversity, and recognise the experiences, contributions and stories of people who have made Scotland their new home.

“As a Ukrainian living in Scotland, I have seen how culture can create connection, even when people come from very different places. New Scots Extravaganza is about building those connections and showing that Scotland is enriched by the people who have arrived here and become part of its communities.”

This year’s Refugee Festival Scotland sees hundreds of events staged across Scotland, all designed to put solidarity centre stage and bring people together in celebration of art, culture and community.

Run by Scottish Refugee Council, the annual festival showcases the music, dance, food, art, film, language and ideas that enrich communities.

Refugee Festival Scotland Manager, Mónica Laiseca said: “Refugee Festival Scotland is a festival for everyone. This year’s programme brings together artists, communities and audiences from across the country to share culture and time together in meaningful ways, with each event, artist and participant bringing their own perspective to the programme.

“We’re proud to showcase the creativity, resilience and hope that refugees bring to Scotland, and highlight the richness of culture that flourishes when everyone feels they belong. In a time when calls for unity and compassion are more important than ever, this festival is a reminder of what we can achieve together.”

New Scots Extravaganza takes place at Norton Park, Edinburgh at 2pm, Saturday 20 June and is free to attend.

Visit refugeefestivalscotland.co.uk.

A Poem for World Refugee Day

To mark World Refugee Day and celebrate Refugee Week in the UK, Good Chance and The World From My Window have embarked on a global collaboration to bring together voices of reflection and hope from 28 countries: from Mexico to New Zealand via Sudan and Iran.
Internationally-renowned poet and playwright Inua Ellams has drawn together lines of poetry from around the world and weaved them into this new global democratic artwork. He unites views from windows across the globe into one huge vista that stands as a living monument to the stories around us.
Driven by the desire to imagine what the world could look like and to find hope in this strange new time, people from our global Window Words workshop, from The World From My Window community and our Good Chance Artists have united to share their words with us all.
The poem itself is a first of its kind – a collaborative, global account and piece of art that reflects on lockdown. It is the result of a variety of different workshops and collaborations that have taken place during this week’s Refugee Week.
Some of the contributors themselves have had experience of living as a refugee with the submissions to project coming from the following countries:
Afghanistan, Algeria, America, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, England, Ethiopia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Scotland, Solomon Islands, Sudan, Syria, Tokyo, Turkey, Uganda, Wales and Zimbabwe.
Ellams says: “I’ve been working with Good Chance and The World From My Window during Refugee Week to create this collective poem of voices from 27 countries around the world – and from what everyone has shared from around the world, it’s become a poem of the strangeness of these times, of separation, of connection, and ultimately of hope. I hope you enjoy it …”

A DECISION FILLED WITH COLOUR

They say after a supernova

the explosion sucks everything around it, even the light.

The world is now an unknown space.

I look for the frame of my window.

Outside, dawn drips through the valleys.

Clouds stumble like churning stomachs.

The best time to look

is when I can see without noise, distractions,

when the pieces fall into place

and the mess can fade into background.

The pouring rain draws me to the window.

It shines like the full moon.

Long trapped behind their blinds,

neighbours pace the pavement‚ no man’s land.

Driveways once empty, hold cars

that haven’t moved for months.

The glass, a transparent shield,

muffles the war-cry chatter of these passers-by.

I open it, the city breathes out an immense sigh

and I let torrential rain fill the river of myself.

I climb out to set sail, to dream, but find

a dropped rubber band one metre from my door

and fall into the hollow dawn.

Silence prevails throughout the neighbourhood.

Last month, a street vendor was arrested for going out.

Last month, a man in power got away with going out.

We humans with our lawnmowers, our rage,

our online monsoons, so desperate to feel full

have caused Mother Earth to sob, she has filled this land.

Now four women stand, their backs hunched,

nervously looking at me.

Pollen floats, as if trying to run away.

Squirrels manically scoff packaged peanuts

like teenagers of creation.

Charcoal trains pollute the air. Thunders crash like angry bulls.

The path is broken, but I shuffle through the storm

like an old hermit, the storm now inside me, breaking

over fields wide and private like my thoughts.

I fight back tears in front of strangers.

I miss hiking through mountain ranges,

sitting on marvelous sand dunes,

the dust on my face, my skin a sea of fire.

When will I be among them again?

Will waves still sound the same?

Are our lives like scaffolding empty of homes?

Who else’s love is drowned in red?

I listen to the birds calling.

Open up, they say. It’s me, they say.

The sky is a decision filled with color, they say.

A chiffchaff will trill through the triumphant sky, they say.

Pinks and oranges will claim the evenings, they say.

Life’s dangers won’t last forever, they say.

They send me a ray of hope,

my words like scaffolding to climb.

I will wait for stars to look through my window,

for the fresh morning glow,

for twigs from the unswept road light enough to be carried by the wind.

I will wait for my twinkling fingers

growing unnoticed like trees.

I will sit and enjoy the best of what nature brings,

for what magic it will return.