Affiliate Artist collaborations in 2020
January 2020
On 11 January, we launched a monthly series of live podcast recordings by Ken Gordon from Refugee Voices Scotland podcast, recorded in Refuweegee Headquarters in Glasgow. This interview was with Ngqabutho Mpofu, DJ and Chair of Ignite Theatre. Listen to the episode here.
February 2020
Another live podcast recording by Ken Gordon on Wednesday 19 February, this time interviewing Olivia Ndoti, Community Activist and student at the University of Glasgow. Listen to the episode here. Sadly this series stopped when the pandemic hit. We are hoping to be able to resurrect these live recordings when the world returns to normal.
May 2020
We held a small closed gathering for contributors of the Spring School: The Arts of Integrating, to try and support each other through the unfolding pandemic. Some familiar faces:
RSE with I.D. Campbell (artist) | Dr Alaa Nabeel Hamdon(University of Mosul) | Deborah Kayembe (human rightslawyer) | Prof Alison Phipps (University of Glasgow) |Mohammad Zaher Al Bouker (University of Aberdeen) - AtRisk Academic Refugees: a portrait
Effie Samara (Red Woman Theatre & University of Glasgow) - Taxi Driver: the exile after Levinas
Ken Gordon (Refugee Voices Scotland) - Catching our breath:making refugee podcasts
Robert McNeil (Remembering Srebrenica UK) - Art as therapy
June 2020
We launched our virtual RILA Ride, formerly called the Refugee Cycle. The ride was available for a full year. Participating Affilate Artists were: Clare Robertson with her song "Mandela", which you can now listen to on our podcast channel, episode 8, and Naa Densua Tordzro, with a video on how to tie a Ghanaian headscarf.
October 2020
Rich programme of events for this year's Black History Month, including a workshop by Naa Densua Tordzro and Chandra Brooks on 21 October. They hosted a fun discussion and shared stories on textiles and quilting, teaching participants about fabrics, patterns, migration, connections and the importance to Africans through migration in the global south, and its significance to Black American and Africans in the Diaspora in the global north.
On 26 October, I.D. Campbell featured in a discussion with the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) about his portraits of At-Risk Academic Refugees, now on display in the RSE headquarters. More information about that event can be found here.
November 2020
On 17 November we welcomed Naa Densua Tordzro onto the UNESCO RILA Sofa for a discussion on women in peacemaking, craft and cooking. The discussion was led by Alison Phipps and Naa Densua was joined on the panel by Deborah May (Küche), Giovanna Fassetta (University of Glasgow), representatives from NAWA for Culture and Arts Association and Nazmi Al-Masri (Islamic University of Gaza).
