A rainy day in Blackburn

The new woman from last week did not turn up for the session today, which was a real shame, as she had made a point of telling me how much she had enjoyed it all. She also came over to me in Blackburn centre this morning and said she was planning to come later on. So something else came up, maybe? Hopefully nothing too serious. Possibly the horrible weather.... Where did the Summer go????

This is just one of the aspects of Community Arts that can be so frustrating - you don't always get consistent groups. Also, when you are working with vulnerable groups, in whichever situation that might be, there are often a lot of factors completely outside your control. People's accommodation, appointments with solicitors / social workers / finance / family issues, etc, etc, etc, often mean (understandably) that your arts session is not the most important thing in people's lives. Although, they may well get alot from it when they are able to attend. So maybe she will come another week - I hope so.

The good news was that, despite her absence, I still had a good number (seven) which included two men who had never been before. We did a mix of activities today - some physical, competitive games as well. One which, I am pleased to say, we had done the previous week and was requested by one of the less confident women. She appears happy to do more active exercises and gets very shy and giggly when asked to speak. However, she has the ability, so it is just a confidence issue. We did some physical work then storytelling exercises today and later combined the two. With the storytelling, some of them were excellent at this (particularly the two men who were new today; so expressive and descriptive - it was really beautiful to listen at times) but the two women struggled initially. They became more able to contribute in a later exercise which used the same skill, so I think it is just a case of gently persisting and encouraging.

Anyway, despite one or two struggling, there was a lot of laughter today. We created some surreal stories - with elements of fairy tales and Alice in Wonderland at times (I ended up being a rabbit who ate a man's carrot cake!) so it was very entertaining, as well as encouraging their speaking and listening skills.

Tomorrow, I'll be working with children and young people from refugee / asylum seeker families, so we'll see how they respond.

A good day

The latest session at Wesley Hall was great. There was a new woman there who was really keen to participate and enjoy it all and this also had a positive effect on the less confident ones. We did a lot more active, energetic warm up exercises and then used various props to improvise different characters and situations. It was a smaller group, as the regular English class is not running for a few weeks. This was something that was a concern for me and I'd wondered whether to cancel my sessions during these weeks, but eventually decided to continue for anyone who wanted to come.

It was actually a very friendly, relaxed atmosphere and people seemed really willing to 'play'. We ended up doing small scenes in groups using the props and created a wedding scene and a family holiday. Both scenes involved a lot of humour. At the end, one participant asked if we could do a performance, which is something I have tentatively mentioned, but not wanted to push, so that reinforced the idea that their confidence is building. One man was concerned that people would not understand his English, but I reassured them that we can use a mix of verbal and visual work, as well as possibly incorporating different languages. We'll see what happens next session (tomorrow!)

The Exodus festival, run by Community Arts Northwest, is on Sunday (2nd August) in Manchester, so am hoping a few of them will go and we'll all get inspired together.....

Info on Exodus if you're interested - it's free and worth a visit:

Exodus Festival Sunday 2^nd August 2009 12-6pm

Urbis and Cathedral Gardens

Come and join us in this unique celebration of arts and culture brought to you by Greater Manchester’s diverse refugee communities.

Featuring traditional and contemporary sounds and dance from Zimbabwe, Somalia, the DR Congo, Eritrea, Uganda, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Pakistan, and other countries across the globe.

There will be interactive workshops, children’s activities, delicious food from around the globe, and an exciting array of world craft stalls.

Drop in time

The sessions have been going on at the Wesley Hall Tuesday Drop In (a service for Refugees and Asylum Seekers) for six weeks now and I'm getting a steady number of participants each week - between eight and eleven, which is a good number. I work in collaboration with the English Teacher, which gives me more potential for participants as well as support and gives him support as well, along with practical techniques for encouraging communication skills.

We do a mixture of warm up exercises and basic Drama skills, sometimes creating scenes, other times using different stimuli to start off conversation and encourage communication.

It's one of the nicest groups-adults are quite often surprised by what they can do when they have the opportunity-and although sometimes exercises take longer than they would do with a group who all shared one language, the fact that everyone is from a different cultural background adds interest. They learn from one another and are keen to help one another as well.

I am learning a lot from them, too.

Hello

This is my new blog. Welcome!

I am working for Action Factory as Community Arts Development Worker. My job is to develop projects with Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Blackburn with Darwen, as well as look at work that brings different community groups together; people from different backgrounds, beliefs, experiences.

I'm using this blog as a way of showing people how I'm getting along. It's going to be an honest look at the work and positives as well as any problems /frustrations.

I'll try and update it as regularly as I can.

I hope you'll find it interesting!