Sheba Festival 2022
This is our fourth annual festival that happened across different venues and towns in Greater Manchester. We worked
with a range of community groups and artists from different backgrounds to bring a vibrant festival to your
doorstep. This year’s festival theme was “Migration and Climate Change” with different art forms, workshops and food
events.
Day 1: Festival Outdoor: Sheba & SAWN Climate March
About this event:
We worked with SAWN (Support & Action Women's Network) in Oldham to run a series of workshops with mothers and young children. The theme of the project was climate change and migration. Mothers and children met every Saturday at Baker Community Centre in Oldham to upcycle materials for costumes. This was an informative project for the young generation. Today’s society has a throwaway lifestyle and we need to teach our youth to re-use, recycle, upcycle, and stop the waste that is killing our planet. SAWN has already been involved in cultural activities and campaigns around climate change and they have participated in COP26 Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow, Scotland in 2021. The sharing event of this beautiful project was on 18th of June 2022, with music and dance by Dance Out Percussion, and refreshments.
|
|
|
Day 2: Manchester Central Library Take Over
On Wed 22 June, we had a day-event at Manchester Central Library in collaboration with Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre, Doosti Community Group and Status Now.
Flamenco Dance Workshop 13.00-15.00
Participatory workshop for women and non-binary only !
With roots in Indian, Arabic and Spanish culture, flamenco is one of the most popular art forms in Spain. This workshop offered the opportunity to learn more about this passionate dance and try some moves with flamenco teacher Christine Meadows and her guitarists. She has years of experience dancing and teaching flamenco, and she is the current flamenco teacher of Cervantes Institute in Manchester.
With roots in Indian, Arabic and Spanish culture, flamenco is one of the most popular art forms in Spain. This workshop offered the opportunity to learn more about this passionate dance and try some moves with flamenco teacher Christine Meadows and her guitarists. She has years of experience dancing and teaching flamenco, and she is the current flamenco teacher of Cervantes Institute in Manchester.
Guided Tour & Creative Workshop for Young People & Their Parents 15.30-17.00
This was a touring and creative event took place at Manchester Central Library. The tour was led by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre, audiences got a chance to visit AIU's digital exhibition on the Ground Floor which includes archive material from our Gardens of Babylon Collection; showcasing the cultural memories of Kurdish and Iranian people who live in Manchester. Then we went to the performance space for a creative workshop with Arian Sadr, the percussionist.
Day 3: SHEBA FILM NIGHT, Salford, Friday 24 June 6pm
Film screening + Q&A with filmmakers
"Home Soon Come", by Hope Strickland
"Reckoning", by Ashley Karrel
In collaboration with Doosti Community, Salford University and Mira Film Night, we selected three films by artists from migrant backgrounds living in the UK, which explored themes of migration and climate change. We invited two of these filmmakers to join us for a Q&A after the screening of the films, when the audience had the opportunity to talk to them and ask questions.
Film screening + Q&A with filmmakers
"Home Soon Come", by Hope Strickland
"Reckoning", by Ashley Karrel
In collaboration with Doosti Community, Salford University and Mira Film Night, we selected three films by artists from migrant backgrounds living in the UK, which explored themes of migration and climate change. We invited two of these filmmakers to join us for a Q&A after the screening of the films, when the audience had the opportunity to talk to them and ask questions.
Home Come Soon by Hope Strickland
Home Soon Come is part of an on-going project with the elderly Caribbean community in South Manchester. The film plays between archival footage of the Caribbean islands, domestic spaces in Manchester and scenes shot in a day centre for the Caribbean elderly. It explores diasporic placemaking, domestic spaces and what it means to find ourselves at home in the people around us.
|
About the filmmaker
Hope Strickland is a researcher and artist filmmaker from Manchester, UK, with current interests in postcolonial ecologies, queer, diasporic asemblages and the bonds between resource extraction and racial violence. Recent work has explored black metamorphosis alongside taxonomies of imperial control; working across 16mm, digital and archival formats to question and disrupt the distances between myth, fabulation and machinations of power. Hope's films have screened internationally at festivals including the 59th New York Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival and the forthcoming Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Scotland. |
Reckoning by Ashley Karrell
Reckoning is a multimedia short film created by a collaboration of Liberty EU Portfolio artists - Choreographer and Storyteller Akeim Toussaint Buck, Filmmaker Ashley Karrell, Animator Benedetta Fasson and Writer Mandla Rae. Weaving together contemporary lyrical dance, archive, animation and storytelling, Reckoning has been created from the Reckoning with Refugeedom archives which tell the stories of generations of displaced people in their own words. Reckoning was delivered in partnership with the University of Manchester and funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council and co-funded by Creative Europe as part of Liberty EU.
|
About the filmmaker
Ashley Karrell is an award-winning artist in Film, Photography, Theatre and Visual Art with a career spanning over 15 years. He has produced a broad spectrum of work that includes visual art, commercial and experimental video productions and mass participation pieces across and outside of the UK. Ashley delivers large and small-scale productions at public exhibitions, events and festivals, and pursues work, which explores ideas of community, is socially engaging, and internationally-minded. His name is well known for the film and documentary of Geraldine Connor’s epic masterpiece Carnival Messiah, which debuted at the Leeds International Film Festival 2017. Its West Indies premier was at the Film Festival in Trinidad in September 2018, where it won the People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary. |
Day 4, OLDHAM LIBRARY TAKE OVER
On Sat 25 June, we went back to Oldham to finish off the festival with a celebratory event at Oldham Library.
Naomi Kalu & Hamza Ensemble Live Concert, Saturday 25th June, 14.00-16:00
Live music performance
Hamza Ensemble, a group of established musicians and singers from various cultural backgrounds, was commissioned by Sheba Arts to collaborate with the emerging Oldham-based singer Naomi Kalu to create a unique piece of music for the festival. The brand new concert was performed at Oldham Library on the 25th of June as part of Sheba Festival.
Hamza Ensemble, a group of established musicians and singers from various cultural backgrounds, was commissioned by Sheba Arts to collaborate with the emerging Oldham-based singer Naomi Kalu to create a unique piece of music for the festival. The brand new concert was performed at Oldham Library on the 25th of June as part of Sheba Festival.
Hamza Ensemble are a cohort of creative musicians from various cultural backgrounds from Morocco, Bosnia Herzegovina, India, Argentina, Iran and Barbados. The band performs spiritual Mediterranean music.
Members:
Hamza Bouzhar - vocals, percussion
Sanja Govorcin - piano, vocals
Jaydev Mistry - percussion
Clive Hunte - bass, electronics
Eros Spataro - guitar
Arian Sadr - persian drum (Daf drum)
Biography of the band members
Clive Hunte aka Busha Mann: Has been playing bass guitar with various signed artist and bands including Lily Allen first album "Alright Still" which had the no1 hit Smile and Mr Scuff first album "Keep it Unreal" on Ninja record label, and has also worked with renown artist Nitin Sawhney on projects 'Aftershock' and "Session 72' as bassist and toured extensively throughout UK and Europe with drum and bass group Un-Cut who were signed to Warner Bros record label and went on a support tour with Craig David In 2005. On 2011 trumpet player and label owner of Gondwana Records Matthew Halsall asked Clive to come on a UK and New Zealand tour with his remix project.
Clive also appeared in seasons 2 & 3 of Peaky as jazz bassist in the house band and now more recently, works in the community for String of Hearts as a music practitioner with local groups from Old Trafford and Sale in Greater Manchester
Sanja is a singer and songwriter, born in Bosnia and Hercegovina, raised in Austria, and living in Manchester now. She has been performing in collaboration with songwriters and music projects such as MIRO and The Rubber Duck Orchestra, as well as with her solo project Sanja Cin. She is also working as a music facilitator with Music Action International, CAN, and Yorkshire based 6Million+. With this project (name yet to be confirmed) she's taking part on piano (potentially synths and vocals.
Jaydev Mistry is a guitarist, percussionist and music technologist. He has designed and built an augmented guitar which is populated with various electronic sensors that allow him to coax deep, lush and evolving musical soundscapes via deep processing and haptic control.
Jaydev’s sonic explorations range from mellow to dark augmented via twisted guitar soundscapes.
combined with hard driving mangled and fractured beats.
Jaydev also specialises in composition and sound design for theatrical productions sound installations and radio and has been commissioned by companies such as Red Ladder Theatre Company, Theatre in the Mill, Greater Manchester Music Action Zone and BBC Radio 4.
Members:
Hamza Bouzhar - vocals, percussion
Sanja Govorcin - piano, vocals
Jaydev Mistry - percussion
Clive Hunte - bass, electronics
Eros Spataro - guitar
Arian Sadr - persian drum (Daf drum)
Biography of the band members
Clive Hunte aka Busha Mann: Has been playing bass guitar with various signed artist and bands including Lily Allen first album "Alright Still" which had the no1 hit Smile and Mr Scuff first album "Keep it Unreal" on Ninja record label, and has also worked with renown artist Nitin Sawhney on projects 'Aftershock' and "Session 72' as bassist and toured extensively throughout UK and Europe with drum and bass group Un-Cut who were signed to Warner Bros record label and went on a support tour with Craig David In 2005. On 2011 trumpet player and label owner of Gondwana Records Matthew Halsall asked Clive to come on a UK and New Zealand tour with his remix project.
Clive also appeared in seasons 2 & 3 of Peaky as jazz bassist in the house band and now more recently, works in the community for String of Hearts as a music practitioner with local groups from Old Trafford and Sale in Greater Manchester
Sanja is a singer and songwriter, born in Bosnia and Hercegovina, raised in Austria, and living in Manchester now. She has been performing in collaboration with songwriters and music projects such as MIRO and The Rubber Duck Orchestra, as well as with her solo project Sanja Cin. She is also working as a music facilitator with Music Action International, CAN, and Yorkshire based 6Million+. With this project (name yet to be confirmed) she's taking part on piano (potentially synths and vocals.
Jaydev Mistry is a guitarist, percussionist and music technologist. He has designed and built an augmented guitar which is populated with various electronic sensors that allow him to coax deep, lush and evolving musical soundscapes via deep processing and haptic control.
Jaydev’s sonic explorations range from mellow to dark augmented via twisted guitar soundscapes.
combined with hard driving mangled and fractured beats.
Jaydev also specialises in composition and sound design for theatrical productions sound installations and radio and has been commissioned by companies such as Red Ladder Theatre Company, Theatre in the Mill, Greater Manchester Music Action Zone and BBC Radio 4.
|
This year, we have commissioned Naomi Kalu to work with with Hamza Ensamble to perform a few songs from her forthcoming album. Naomi is a singer who also plays guitar, piano and drums. Her favourite sound is neo-soul; she also loves reggae grooves, rock and electronic music. Late night, she listens to John Legend and Tracy Chapman among others. She often sings at Manchester club, Jam Street, including doing improvised lyrics and melodies to the other musicians’ beats. She is experimenting with sound samples. In her other life, she is Northwest champion boxer. Friends call her Non-Stop Naomi! |
|
Poetry performance by Maryam Alsaeid
Poetry performance on the theme of healing from Maryam Alsaied. Maryam is a poet and creative writing workshop facilitator. She has also been a volunteer for SB overseas, teaching refugee children in Lebanon. She is currently studying her masters in creative writing at MMU. Her passions involve working with women, building safe spaces and she is a great advocate for wellbeing and healing. She is a member of Sheba Arts freelance team. Her poems encompass themes of metaphysics spirituality and belonging. |
Meet Sheba Fest 22 Leadership Team
Volunteers: Anji, Shamim Afshan, Sepideh Zia, Amir Khojeini, Ibrahim Alimamy, Mariam Yusuf, Maram Al-Dalawi
Project Manager: Fereshteh Mozaffari
Festival Producer: Nuria Lopez
Marketing manager & photographer: Milana Bout
Event Coordinators: Safieh Eskandari, Beena Nouri, Lillian Musiitwa, Dada Zubeda
Community engagement officer: Mariam Yusuf, Alimamy Bangura
Volunteer Coordinator & event manager: Reem Al Azemi
Music Coordinator & film maker: Clive Hunte
Sound technician: Serge Tebu
Project Manager: Fereshteh Mozaffari
Festival Producer: Nuria Lopez
Marketing manager & photographer: Milana Bout
Event Coordinators: Safieh Eskandari, Beena Nouri, Lillian Musiitwa, Dada Zubeda
Community engagement officer: Mariam Yusuf, Alimamy Bangura
Volunteer Coordinator & event manager: Reem Al Azemi
Music Coordinator & film maker: Clive Hunte
Sound technician: Serge Tebu
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
