'Welcome' in 'utopia'
Researchers from the 'Translation and Translanguaging' project in the School of Education at the University of Leeds have been working with Faceless Arts and RETAS Leeds on a co-produced arts and language research project. This is funded by the AHRC for its Connected Communities programme and builds on the AHRC-funded TLANG project, which is funded under the Translating Cultures theme.
We are taking our project to the Utopias Festival 2016 which is at Somerset House in London on 24-26th June 2016. At the festival we will be performing a piece of theatre called 'driftwood', we will be showcasing our film, showing our book and leading an activity about 'welcome'. Come and see us there!
Contact us at j.m.bradley@leeds.ac.uk. You can also check out our blog at www.welcomeutopias2016.wordpress.com or www.tlangblog.wordpress.com. You can find out more about Faceless Arts here: www.facelessarts.co.uk and about the TLANG project at www.birmingham.ac.uk/tlang.
The project is coordinated at Leeds by Jessica Bradley and James Simpson, both on the TLANG project.
This is a short video about our project. It was made by Paul Cooke in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies. In the film we hear from Omar, who has recently arrived in the UK. We also hear from Mastanash who is one of the volunteers for the 'Welcome Utopias' project, from Oli, who works at RETAS. Bev (Faceless Arts) and Jess (TLANG Project), who are coordinating the project also feature.
https://vimeo.com/165216455
For three weeks in April 2016, we worked with participants on RETAS' Steps to Settlement course, to create silk paintings and a vocal composition around the theme of 'welcome'. We asked - what does it mean to be 'welcome' and what is 'welcome' in utopia.