17 June 2022
Refugee Week is a UK-wide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. STAR is proud to be a partner of the Refugee Week coalition, helping shape the festival each year. It’s held every year around World Refugee Day on the 20 June. Refugee Week Scotland kicks off today! The festival will be running in Scotland from 17 – 26 June. Across the rest of the UK, Refugee Week will run from 20-26 June.
Across the UK there are over 60 festivals, and many more events and activities are taking place, all centred around the theme of healing. Through creativity and conversations, this year’s Refugee Week will be a celebration of community, mutual care, and the human ability to start again.
We’re so happy to see our STARs getting involved all over the UK, be it through hosting, volunteering, attending an event, or doing one of the Simple Acts! On Saturday the 25th of June, we’re having our first in-person event for the STAR Network in over two years! The event will be co-hosted by Birbeck and Goldsmiths STAR, and will be a picnic, craftivism followed by a Solidarity Walk. The walk will be guided by one of our Goldsmiths STAR students who will invite us to pause and reflect on the history of people seeking asylum in the UK. If haven’t booked your place yet click here!Â
There are thousands of events taking place this week, take a look at the full list here. Below, we’ve selected a snapshot of what’s on offer:
Art for Peace at Newcastle Common (21 May – 25 June 2022)
The poignant and thoughtful Art for Peace collection by Alison Lochhead will be expanding from Keele University into our Newcastle Common space. We invite you to Newcastle Common from Saturday 21 May to Saturday 25 June to see Alison Lochhead’s Art for Peace collection, a reflection on the memories of conflict and the impact of war on the planet.
Bristol Refugee Festival (6 June – 26 June)
Bristol Refugee Festival runs a year-round programme of engagement events with an arts and community festival at its core. This year’s festival focuses on the community and its place in the process of healing. There is a variety of events for all ages happening throughout June featuring art, music, food, film and sport and the flagship Celebrating Sanctuary event goes local again with 10 community celebrations around the city.Â
Bradford Refugee Week (16 June – 26 June)
Bradford’s ready to show and share just why they are a City, Local Authority, and University of Sanctuary during our biggest and best Refugee Week so far.
From 16th to 26th of June there is a feast of family fun, opportunities to learn and make friends, and the chance to walk the Exhibition Trail featuring artwork from 7 differing groups. An amazing 27 events are organized across the entire District, and that’s not counting the daily dose of 8 brilliant locally made films being served up on the Big Screen on Centenary Square from 3 pm Monday 20th to Sunday 26th.
Hope Notes – an online concert (16 June – 20 June)Â
Hope Notes is an immersive concert and theatre show combining animation and contemporary Indian music by award-winning musician and director, Soumik Datta.
The show weaves 10 refugee voices, electric sarod, strings and animation to build a sensory feast to challenge social injustice through an uplifting, musical lens. Filmed at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, Hope Notes was made in collaboration with refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Kenya, Bangladesh, Yemen, Cameroon and Uganda and is a powerful tribute to the displaced communities of the world.
‘Mr Gay Syria’ Film by Ayse Toprak – Film Screening at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery (18 June)
To celebrate Refugee Week and June PRIDE Month, The Refugee Buddy Project together with HMAG are delighted to offer an evening at the cinema with some marvellous traditional Syrian food.
Mr. Gay Syria follows two gay Syrian refugees who are trying to rebuild their lives. Will the dream come true or will the refugee crisis and the harsh consequences of being gay in the Muslim world shatter it to pieces?
Refugee Festival Scotland (17 June – 26 June)
Refugee Festival Scotland takes place every year in the lead-up to World Refugee Day, on 20 June. Each event helps to shine a light on the cultural richness and diversity of our communities. It is a celebration of the food and drink, music and poetry, art, dance, language and ideas that people bring with them when they settle in Scotland.
Home Away From Home: Exhibition – Swansea Waterfront Museum (18 June – 17 July)
This exhibition is a celebration of all the people and organisations who have been involved in making Swansea a City of Sanctuary for over ten years. Discover the stories of those who have sought sanctuary in Swansea and how they have helped shape the city to become a more welcoming space.
 Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 – Migration Matters Festival Sheffield (22 June)
Seun Kuti’s mission is as vast as the continent it sprang from: “Inspire Africa to be what it is supposed to be”. He is the youngest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. He has spent most of his life preserving and extending his father’s political and musical legacy as the leader of his father’s former band Egypt 80.
Art Exhibition by Goldsmiths STAR in collaboration with Create Without Borders (24 June)
The exhibition will feature works by refugees, asylum seekers, Goldsmiths students and activists to unite all of these communities under one roof. It will be a space filled with artwork celebrating the lives and stories of those affected by forced migration. The exhibition will also explore how art, creativity and community can help us heal.
Throughout the day there will be screenings, music, photographs, and paintings. Families and groups are welcomed!
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No Direction Home – Comedy Show at the Southbank Centre (26 June)
Fatiha El-Ghorri is a longstanding friend of No Direction Home and an emerging star of British stand-up, with recent TV appearances on The Jonathan Ross Show, The Russell Howard Hour and The Apprentice – You’re Fired