Imagine My Reality

The theme of this year’s national refugee week is IMAGINE. #Slanguages has collaborated with MAOKWO to produce “Imagine My Reality”, an artistic showcase and conversation featuring the multimedia and visual artist Ryan Christopher, visual artist Laura Nyahuye, spoken word artist Chrissie Okorie, and visual artist Zoey Sibanda. The event responds to the uncertain times in which we are living from the perspective of asylum seekers, refugees, migrants, and persons of colour. In this #Slanguages blog, Maokwo’s CEO, Founder, and Creative Director, the artist Laura Nyahuye, discusses her development of the project.

“Imagine My Reality” takes places on Saturday 20 June from, 2.00pm to 4.30pm. You can reserve your tickets for the online event here. *This blog is a reposting from the MAOKWO page*

Today's Climate

Well, we cannot go into our involvement with this Research and Development project without talking about the climate we are in right now…

George Floyd was murdered in front of our own eyes, it was surreal. As an arts organisation, we are constantly bringing societal divisions to the forefront of our work. However, this case has hit home on another level. It’s dug out the race issues that have been simmering on the hems of our society for decades and decades. Will this bring lasting change we wonder? we hope…

The sad question is, why does it have to take a life/lives for things to change? What kind of world have we brought our children into? 400 years of racism. The only difference now is it’s more techy… the world catches it live and the horrendous act is relived over and over with the press of a button.

COVID 19. People of colour, have been hit hard, highest death rates. lockdown, quarantine, isolation. Layers and layers of concern, families with have the right to work but no recourse to public funds have are losing their jobs and facing homelessness. It’s taken the COVID 19 crisis for the people in power to acknowledge that people of colour are actively delivering key services, black people are 4.2 times more likely to die from COVID 19.

Some key workers have been working bearing multiple worries on their minds, for example, families they left behind in their home countries, the financial impact of being the breadwinner for many, the possibility of their families being deported if they were to die… the list of concerns are endless and then we have COVID 19 worry that everyone else is facing.

At Maokwo, Underrepresentation and 1st hand real-life events of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and artists from migrant, motivates us to find more creative ways to advocate for change within systems. Our Fusion Artist Network is made up of artists from minoritised backgrounds. We are always ready to creatively respond/tell stories of how people of colour are living their day to day lives, their struggles, resilience and strength. We collaborate and work with artists and organisations from all backgrounds with a focus to create platforms for people of colour and highlight the fact that we are #strongertogether. This is not always as easy as it sounds. Structural racism and white privilege has made it a hard road to walk. The good thing is we keep going, we have our generation and the next generations to think of. 

Our Values

At Maokwo, lived experiences of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and artists from migrant backgrounds are the heart of what we creatively respond to. Our Fusion Artist Network is made up of artists from minoritized backgrounds. We are always ready to creatively respond to real-life issues and causes that value life, love, living and togetherness.

We celebrate with those who celebrate, cry with ones who are crying, justice is love, we stand for it, actively do our bit to tackle social issues we are passionate about. Our activism weapons are Love, Prayer, Peace and Art. As people of colour, how our stories are told the matter to us. So we take the responsibility, we pick up our creative arms and create, create, create….

Imagine My Reality: Research & Development

We are ecstatic to have Maokwo commissioned by Slanguages (Slanguages project is led by Rajinder Dudrah Professor of Cultural Studies and Creative Industries). Maokwo will Create, Direct, Curate and Produce the research and development for this project Slanguages in time for refugee week 2020. 

This years’ national refugee week theme is IMAGINE. 

We have responded to this theme with the theme IMAGINE, MY REALITY

Why

We are living in uncertain times, coronavirus came and put a majority of countries on their knees. Coronavirus did not apply for a visa, it does not own a passport however it came through boarders. Initially, it looked like the virus has brought humanity to the most needed realisation, the realisation that we are all human with red blood running through our veins. We had a common enemy, the virus and we are fighting it together in unity. Two weeks into lockdown, cracks of divides in class, ethnicities, status, privileges come and screamed in our face. The scream was….

Social distancing was a luxury some of our fellow humans could not afford, fighting for tissues was a yearning some had, but they could not afford, staying at home was wishful thinking for some. Why??? Because they are asylum seekers, migrants with no recourse to public funds and humans who are in limbo and considered stateless. Some are homeless and libraries were their homes, some live on £5.39 per week and some live in crammed shared accommodation, two meters social distancing is unrealistic. At Maokwo we will be responding to these realities via various creative avenues. 

Maokwo Fusion Artists from migrant backgrounds are creatively responding to the COVID 19 and life experiences of asylum seekers, migrants with no recourse to public funds and humans who are in limbo and considered stateless. 

When COVID 19 kicked in, like many around the world we had multiple worries. We were worried about asylum seekers who have no income and homeless. We work closely with CARAG and other multiple organisations that have been tirelessly working to shift policies, putting together policies, documents zooming back and forth in the cloud in the net called the internet. The sluggish responses from the people in power concerning asylum seekers homelessness, staying safe, financial status, wellbeing was no match to how the virus itself was spreading at that time. I was also in conversation with individuals on the ground directly experiencing this. Some of these individuals are leaders within the refugee and asylum seekers groups. It got me thinking even deeper, about the realities. The jarring cracks in our society, the disparities. 

Creatives in our team struck up a conversation about it of course. We thought, it a good idea creatively talk about the realities our fellow minoritized groups are facing during refugee week. It's a blessing that professor Rajinder Dudrah Slanguages project leader has collaborated/commissioned us to produce this project. 

Our role as Artistic director, curator, producer and artists in this project has been interesting for this R and D. We started by having more conversations with the individuals in leadership and some who were receiving support. 

The leader’s voices were very important to us. Some of the individuals who responded to this ask are artists themselves. The content contains the voices of many, a collective voice that guided us. We heard from leaders who are literally carrying the burdens of many on a day to day basis and individuals who are supported. The commissioned artists connected with the lived reality. We collated the content in various languages. Chichewa, Chitumbuka, Italian, Ewe, Shona and English. We look forward to carrying on with this project if funding allows.

*Following the event, we will be posting materials here for exploration by those who were unable to attend the online event.*

Laura Nyahue is a Zimbabwean-born artist. She is the Creative Director/CEO and Founder of MAOKWO.

MAOKWO is an organisation dedicated to representation and inclusion in arts and culture.