Taking stock: September
I’m slowly coming to the realisation that I’m actually not living in the real world but perhaps a too vividly coloured dream filled with strange characters and surreal events. Or maybe it’s all very normal and I’m being too dramatic. I can’t blame watching Inception entirely for this feeling- it’s been growing for a while now, years even, and everytime I see a film like A Scanner Darkly, or Eternal Sunshine, Being John Malkovich, the Matrix, Donnie Darko, A Beautiful Mind, or even Coraline and Alice in Wonderland, it seems to confirm it more. Maybe I shouldn’t watch these surreal dystopic/ paranoid fantasies until they stop making so much frightening sense.
Anyway here’s a photographic run down of various events since my return to UK in September and you can judge for yourself. Bear in mind these are only the occasions I saw fit to photograph, so for example last night’s Indian harmonica playing poet will not feature though he spoke incoherently of moonshine and world politics with strangely lilting diction and smiled in recognition at me, perhaps as a kindred spirit, with threadbare fingerless gloves on hands clasped in prayer or begging.
A short note on Ramadan before launching into photos. I wish I had a picture of all the black binbags bursting with plastic cups and plates piled up against the Didsbury mosque walls every night. My younger, eco-warrior sister was outraged and ready to get to work at dawn, after a long night of prayer, to sort out all the waste for recycling. Sadly for our hero, she was held back by the lack of a noble steed or anyone equally determined and willing to fill their boots with dirty polystyrene. However that image has stayed and led to a resolve to create better environmental awareness before Ramadan begins again next summer. A month of greater charity, good work and God-consciousness should lead to reflection on our impact on the world as individuals, rather than turning a blind eye on the mess we’re leaving to be cleared out of sight and left for others worry about.
Birmingham Arts Festival:
Cityscape made out of waste materials- the children worked through everything in beautiful detail. The girl at the stall said it would be scrapped later but it seemed to me the creative potential was endless- it could have grown from this sweet village to a megacity given time..
Wednesday of that week I breezily gatecrashed the premiere of Yvonne Chaka Chaka’s film, The Motherland Tour: A Journey of African Women. I didn’t know who she was before I went but it was clear from the minute she took the mike that she’s a woman with a powerful and fearless voice, but warm and funny too. The film also sent out a strong message about the ways in which African women are lifting their communities and taking a leading role in battling HIV/ AIDS, malaria and protecting maternal and child health by educating and organising themselves.
Post-premiere we (the Tony Blair Faiths Act crew who kindly allowed me to pretend to be one of them) went to a kitsch Lebanase cafe full of bright cartoonish pop art. The pretty waitress was Algerian I think which led to a playful but slightly awkward ‘all this hating is so silly- but you can pour your own mint tea Egypt boy/ your friends can pour the boiling tea over you’ discussion with the Egyptian at the table.
Ok lets move onto what I believe was the following Sunday- though I’m sure interesting things happened in between as I recall, like dropping in on a planning session for a series of seminars on Bangladesh and accosting unsuspecting students to pose in necklaces- the boys were more willing than the girls but maybe that’s just the London way..
Stand up for the MDGs demonstration outside Westminster:
Zahra is a far more serious drummer than the dinky drum in this picture would suggest..
The turnout of Muslim sisters from East London Mosque was seriously impressive- there needs to be more representing like this
I’m tired now so let’s finish up September with a few pictures from the Sankofa Crafts stall at Didsbury Arts Festival (and not mention for the moment having to carry artwork about town on my head and various discoveries about homelessness in Manchester and Fairtrade stuff and the amazingness of the Venture Arts crowd. I’ll edit it in later or it’ll come in the October edition :p)
Adults with learning disabilities in Manchester workshopped with fabrics and photos from Kasapin to make these exciting pictures
Hero No 1 Charlotte trekked to my house in the early morning to help me lug stuff over and chatter more excitedly than me about the project and Ghana and Nigeria and play this african music in a setting full of very dainty and domestic Didsbury folk who very sweet and forgiving of our boisterous energy. Charlotte I knew from the Ghana v Uruguay Match doumented earlier, then Exodus Festival the day before leaving for Ghana and then this Didsbury Festival. That is the full extent of our acquaintance but it's a precious one at that 🙂
Hero no 2 Callum arrived unexpectedly after Charlotte left to rescue another friend. He patiently waited for me to finish my spinning lesson before coming forward with his fairtrade geobars and fellow Kasapin kinship. I was too happy and rashly promised him socks which always take me a thousand years to knit. But he seems a patient soul so it's ok.
I didn't know spinning was so simple. Or I knew a little but didn't try and realise it fully before..
An Obroni Abroad 