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The Urban Dialogues 2014 exhibition ‘Navigations’ took place in the Red Gallery, Shoreditch, London from the 3rd-21st September. The exhibition was curated by artist and curator Barby Asante and featured the work of 13 selected artists presenting across a range of media exploring themes of faith, belief, migration and personal identity in our global intercultural present.
In total 2024 visitors attended the ‘Navigations’ exhibition during the three week period. 217 school children visited the gallery participating in guided arts tours and artist led workshops in the space.
The exhibition opened with a Festival Night attended by over 500 people with a welcome from the Mayor of Camden who has made us his charity of the year 2014-2015. It was hosted by Abbas Zahedi from the Rumi’s Cave Collective and included a mix of live music, spoken word and performances by Hip Hop lyricist Breis, musical folk fusion The Turbans and a special collaboration between Jazz collective The Human Revolution Orchestra and our intercultural choir the Mixed Up Chorus. The majority of the exhibiting artists attended and mingled with guests. There were live performances by artists Melisa Suzen and Naomi Atkinson. A rich variety of street food in the Red Market added a festival feel to the night including Mexican, Brazilian and Italian food.
A panel discussion hosted by Jumoké Fashola on the theme of: Shutting up, putting up, speaking out: How are UK women challenging convention? The panel featured female artists, campaigners and activists including, Onjali Rauf (Making Her – story Founder & Director), Delaine Le Bas (English Romany, Artist and Activist), Bumi Thomas (Singer Songwriter and Campaigner), Dina Brawer (Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance Ambassador) and Melt – em Avcil (Former child detainee and Campaigner).
Discussion followed by a rich line up of performances including award winning kora player Sona Jobarteh, singer and spoken word artist FLOetic Lara and singer-songwriter, and fusing jazz, blues, folk and reggae, Bumi Thomas.
Visitor on Alinah Azadeh’s Burning of the Book"A powerfully affecting performance and ritual which told so movingly of the different experiences of individuals, and yet somehow brought us closer together in the act of witnessing and sharing such poignant stories"
The Sunday Social was a daytime event on Sunday 21st September and attracted 400 visitors. It featured storytelling for adults and children, artist-led creative workshops, a speakers corner for volunteer speakers from the our schools programme to share and tell their faith and belief story and live performances from The British Humanist Choir and the Mixed Up Chorus. The day culminated in artist Alinah Azadeh’s Burning the Books ceremony. The performance involved a collaboration with the Mixed Up Chorus where readings collected over the exhibition’s duration were recited and then the book was burnt, with the choir singing to accompany the burning and co-reciting from the book.