Lion and Unicorn Installation. Photo L.Apichella
Tomorrow: Join with Southbank Centre poet in residence Simon Armitage for a special day celebrating freedom and creativity – featuring a balloon release at 3pm.
‘Peace… is a Kebero played by two
hands in the centre of whispering sands,
that speaks of Eritrean sunrise.’
Frehiwat, Refugee Youth
The Lion and Unicorn installation by the entrance to Royal Festival Hall always has people talking. Each time I have been past this week young and old are looking with interest and compassion at the poems strung together to make a fluttering wall of verse. The installation was made by artist Gitta Gschwendtner working with 50 young refugees and asylum seekers and pays homage to a flock of ceramic birds in the original Lion and Unicorn Pavilion from the 1951 Festival of Britain. The young people’s poems – written and spoken – reinterpret the original themes of strength and imagination, of peace and of freedom.
Groups that took part in the project were: the Refugee Council, Refugee Youth, the Klevis Kola Foundation, and the Refugee Home School Support Project.
As a continuation of the ideas communicated in the instillation, join in tomorrow in celebration of these and other young voices during Everyone Sang, part of London Literature Festival:
Everyone Sang
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre
Saturday 9th July
10am – 12noon
Poetry workshop, The Clore Ballroom
Free open workshop for all ages – drop in any time
Come and write your own bird poem of peace – poets Joelle Taylor, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Philip Wells and Yemisi Blake will be here to help you – and you can write in English or in your own language. Later at 3pm, your poem will take flight attached to a balloon!
1pm – 2.30pm
Young people’s poetry film and readings, The Clore Ballroom
Free, no need to book
Southbank Centre artist in residence and critically acclaimed poet Simon Armitage presents film and poetry from young people from refugee backgrounds around themes of peace and of freedom, alongside established poets Joelle Taylor, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Philip Wells and Yemisi Blake
3pm – 3.15pm
Balloon release, Festival Pier, Queens Walk
Free, no need to book
Poems written in the morning’s workshop will be released attached to a flock of balloons led by Simon Armitage and young people involved in the Lion and Unicorn project
To see a short film about the installation here.
For more information on the event.
Filed under: London Literature Festival 2011, See Further Festival | Tagged: Festival of Briatin, Freedom, Literature and Spoken Word, Poetry, Simon Armitage, Southbank Centre, yemisi blake, young curators | Leave a Comment »
