15 October, 2012

The launch of Somali Week Festival 2012 Friday, 19th October 2012 @ 6.00pm

The launch of Somali Week Festival 2012
Friday, 19th October 2012, 6.00pm
Oxford House
Derbyshire Street, E2 6HG
London, E2 6HG
For more information and ticket please email info@kayd.org


Kayd Somali Arts and Culture and partners would like to invite you to Somali Week Festival 2012 which will take place from Friday 19th to 28th October,  Oxford House, The programme and tickets for all the events are now available. To access the programme click here: http://www.kayd.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/SWF-Programme-2012.pdf


Somali Week Festival 2012 will focus on the theme of 'COURAGE'. Our understanding of 'courage' is not one of gun-toting aggression, but a belief in peace and tolerance as essential principles; about dreaming the seemingly impossible, challenging the status quo in the name of collaboration and fruitful coexistence. In that sense it emphasises empathy, tolerance and personal integrity in a context of uncertainty. The acceptance that this kind of courage must necessarily exist without the security of knowing that 'everything will be all right in the end' is paramount. Tolerance and empathy in the certain knowledge of a positive outcome do not require courage.

We are delighted that the theme of this year's festival, 'courage', will be introduced by a great playwright, educationalist and poet, Said Saleh and the festival will be launched by Hon Rushanara Ali, MP for Tower Hamlets.

 Somali Week Festival is an integral part of Black History Month and offers the best of Somali arts and culture, both old and new. The festival offers a mix of events including poetry, literature, panel discussions, documentary film screenings, music and theatre. Through these different artistic forms, Somali Week Festival has explored a variety of themes in past years and has become a widely recognized and anticipated annual event in the UK. We are inviting artists, writers, campaigners, investors and people from civil society, both Somali and non-Somali, from Somaliland and Somalia, North America as well as from the UK and other European countries, to share experiences and discuss the concepts of courage, tolerance, identity, peace and development.

We are honoured to welcome international guests, including Mahamed Ibrahim Warsame "Hadraawi", Said Saleh Ahmed, Hussein Sheikh Ahmed 'Kaddare', Hassan Qawdhan, Musse Ali Faruur, Abdidhuh Yusuf, Giorgio Banti, Prof Abdallah Mansuur, Mohamed Daahir Afrah, Evan Christopher, Iara Lee, Ali Hasan 'Banfas', Abdilahi Awad awadgale,, Ismail Abdi Ibrahim 'Basbaas', Roland Marchal and more.

At the launch, some of our visiting artists from Somalia and Somaliland such as Muse Ali Faruur, Hassan Qawdhan, Abdidhuuh Yusuf together with UK based poets, Abdillahi Bootaan will recite some of their poetry and the English translations will be provided by James Byrne, poet and editor of Wolf Poetry Magazine, Clare Pollard, poet from Poetry Translation Centre and Rob Inglis.

The evening will conclude with a talk with Award winning poet and thinker, Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame 'Hadraawi'.


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