Nottingham Refugee Week is now well established with over forty events held across the city In June. The week is a festival of music, theatre, dance, film, literature, art, food and sport celebrating the contribution of refugees to Nottingham. Nottingham Clarion Choir contributed through a performance at the Launch event in the Council House Ballroom on Monday 18th June and through organising a Workshop and Street Performance on Saturday 23rd June.
Over 70 people joined together at the Friends Meeting House to sing songs calling for justice for refugees. Together we learned songs by Boff Whalley, “Citizen's Shanty” and “Three Boats” , together with “Famba Naye/It Could Be Me”, a Zimbabwean song with words by Bronwyn Westacott, who led the workshop. These moving and uplifting songs brought home the tragedy of so many deaths in the Mediterranean and the important message that we share a common destiny as “citizen's of the world”.
Following the Workshop we all took up banners and placards, challenging the lies and misinformation about refugees, and marched through Nottingham to perform together at the Brian Clough statue.
The event also celebrated the Nottingham Clarion Choir's 30th Anniversary with a simple message: we are still out there singing for justice.
Watch and listen to an extract of the performance here