Connecting Cultures Goes Fringe

Picton Room, Central Library
23rd October 2008

Reviewed by Alfonso Barata

About a year ago, local artists, organisations and other people were invited to a very well organised and polite meeting - you know, one of those where you’re well fed (halal or vegetarian food on request), encouraged to socialise and network with your brethren and share ideas for a so-called Fringe festival, which should take place sometime in 2008 and that, drawing inspiration from Edinburgh’s own festival, would fill our streets with performers and other artists.

Anything could happen at the Liverpool Fringe, we were told.

Despite having my reservations about what exactly was the point of having a Fringe festival in Liverpool, I was curious about what the idea behind this was. After all, in order to have a fringe you need to have an official festival first. So, would this be an alternative to the official 08 year? The Biennial perhaps? Fringe to the already fringe Independents maybe?

One year after meeting (I still remember the food, though), there has been little or no signs of that festival, initially scheduled for September.

In its place - and according to the festival’s website - there are different events happening all year round, one of them being this one by ‘Connecting Cultures’.

All these thoughts were in my mind whilst watching the performance that artists from the SOLA ARTS run collective ‘Connecting Cultures’ put on.

It seems to me that by giving it the name of ‘Connecting Cultures Goes Fringe’ they were making a point, as if they were saying: "well, we were told we would be part of a Fringe so here’s our contribution".

For this, they chose the magnificent Picton Room at the Central Library, a place so intimate that where every whisper seems to be projected across the room.

For this reason, this event could also been called ‘Connecting Cultures Goes Unplugged’ and it would have equally reflected the mood of the night.

With a mixture of music, food, storytelling and film this was a quite varied night. More so if you take into account the diverse origins of the different artists and cooks who took part in the occasion.

‘Connecting Cultures’ is a collective of artists from the refugee and asylum seeker communities, and as you would guess, they come from a host of countries and backgrounds; however, their common link is their passion and creativity and their interest in sharing it with the local people.

The event featured ‘Somali-Scouse’ storytelling, Kurdish folk music and West African pop-influenced rhythms; we also learned about the traditions and customs of Afghanistan and we were invited to taste homemade food by cooks from Algeria, Kurdistan, Afghanistan and Mongolia.

In between the performances and the food, there was the ‘premiere’ of a film made by artists from the collective and commissioned by Liverpool Libraries; this is a film intended to raise awareness of the services offered by the Library to members of the migrant and refugee communities whilst also being an educational tool for staff and the general public.

Overall, and despite some sound levels problems with some of the performers, this was an entertaining event that also gave us an insight into the wealth of skills and talents of people from the ‘fringes’ of the world.
Fringe or not, this collective of artists have a lot to offer and deserves to be heard.

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Comments:

Comment left by Dazza on 2nd November, 2008 at 9:33
This sounds like a great event but I didn't see it publicised anywhere. Maybe I'm just not in the right place

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