[Forced Migration and The Arts] In conversation with Across the Borderline. Online, Thurs., 30 Jan 2025 (6-7.30pm UK Time)
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Ambrose Musiyiwa
Jan 13, 2025, 8:59:40 AMJan 13
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Please also pass on to all who might be interested.
Join us online for conversation focusing on the radio soap opera, ACROSS THE BORDERLINE.
The conversation takes place from 6pm till 7.30pm on Thursday, 30 January 2025 and will feature presentations from John Butt, Zia Lalakhil and Wazhma Sadaat who will discuss:
• Across the Borderline, focusing on the project's themes, issues and outcomes, and how the project researches, reports and reinforces these issues
• the Poli Pori Program and its approach to immigration and refugee issues, and
• the history of radio soap operas and their introduction in Afghanistan.
The presentations will be followed by a Q&A with all present.
Attendance and participation are free and open to all.
REGISTRATION
To attend, please register here.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
JOHN BUTT set up a radio soap opera in Afghanistan in 1993 for the BBC World Service that became known as the ARCHERS FOR AFGHANISTAN, after the BBC Radio 4 radio soap opera, THE ARCHERS. Since then John has been setting up and running radio soap operas in various countries across Asia, his name being particularly closely associated with Afghanistan.
ZIA LALAKHEL is Head of Drama at Across the Borderline and, like other members of the Across the Borderline team, has worked with the predecessor drama of Across the Borderline at its production base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Zia leads a dedicated and experienced acting team in Afghanistan who occupy the opening scenes of Across the Borderline plotlines as the protagonists plan their journey across continents.
WAZHMA SADAAT is Head of Reporting at Across the Borderline and is at the helm of a half-hour weekly programme consisting of factual reports on migration. These reports feed ideas into the radio soap opera and serve to reinforce themes dealt with in Across the Borderline.
ABOUT ACROSS THE BORDERLINE
Across the Borderline is a radio soap opera dealing with issues related to migration, particularly in the context of Afghanistan. The opera is broadcast on digital platforms, making it easily accessible to migrants and would-be migrants and their families whether they are in Afghanistan, in transit or in the destination country. The characters of Across the Borderline all originate in the same neighbourhood of Kabul. Across the Borderline looks at what makes them want to migrate and how they migrate. Do they follow legal routes or do they take the human trafficking route? What hazards do they face along the way and what difficulties await them in the "broken promised land" - to quote the song Across the Borderline by Ry Cooder - of their destination? All these stories are woven together in the fabric of the radio soap opera to create a compelling picture that serves as a companion for migrants as they pursue their journey and helps them make more informed choices about the path to take, not forgetting the loves and longings they left behind.
NETWORK NOTES
On the Radical Potential of Mutual Support: We are fundraising to cover some of the costs associated with producing the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series, a new initiative that is editing and publishing anthologies focusing on African and African diasporic migration. To support the effort, please visit our crowdfunding page. Any support you can lend us will be most appreciated.
Regional Forced Migration and The Arts networks: We would like to set up autonomous Forced Migration and The Arts networks to facilitate similar conversations and indabas in the following regions: Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, the Middle East, North America, the Pacific, and South America. If you are a refugee or non-refugee artist, academic, activist or art space working in these regions at the intersection where forced migration and the arts meet, and you would like to be part of the steering group in a particular region, please let us know through this form.
About The Network: Forced Migration and The Arts is an international network that brings together people with lived experience of forced migration, refugee and non-refugee artists, academics, activists and art spaces. The network, initial stages of which were developed with support from the University of Manchester’s Humanities Global Scholars Fund, encourages mutual support and collaboration and hosts monthly discussion panels or indabas around forced migration and the arts. A playlist of videos of some of the conversations we have had so far is accessible here.
With regards,
REGISTRATION
To attend, please register here.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
JOHN BUTT set up a radio soap opera in Afghanistan in 1993 for the BBC World Service that became known as the ARCHERS FOR AFGHANISTAN, after the BBC Radio 4 radio soap opera, THE ARCHERS. Since then John has been setting up and running radio soap operas in various countries across Asia, his name being particularly closely associated with Afghanistan.
ZIA LALAKHEL is Head of Drama at Across the Borderline and, like other members of the Across the Borderline team, has worked with the predecessor drama of Across the Borderline at its production base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Zia leads a dedicated and experienced acting team in Afghanistan who occupy the opening scenes of Across the Borderline plotlines as the protagonists plan their journey across continents.
WAZHMA SADAAT is Head of Reporting at Across the Borderline and is at the helm of a half-hour weekly programme consisting of factual reports on migration. These reports feed ideas into the radio soap opera and serve to reinforce themes dealt with in Across the Borderline.
ABOUT ACROSS THE BORDERLINE
Across the Borderline is a radio soap opera dealing with issues related to migration, particularly in the context of Afghanistan. The opera is broadcast on digital platforms, making it easily accessible to migrants and would-be migrants and their families whether they are in Afghanistan, in transit or in the destination country. The characters of Across the Borderline all originate in the same neighbourhood of Kabul. Across the Borderline looks at what makes them want to migrate and how they migrate. Do they follow legal routes or do they take the human trafficking route? What hazards do they face along the way and what difficulties await them in the "broken promised land" - to quote the song Across the Borderline by Ry Cooder - of their destination? All these stories are woven together in the fabric of the radio soap opera to create a compelling picture that serves as a companion for migrants as they pursue their journey and helps them make more informed choices about the path to take, not forgetting the loves and longings they left behind.
NETWORK NOTES
On the Radical Potential of Mutual Support: We are fundraising to cover some of the costs associated with producing the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series, a new initiative that is editing and publishing anthologies focusing on African and African diasporic migration. To support the effort, please visit our crowdfunding page. Any support you can lend us will be most appreciated.
Regional Forced Migration and The Arts networks: We would like to set up autonomous Forced Migration and The Arts networks to facilitate similar conversations and indabas in the following regions: Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, the Middle East, North America, the Pacific, and South America. If you are a refugee or non-refugee artist, academic, activist or art space working in these regions at the intersection where forced migration and the arts meet, and you would like to be part of the steering group in a particular region, please let us know through this form.
About The Network: Forced Migration and The Arts is an international network that brings together people with lived experience of forced migration, refugee and non-refugee artists, academics, activists and art spaces. The network, initial stages of which were developed with support from the University of Manchester’s Humanities Global Scholars Fund, encourages mutual support and collaboration and hosts monthly discussion panels or indabas around forced migration and the arts. A playlist of videos of some of the conversations we have had so far is accessible here.
With regards,
Ambrose Musiyiwa
Coordinator, Forced Migration and The Arts
Ambrose Musiyiwa | PhD Researcher, University of Manchester, Drama Department in collaboration with Community Arts North West (CAN) | Email: ambrose.m...@manchester.ac.uk
Coordinator, Forced Migration and The Arts, and The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series (Video Playlist; Call for Submissions; Funding Appeal)
(Ed.) [New Book] Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (CivicLeicester, 2024. Co-editor: Munya R, from the migrants' collective Regularise); Welcome to Britain: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (CivicLeicester, 2023); Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (CivicLeicester, 2020)
Ambrose Musiyiwa
Jan 27, 2025, 2:40:32 PMJan 27
to CAN-ne...@googlegroups.com
(Ed.) [New Book] Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (CivicLeicester, 2024. Co-editor: Munya R, from the migrants' rights collective Regularise); Welcome to Britain: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (CivicLeicester, 2023); Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (CivicLeicester, 2020)
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