Perception of migrants has been so one dimensional! It has coerced a nation into ignorance; taking action against inclusion. Yesteryear's campaign of multiculturalism ( flawed as it was) is a distant memory.
About a year ago, a ship with thousands of ‘illegal immigrants’ burned down on the coast of Italy, this happens regularly but this one made it into our mainstream media. On this ship, one of the kids was someone my mother knew from Eritrea. To make matters worse, his mother never knew he had embarked on this voyage and now he’s dead. My mother and her friend had to break the news to her. To the world this is another nameless illegal immigrant, a moment of history.
A sequence of events (like this) made me reflect upon my own journey and what it means to be a traveller, an immigrant because experience keeps on telling me, once an immigrant, always an immigrant. You are always trying to negotiate what it means to live in your host country and where you come from, never belonging to either anymore and it all started with first journey.
my story
Its not HIStory, its
I have been in the UK since 1989, I feel as much of an outsider today as I did then. The more I am honest and live in my truth, the less I belong to either community I am from. I am definitely a hybrid of the two but the psych and systems set up, do they give you space to be that?
Equally, I’m not sure how much of the true story travelers get before they make the voyage. They are so invested in an idea that is far from the truth, as a result a lot of people make the journey but lose their way once they arrive at ‘the promise land’ if they are ‘lucky’ enough to have survived the journey.
Last summer, I visited The Jungle (in Calais), I found it really hard to see the faces of those who spoke my mother tongue. Seeing them hinge all their hopes and dreams on this unrealistic utopic idea of what life will be like when they make it…
The Other Side (produced by Lula)
I found myself telling them the cautionary tales and implore them to hinge their ideas on tangible things that they can create or do for themselves once they cross over or whilst they are in transit cause the journey doesn’t end when you ‘make it’.
When I create, I work almost like a collage artist. I would like to curate a show that is essentially that. The through line between the show will be a very emotive score.
I will curate the works of those whom I have been building relationships with over the years and pave an opportunity for a couple artist that I would like to.
Knowledge is being held captive. Technology was suppose to free us and give us access to more but everything has been corrupted, over saturated with nonsense and a new world order manipulates us into ignorance whilst truth is shackled like a prisoner
I feel a little like this kid
No immigrant voyage is ever the same. I don’t know how much people can really claim to understand if it is within a realm of experience outside of their own.
I have collated first hand stories from 2 travellers, I want to couple that within songs and soundscapes, Juxtaposition my personal experience post ‘migration’ and the physical journey of these girls who have ‘made it’.
Different aspects of my work has been praised but there doesn’t seem to be a box I can fit in, so I’m creating my own!
Example: I did a silent gig in New York. I will be doing the same at sxsw. From my hands to your ears. MiMu & I will be doing a silent street performance. You will have to plug into the headphone amp to enter my world. If you are a passer by, you will just see some interesting moments and the occasional song sung a cappella.
I want the audience to get a sense how it feels to travel to an unknown place.
walk in my shoe