Proud to be a Refugee Tales stopover
Dissenters were delighted to host the fourth stopover point as part of this year’s walk in solidarity with refugees, asylum seekers and detainees. Walkers stayed over on their way from St Albans into Westminster and Jonathan Bartley of the Green Party hosted the evening.
Chorus of Dissent and the Elastic Band will be performing opera choruses of exile and hope, including Nessun Dorma and Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves. The St Michael and All Angels steel pan youth orchestra has the whole church on their feet. And St Matthias Halls hosted the sleepover, welcoming everyone on the walk.
Read what people said about the event
“The passion of the music on Tuesday was so intense. I had Ali Smith in tears behind me and could see asylum seekers who had never heard opera before in tears as well. You are a wonderful conductor and it was a privilege to see you conduct and be any small part of what you do. Big thank you for welcoming us to St Matthias, and the music was a perfect choice and performed with brilliance.” Anna Pincus, founder of Refugee Tales
“I’ve just come home from Refugee Tales. I wanted to say, before the opportunity slips away, that I was completely bowled over by your performance tonight. What a choir. What a soloist. What an orchestra. (What a conductor). Thank you for an absolutely terrific evening, I am now officially a Chorus of Dissent devotee.” EC
“As a participant in Refugee Tales I just had to write and thank you for providing us with such great music from the Chorus of Dissent and St Michael and All Angels’ orchestra at the evening event in Stoke Newington. I was bowled over by the opera excerpts, I actually felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. And I loved your very wittily written and delivered introductions. I understand you were also the link to the church which made such a good, and welcoming venue and to St Matthias Hall which proved to be very comfortable accommodation for our last overnight stay.
“Since the walk we’ve been pleased with progress on our project to get the Tales put onto video for disseminating online. We’d never had experience of crowdfunding before and have been surprised and pleased with its success so far… It’s been very heartening to feel the growing roar of support from individuals giving contributions small and large.” Refugee Tales walker Nicky Rowbottom
Refugee Tales is an initiative reclaiming the landscape of the South East for the language of welcome. Following in the footsteps of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales where writers told tales while they were journeying, walkers join the project and gather in the evenings to share their experiences of migration.
Refugee Tales is an outreach project of the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group and was inspired by the experiences of men held in immigration detention. In the three years since they have been walking, they have been met with hospitality and enthusiasm. At St Matthias Halls it will be no different…
