art27 Presents: ReSounding

As we cap off 2023, we brought back two collaborators and friends of art27 to participate in a special 2-part episode of ReSounding, in acknowledgement of International Day of Human Rights. Yigit Aksakoglu is a social change advocate whose career spans Human Rights advocacy, early childhood development, NGO policy, and even political prisoner. Having been unjustly imprisoned in his native Turkey f...

As we cap off 2023, we brought back two collaborators and friends of art27 to participate in a special 2-part episode of ReSounding, in acknowledgement of International Day of Human Rights. Yigit Aksakoglu is a social change advocate whose career spans Human Rights advocacy, early childhood development, NGO policy, and even political prisoner. Having been unjustly imprisoned in his native Turkey f...

In Place of War is a global network. It includes artists, theatre-makers, dancers, DJs, and musicians. It supports artistic projects around the world in numerous contexts, providing alternatives to conflict, helping heal the trauma of war, and building arts equity where it's needed most. In this episode, Laura Hassler talks to Ruth Daniel, the CEO of In Place of War. Connecting over their shared p...

This month we are joined by prolific human rights advocate and self proclaimed Artivist, Omaid Sharifi. Omaid grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan, and has considered himself an activist from the age of 12. Under the injustices of both the US intervention of his country and both Taliban regimes, Omaid has been using art to speak truth to power and point out cruelty and corruption. In 2014, Omaid co-found...

Luciana Abait is a multimedia artist whose artworks can be seen in all manner of place: in galleries, at airports, in shop windows, and projected onto enormous walls. Born in Argentina, living in the USA, movement, migration, displacement, and nationhood are all core themes of Luciana's works. So too is the topic of climate, and the connections between climate crisis and forced migration. In this...

Kate McMillan is an artist, academic, and artistic researcher whose work is dedicated to exploring the afterlives of colonialism, the lived experience of migration, and the narratives of women and migrants through complex evocative site-specific installations. Her latest work,  Never At Sea is richly symbolic work developed for St Mary Le Strand Church in the heart of historic central London. The...

In the early 2000's Lizzi and John Swatland were not yet filmmakers or activists. After a chance encounter with a famous musician, however, the two soon found themselves involved in advocating for better treatment of refugees in Australia. Their involvement continued to grow into what would become Scattered People : a feature length documentary telling the stories of refugees and asylum seekers in...

Is it ok to make a joke of the refugee situation in Europe? Meet the London-based initiative that suggests that sometimes, humor can indeed be the best medicine! No Direction Home, an event series by Counterpoints Arts is an event series that trains refugees and migrants in London in the art of stand-up comedy, getting them stage ready, and creating opportunities to share their stories with UK aud...

When we hear the phrase "artistic censorship," it's easy to conjure up a stereotypical image of oppressive control, and to assume that it's only happening in certain countries or regions. However, the truth is that censorship takes many different forms and is present in countries all over the world. Fortunately, there are organizations like Safemuse that are working to address the global spread of...

Vietnamese singer Mai Khôi is a dissident. After gaining enormous fame as a pop "darling of the state" in her home country, Mai Khôi used her platform to speak out against the repressive laws in the one-party Vietnamese society. Speaking out against strict censorship laws for artists and performers, as well as the gendered restrictions against women, turned Mai Khôi from a celebrated patriotic art...

Yigit Aksakoglu is a social change advocate whose career spans Human Rights advocacy, early childhood development, NGO policy, and even political prisoner. Having been unjustly imprisoned in his native Turkey for peaceful protest, Yigit now lives in Exile in the Netherlands, where he advocates for better treatment of refugees and undocumented migrants. His organisation Mahalle Art & Kultur aims to...

We start 2023 off with a long anticipated guest, the political cartoonist and artist Dwayne Booth, better known as Mr Fish. Fish's incendiary political artwork and relentless truth-seeking has been a recurring topic around the art27 office, and we couldn't wait to get him on the podcast. In this wide-ranging conversation, Musicians Without Borders' Laura Hassler and Mr Fish dig deep, into the hist...

In 2022, we launched the first art27 open call for artistic commissions. The Arts for Social Inclusion project awarded successful applicants funding for the creation of new collaborative artworks. The works bring artists of different mediums together to create pieces that tell new stories about migration, displacement, and the lived experience of upheaval. In this episode we spoke to Anas Qadamani...

In 2022, we launched the first art27 open call for artistic commissions. The Arts for Social Inclusion project awarded successful applicants funding for the creation of new collaborative artworks. The works bring artists of different mediums together to create pieces that tell new stories about migration, displacement, and the lived experience of upheaval. In this episode we spoke to Adam Togo, An...

In 2022, we launched the first art27 open call for artistic commissions. The Arts for Social Inclusion project awarded successful applicants funding for the creation of new collaborative artworks. The works bring artists of different mediums together to create pieces that tell new stories about migration, displacement, and the lived experience of upheaval. In this episode we spoke to Mariam Shurgh...

In 2022, we launched the first art27 open call for artistic commissions. The Arts for Social Inclusion project awarded successful applicants funding for the creation of new collaborative artworks. The works bring artists of different mediums together to create pieces that tell new stories about migration, displacement, and the lived experience of upheaval. In this episode we spoke to Fabio Joel Tu...

This month art27 member Darren Abrahams takes the reigns hosting and speaks to two organizations that use gardening, plants, food, and permaculture to create sustainability and resilience for refugees living in camps in East Africa and Northern Iraq/Kurdistan. Bemeriki Bisimwa Dusabe is the founder of the Rwamwanja Rural Foundation, working in Uganda to create farming and sustainable food solution...

The Human Hive is an international organisation shifting the paradigm of development work. The Human Hive are in the process of training a mass collective of educators, facilitators, front-line workers, and students who are equipped with a better way of working. A way of working with the environment, rather than through it.  In this episode co-founder Darren Abrahams draws on his expertise as a mu...

In 2014, when ISIS began their attack on the minority Yazidi population of Northern Iraq/Kurdistan, the Noah brothers Jason, Salam, and Ismail, together with the rest of their family were forced to flee their homes and search for safety across the border. After many deadly attempts to cross into Europe, the Noah family found themselves as Yazidi refugees in Greece, facing dual persecution due to t...

The crucial freedoms that artists need to carry out their work - freedom to express, to tell the truth, to reach any audience - are not upheld equally around the world. In some situations artists face considerable risk or danger because of the work they do. In such situations, initiatives like Artists at Risk Connection step in, in order to help those individuals and uphold our universal freedoms...

We are all funny and we all make mistakes. Sometimes we like to forget these aspects of human nature in favor of the serious side of life. But, the ability to embrace our humor and our flaws and laugh at ourselves can be incredibly powerful. So says Natalie Porias, director of Red Noses International, an international organisation of clowns who have been bringing laughter, joy, and silliness to vu...

This month art27 Co-Founder Laura Hassler takes up hosting duty and speaks to Godfrey Lado, a musician and poet living in Amsterdam. Born in South Sudan, Godfrey fled the country as a refugee when he faced the prospect of mandatory military service. Since arriving in the Netherlands he has negotiated a long and difficult journey to become a fully documented citizen. Now, through storytelling, musi...

Laura Nyahuye is a Zimbabwean born artist, storyteller, a curator, writer, performer, and the founder of Maokwo a social enterprise exploring ways in which creativity can bring communities together. She joined us to talk about how we can tell stories of migration through art, and how this process can help minoritized people form an understanding of their experiences. She also told us how she explo...

In the 1960's the town of Amude on the Northern border of Syria was a haven of creativity and expression. However a tragic fire in one of the town's cinemas left a deep scar within the community that has not been healed for over 60 years. That is until 2021, when Alaa Abdulfatah and her husband Gernas Haj Shekhmous decided to return to their hometown after years of living in Europe, to build Kultu...

Our first episode of a new season of the ReSounding Podcast, and we kick 2022 off with a moving interview with Laura Hassler, the founder and director of Musicians Without Borders , and one of the co-founders of art27. Laura is an award-winning peace activist who has worked with Musicians Without Borders for over 20 years to help heal the wounds of war through music education, sustainable school p...