On Wednesday, 9 June, join us for this free talk about Good Chance Theatre’s groundbreaking work with artists from across the world and the 8,000km journey of a 3.5 meter-tall puppet. We'll also be joined by the Everyman Theatre's Community Arts Manager.

Good Chance works with artists from around the world, bringing communities together to tell bigger stories of hope and humanity. They build their theatre domes across the world to bring refugees and locals together to create art and produced the multi-award winning, internationally acclaimed play The Jungle.

They are now starting “The Walk” – the journey of Little Amal, a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a young refugee girl, created by the acclaimed Handspring Puppet Company, the world-famous creators of War Horse. Representing all displaced children, many separated from their families, Little Amal will travel over 8,000km embodying the urgent message: “Don’t forget about us”. Amal will leave Turkey in July for a four-month travelling festival of art and hope, and we can follow her along her journey as she is welcomed across 8 countries through 65 towns and cities throughout Europe.

Join us on Zoom:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84238925528?pwd=UnZNak5NMkQ0NHRCZ2R6OFlrUjljUT09

Meeting ID: 842 3892 5528

Passcode: 58

The Walk is produced by Good Chance with Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billy Elliot, 2012 Olympic opening ceremony), David Lan (artistic director of the Young Vic 2000 – 2018), Amir Nizar Zuabi (artistic director of the National Theatre of Palestine), Tracey Seaward (film producer, 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony). And we are delighted to have Cheltenham locals and Good Chance’s Executive Director and Head of Poetry here to tell us more.

Given the number of refugee children who have found a new home in Cheltenham with their families, we’re keen to give Amal a voice for all of them to be heard! Come and join us to hear more about Good Chance, Little Amal and the inspiring journey that sheds light on young refugee children worldwide. Everybody is welcome and there will be plenty of time for questions.

We’ll be joined by:

-           Naomi Webb (Executive Director)

Naomi has worked as a producer for internationally renowned theatre company Complicité (worldwide tour of The Encounter, A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer at National Theatre, The Kid Stays in the Picture at Royal Court), at the Rose Theatre Kingston and Oxford Playhouse. She has led Good Chance's growth as Executive Director since 2017, including over 300 presentations of award-winning production The Jungle in London and the US, the production of seven Dome theatres across the UK, France and America and the creation of the international Good Chance Ensemble.

-           Emily Webb (Head of Poetry)

Emily has led national creative writing charities First Story and Ministry of Stories and as Director of First Story she co-founded with over 20 partners the UK's National Writing Day to reach over 80,000 young people across the country. At Good Chance, she ran their Dome theatres in refugee centres around Paris in 2018 and she founded and runs Good Chance’s groundbreaking poetry collective Change the Word, bringing refugees, asylum seekers and locals together to share their stories with each other and the world.

- Camille Cowe (Community Arts Manager at the Everyman Theatre)

Camille has been leading creative projects with Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS) for many years and in more recent years with CWR.

The Everyman Theatre have commissioned a mural to raise awareness of The Walk with Amal project which is on St Margaret's road, Cheltenham (next to the Brewery Quarter). The Everyman is commissioning an artist to create a piece of community art. It will be a larger than life sculpture of a displaced child which will be covered in hundreds of pegdolls that members of the community will provide.

The sculpture will be an installation at the Gloucester Cathedral in October this year. The Everyman are doing a series of workshops with CWR and other organisations on the "Walk with Amal" theme and they aim to take some flashmob performances by members of the Cheltenham community to meet Amal in both Oxford and Manchester.

https://www.walkwithamal.org/

https://www.goodchance.org.uk/

Anna Ost is a community care solicitor who spent several years working for a charity, supporting people seeking asylum. She will share her knowledge and speak about what people seeking asylum have to prove to establish themselves as refugees.

She will also explain the law around access to social care for people without recourse to public funds - more important than ever during Covid, and on a topic that recently left our PM a bit confused...

Join us on Tuesday, 2 February 2021 at 17:15 on Zoom!

Meeting ID: 872 7731 7878

Passcode: 394857

We're kicking off 2021 properly with the CWR Book Group, reading Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Do join us to discuss it on Tuesday 5th January 2021 at 7:30pm!

"Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood. Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years. Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible."

It's a tremendous book, with luminous semi-experimental prose and vivid plot that culminates in a satisfying and absolutely cracking conclusion.

Zoom login: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87384412786...

Meeting ID: 873 8441 2786
Passcode: 252134

If you want to hear more from Bernardine Evaristo on the novel itself and her historic Booker Prize win, there's a short interview with The TLS Podcast here: Bernardine Evaristo wins again | The TLS Podcast on Acast

Are you missing the thought of singing carols together this Christmas? Our Faith Group has organised a virtual carol session for people of faith and no faith to come together and sing out united in friendship, with a warm welcome to refugees and asylum seekers.

Our carol singing is open to all members of the Cheltenham community. Hold out a virtual hand by singing with us.

Don’t worry if you don’t consider yourself a star singer - we’ll listen to the music together and sing away in front of our muted microphones with the words shown on the screen.

Please come along to sing with us and to join in with the Christmas cheer.

Many thanks to the following groups for contributing songs:

- Elim Church, Cheltenham.

- Gloucestershire University’s chaplaincy

- St. Peter’s Church, Leckhampton.

Zoom details
Meeting ID: 894 7138 9150
Passcode: 686436

To finish off the week on Friday 19th June at 6pm, we're hosting a social to give people the chance to get to know us and find out more about what we do. Please do invite friends who'd like to learn about our work!

This is a great way of getting some news updates on CWR’s activities during the pandemic, our presence during the recent Black Lives Matter vigil, our work with the asylum hub, and asking questions. You might wish to develop some potential links for school assemblies, or discuss ways we can campaign for change in the coming months.

Whatever you fancy, it would be brilliant to see you and have a bit of a chat!

National Refugee Week/Counterpoint Arts will be hosting a live online conversation with Waad al-Kateab, director of ‘For Sama’: “A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her."

”Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.”

You can watch the discussion here on Monday 15th June at 7pm. Make sure to sign up over Eventbrite!

For those who haven’t seen the film yet, CWR are hosting a Watch Party the day before, so we can see ‘For Sama’ together using screen share! Just RSVP by emailing us at chelt.refugees@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a video link.

Join us online on Sunday 14th June at 7pm… and don’t forget the tissues.

Sadly, we’ve made the decision to cancel our annual Eid party.

It’s really hard because we’ve been planning to make it bigger than ever, combining our annual summer picnic with celebrating the end of Ramadan.

But now we would like to invite people to celebrate it at home with their immediate families, and reaching out to contact those dearest to them in the spirit of festivity, even when we’re far apart.

Enjoy good food and appreciate one another, and we’ll all be together again soon.

We’re having another CWR quiz!!

Those who joined us at the Boston Tea Party in June for our Refugee Week quiz night may remember what a lovely evening we all had, with some great tasks and very engaging questions. Everyone is welcome to join us once more at the BTP on 12th December for round two!

We'll be asking for a £2 entry fee per person to help us raise funds for our work, which now includes helping to support asylum seekers rehousing in Cheltenham for the first time.

If you have any questions, please email Isabel at chelt.refugees.community@gmail.com.

St Gregory’s Church Cheltenham is hosting a Christmas concert, with funds being raised for ‘Aid for the Church in Need’, and Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees.

Tickets - £15 for adults, and £7 for under 16s - are available for purchase here, or call Sheila Mander on 07879 620871 for further information.