National Black Arts Alliance

Participant  “I would say that this exchange and the NBAA program has helped me personally. To meet new people and personalities, learning new cultures and know me well. How to read the poem that(name) and me wrote: “exchanging feelings, getting new points of view and discovering me”. Also has influenced me professionally as we have developed artistic activities, some related to my studies. People also know audiovisuao and artistic environment. In conclusion for me has been a positive experience both personally and professionally! ”

Participant.

“ Thanks a lot, everything was so fulfilling and really a fantastic experience. You and NBAA have made a great effort of organizing everything and I felt that there was behind a big sense of planning and deal with various issues at the same time. Please give my thanks to all artists that we have worked with for their expertise and work.

Participant

My experience with NBAA
Since I arrived I felt very well served by Suandi and his ((sic) team.
With regard to activities, assess each of them and they were amazing and new to my experience, especially visits to museums, galleries, etc.
The last day I felt a bit mobilized with the movie we saw as the whole issue of social exclusion, racism I live every day in my country. In my case, not my color but because of my nationality, being an immigrant.
Sharing with people of different nationalities and languages made me much more contact with that person’s sensitive side, that we are no matter what language or color or anything. And this is what we demonstrated through the work of photography, poetry, drum and drama, to perform each of the activities are done from our being, regardless of where we came, we were doing something together in community as being one.
Hence the importance of this meeting, because it allows to convey to others that we are thanks to our roots, our heritage and we are still what we live through daily.
Thanks for the opportunity, thank you for putting on my way to artists and people so sensitive and so human.
Thank you very much

Audience comments received after the sharing session

The presentation revealed a group that had bonded and found common ground through the diversity of art forms explored and and social experiences. It was moving to see how a group from multiple countries found connection in the African Diaspora traditions they explored and that connected them to their own diverse ancestry. I was particularly moved by the sculpture work which were strong symbols of their journey. It was fantastic to experience their hopes and dreams through the universal language of image theatre and the subtlety of voice in their poetry. Congratulations to the group and thanks to Suandi for being a welcoming host of international visitors.
Baba Israel Artistic Director Contact

Just to say   congratulations on the success of  the recent nbaa “ Remembering Tomorrow” project.  At the closure event on Friday 29^th, I was extremely impressed with the level of  creative/artistic  skills that the participants had acquired  during the course of the project.  For example , one of the participants from Spain informed me that the project gave him the opportunity to  represent his  cultural heritage through a range of challenging and exciting artforms e.g. photography, drama, poetry and music.  He was particular proud of the piece of work depicting the spirit dancer which occupies the sacred forests of Angola.  The importance of rhythm as a language for uniting this multilingual group  of participants was clearly evident during the drumming session.  The  unifying sounds of the African  drums was also symbolic of the fact that all the participants were equal and they were also different.

All the best

Dr. Diane Watt Senior Lecturer Manchester Metropolitan University

Just a note to say thank-you for inviting me to the presentations by the Remembering Tomorrow Group on Friday. It was hard to believe that this group had only met about a week beforehand as they had obviously come together so well through the programme of activities that you organised. I was very impressed with the depth and insights shown in their drama and poetry work, and the sculptures were truly wonderful. It was clear to the audience that the individuals have found the programme illuminating and a precious experience indeed. Hopefully you will be able to organise more of these programmes for other groups in the future.

Jackie Ould Education Outreach Coordinator, Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust,

Remembering Tomorrow Evaluation Snapshot