Following the astounding, moving content we received from so many for our #MAPdanceaday open call we are starting our next call out: a poetry project which will contribute to our #BeyondBorders online exhibition set for Autumn 2020. We are making a call out to you to create a written, spoken word or visual poem responding to the theme of #Time - this time, our time, how you process time. We have teamed up with the amazing LyricL Nkechi from #UK and Flow Wellington Motaung from #SA who will work with us to put the work together.
Get out some inspiration for your piece direct from LyricL: https://www.facebook.com/movingassemblyproject/videos/2345057155799475
Final date for submissions will be 1 August 2020. Send your poems to info@movingassemblyproject.org or via Facebook messenger. Poems will feature in a book that we're putting together and contributing poets will receive a free copy.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO READING AND SHARING YOUR WORK WITH THE WORLD!
BEYOND BORDERS | A DANCE A DAY SERIES
MAP have started a #danceaday series to stay active during this APRIL/MAY lockdown period. We will be posting a dance video everyday until the end of lockdown and invite you to share your home-dance films with us during this time. All of the films will be edited together to create one film as a symbol of celebration at the end of the lockdown.
So far we've received a great response from our friends around the world sending us their films. We've shared films from Kigali - Rwanda, Austria, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth - South Africa, England and Ireland - United Kingdom and Turkey. If you have made a dance film at home during this time then WE INVITE YOU to send and share your films with us, we will add it to the and will give you a shout-out on our social media page on Facebook.
Share you video via messenger or email to: dane@movingassemblyproject.org Follow us on our Facebook page to see all the films: https://www.facebook.com/movingassemblyproject/ | #mapdanceaday #danceaday #staysafe #beyondborders
A powerful new exhibition that uncovers the mystery, pain, anger and stories of forgotten police cells in the historic city of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Running for a week on London's SouthBank at the Oxo Tower Gallery, 10th - 14th April.
Freedom of Expression is a collection of work from celebrated South African photographer, Karl Schoemaker. Schoemaker has captured the long abandoned Baakens Police Station which is nestled behind the sleepy-harbour city’s City Hall, to share its history and stories with the world.
Schoemaker captured the images alone across three-months, mindful to never spend more than three hours in the cells, afraid of becoming desensitised to the enormity of the history recorded on the walls: “The place was dark and dank, and to shoot the cells properly, I always closed the heavy cell doors which gave me the feeling of being trapped. An insight into what the captured felt. At other times I would go down and simply read the stories scratched into the walls, not photographing anything. But sitting with their energy, imagining the emotions they felt.”
The exhibition is supported by The Linbury Trust and produced by the Moving Assembly Project, a not for profit which connects people, artists and students from diverse global backgrounds and communities through the arts. Co-curator of the exhibition and Artistic Director of Moving Assembly, Dane Hurst, says: “The historical context of these images and the trauma they hold is only a small element of what South Africa endured. They sit beside images that capture the lives of South Africa’s youth and the freedom they have to express their experience of the world. Working with young people and empowering them has such a profound effect on our collective futures. Seeing the positive outcomes of this work says so much about the nature of hope, perseverance and the power of the artist in the community.”
The exhibition will also feature poetry by London poet LyricL Nkechi and photography from Moving Assembly Project students who have taken part in workshops in South Africa under the tutelage of Schoemaker.
There will be a panel discussion on ‘The
Power of the Artist in the Community’ on Saturday 13 April @ 3-5pm
To Book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-power-of-the-artist-in-the-community-tickets-59154647142
Teaching is at the heart of what we do and thanks to your support, we have always been able
to offer our programme at no cost to the student. Last year we introduced and offered our first photography workshops led by Karl Schoemaker alongside our regular dance programme.
We worked with over 100 students in Port Elizabeth, at the Ithuba Community College in Port Edward and at the LIV Village in Durban. The workshops were facilitated by our MAP team
and the images were taken by our students on disposable cameras based on the theme 'Who Are you?' This year we continued the photography programme alongside our dance workshops that took
place at the St Thomas High School and the Ubuntu Pathways. The team worked towards creating a curtain raiser performance for 74 youth who performed alongside our MAP team in collaboration
with Nelson Mandela University on the PE Opera House stage. Most of the students were entering and performing in the theatre for the very first time. This was a very special experience
for the student, parents and members of the community who saw the youth expressing their individuality on stage; a contrast to knowing where they come from
and seeing them in a very different, radiant light.
We now have a very strong visual archive from the very many different perspectives and life situations
of many of our students which allows us to have a deeper understanding of who it is that we are working with and what it is that we are offering within the context of their environment. Now after
completing our third and most ambitious project to date, we are ready to fully share with you the impact of this work on the students. We are in the process of working towards showing
all these photos and filmed documentary footage of our collective work thus far and look forward to finally hosting a celebratory event at the Africa Centre in London towards the
end of 2018.
TEACHING and PERFORMANCE is our MAP focus and we aim to work with as many young or old students as possible. In 2016 we worked with approximately 80 students and in 2017 we opened our project up to the wider community and offered dance and photography classes to 200 students at St Thomas High School in Port Elizabeth, LIV Village Orphanage in Durban and the Ithuba Community College in Port Edward leading to the creation of new choreography that students and professionals performed to members of the community at the end of the workshops and at the National Arts Festival.
MAP delivered its first photography workshop at the St Thomas Senior Secondary School in Gelvandale, Port Elizabeth. Karl Schoemaker was leading lecturer and the workshops which spanned over 2 weeks resulted in the creation of some fantastic images based on the theme of WHO ARE YOU?
MAP are looking forward to working with LIV Village in 2017 and will be delivering professional Masterclasses in other parts of South Africa. More news to follow...
MAP delivered an intensive 2 week training and choreography programme, working with 60 untrained dance students at the Ubuntu Education Fund in Zwide, Port Elizabeth.
MAP delivered an intensive 1 week programme leading to an informal sharing of choreography, working with students of the Amaphiko Township Dance Project in Grahamstown, South Africa.