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In Place of War celebrates ten years of empowering the arts in conflict zones

15 Apr 2015

An invitation to an evening with In Place of War in Association with TIE Network on Wednesday, 22 April (7-11pm) at HQ Building (2nd Floor), 2 Atherton Street, Manchester M3 3GS

In Place of War

You are invited to an evening with In Place of War hosted by Martyn Ware (Heaven 17), Ruth Daniel and the inspirational Benson Wereje (DR Congo) at HQ Building (1st Floor), 2 Atherton Street, Manchester M3 3GS. Join us for complementary world foods and drinks and performance from:

  • Jon McClure (Reverend and The Makers)
  • Benson Wereje (DRC)
  • UK godfather of hip-hop Rodney P and MC Fallacy
  • Performance poet Dean Atta
  • Bird to Beast + A Congolese monologue.

The University's award-winning project In Place of War celebrates ten years of mobilising, empowering and connecting artists and creative communities in sites of war, revolution and conflict. The project supports artists and creative communities living in sites of conflict to build powerful networks, create social change through creativity and demonstrate the value of the arts to public space, public life and public debate.

In Place of War has developed a ground-breaking creative entrepreneurial programme to be certified by the University and delivered for free to local young people in communities in some of the most under-resourced parts of the world. In these communities with little access to education, offering a free creative entrepreneurial programme with the certification of the University would provide transformative opportunities for up to 5,000 young people in each community every year.

Alongside this programme, the project is currently working to develop four cultural spaces in challenging environments with little access to the creative arts; in Makokoba, the oldest township in Zimbabwe; in both Kisangani and Bukavu, in the middle of war-affected DR Congo; and Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro. The development of these spaces is directly influenced by successful international examples of cultural spaces that have transformed communities in Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia.

Your support would enable the project to develop and secure the required spaces (including building works, security, and decoration), support local staff costs for the coordination of the spaces, and to ship equipment to the locations. The project has already collected over £200,000 of music, studio and film equipment from musicians, TV studios and the University.

Further information

“If it weren’t for hip hop I would be dead. Hip hop gave me another option in life and I will always be grateful for that.” Lupa, Cultural Manager and MC with Sociedad FB7, Medellin, Colombia