We work with women and girls to share and celebrate our commonalities and differences through participation in music and wellbeing activities
We are delighted to announce we have received funding from Birmingham City Council Cultural Development Service to work with women and girls, to reimagine the songs we created as part of the Birmigham 2022 Festival Journeys of Hope Project.
We are holding a series of women only workshops in Moseley, Northfield and Balsall Heath April to June 2023. In Her Shoes musician Ann Jones will be accompanied by guest women artists, from different music genres and ethnicities, will share their musical culture through drumming, music and songs.
To celebrate and share the reimagined songs, we will hold a celebration workshop on
Thursday 22nd June 10.30-12.30
at the Moseley Hive.
This is a women only session, and children welcome. This event is taking place during Refugee Week 2023.
Stay for lunch 12.30-1.30pm
Book your place on Eventbrite by clicking here
Moseley Hive
Thursday 13th April 10.30-12.30
with Karoline Wegrzyn
Thursday 20th April 10.30-12.30
Allens Cross Community Centre
Thursday 4th May 10.30-12.30
with Joelle Baker
Thursday 11th May 10.30-12.30
Thursday 18th May 10.30-12.30
Moseley Road Baths
Thursday 25th May 10.30-12.30
with Sarah Wilson
Moseley Hive
Thursday 1st June 10.30-12.30
Moseley Road Baths
Thursday 8th June 10.30-12.30
All can be booked on our Eventbrite page
As part of Birmingham 2022 Festival, we received funding from Birmingham City Council to develop a Creative City Project, ‘Journeys of Hope’ .
Inspired by athletes travelling from Commonwealth countries to Birmingham, refugee women tell their story of how it feels to arrive in a cold country, the kind of welcome they have received in Birmingham and some of the places they love in their engaging songs. The words of these women will make you laugh and cry, as you hear of the joy, the sorrow, and the strength that sustains them in their new home of Birmingham.
In Spring 2020, we received funding from BCC’s SVPRS scheme, Syrian Vulnerable Person’s Resettlement scheme, to work with a group of Syrian women and girls, newly arrived in Birmingham over the past five years. We met some of the women on our “What community means to me“project, and were keen to develop our relationship.
We wrote songs which explored the impact of lockdown, missing family members, and what it means to be a woman. The group were keen to write in English, and develop their language skills. BMAG has included one of the songs “Planted a lot of flowers”, in their “Life under Lockdown” project.
Our Syrian Song and Conversation Cafe project was participant centred and led, so women shared their Syrian culture with us, taught us some Dabke dance moves and shared their wonderful food. The women shared their hopes and dreams for the future.
During the pandemic, we adapted and met on zoom, and this helped all of us to stay connected and share the challenges we were facing We delivered doorstep packs of craft materials and lyric packs of children’s songs, to help with home schooling and engage new participants. BMAG kindly partnered with us on the initiative.
We plan to continue working with the women beyond this project, and have been invited to perform the songs at BMAG when they reopen. We look forward to some of the women volunteering with us, and seeing the group realise their new ambitions, as they settle into life in Birmingham.
Many thanks are due to our wonderful translator Christina Williams and also to our partner organisations who helped the project succeed:
Julie Barton Navigator Project
Rosie Barker at BMAG
Azra Rasool at Refugee Alliance
Iram Choudry and the resettlement team at BCC
Thanks also to Elona photographer and
Rihab Azar, oud player for their contributions.
Working with our community partners will enable us to offer workshops to women who are disadvantaged: women experiencing domestic violence and abuse; women who are asylum seekers or refugees; women with mental health issues; women who feel lonely and socially isolated; and mothers in deprived communities in Birmingham.
The project will culminate in a sharing event in Birmingham City Centre to celebrate International Women’s Day in March 2020, showcasing the voices of disadvantaged or isolated women and girls from the city. At this event, participants from the workshops will share their lyrics and songs with each other and with members of the public.
We are delighted to announce that we have received a National Lottery Community Fund grant to run a Community Arts Project for women, What Community Means to Me.
We will be offering a mix of one-off workshops and series of participatory song writing workshops from January to March 2020 in Birmingham. We will create new songs to be shared on-line and in workshops. You don’t need any previous musical experience to take part – just come along to meet new women and talk and sing together.
Our partners include:
Moseley Community Hub at The School of Art
Refugee Action in the West Midlands
South Birmingham Women’s Enterprise Hub
Please get in touch with us if you would like to support the project or introduce us to women who would like to participate. Contact Lou Atkin lou.atkin@inhershoes.org.uk or through our website http://inhershoes.org.uk and follow us on Twitter @InHerShoes5
c/o The Moseley Exchange
Courtyard behind Post Office,
149-153 Alcester Road,
Moseley, Birmingham,
B13 8JP
