A Party To Celebrate Three Years Together

Thanks to Laura for these reflections on New Beginnings Mentoring's impressive first three years.

There is always a good reason to celebrate...especially if we talk about our achievements over the last three years! The New Beginnings project turned three years old and we celebrated it on 31st May. Many people gathered at The Forum to enjoy a fun day together with music, food and good memories. In front of an enthusiastic audience, our trained music group performed at Café Nova for the second time, playing a wide range of songs, from the Wizard of Oz soundtrack's “Over the Rainbow," to George Gershwin's “I Got Rhythm,” and The Sound of Music soundtrack's “Edelweiss,” when everybody stood up, chose a partner and started dancing together. The concert masterpiece was Aziza’s solo of “Ego,” a song composed and performed by herself with the choir as back-up. Very catchy and performed with passion, you couldn’t get its rhythm out of your head!

The party then moved to The Forum's office, where we enjoyed a lovely video put together by Milca and Martina on our activities and events over the last year. Interviews and photos followed, and you realized how people have benefitted and enjoyed every class, and how strong their bond is with The Forum and among each other. 

Some of their comments were:

Woolwich: Not In My Name

Thank you to Home Away From Home contributor Jeena for sharing this powerful poem written and performed by her daughter, Zena Agha, in reaction to the Woolwich killing. Please distribute it widely. As Jeena says, "people need to see it and understand" and "we all need to stand together during these times." 

The Circus Comes to The Forum!

Milca writes eloquently about her experience leading the Circus workshop during last week's Cultural Friday.

The circus has always been part of my life. I have practised different circus disciplines in a non-professional way since I was very little and, even if it never took first place in my everyday life, it was always following me. To me, as well as to the people that compose “my world,” the circus is something familiar, or at least known. So, understandably, the circus was the first thing I had in mind when I was told about the possibility of running a workshop for a Cultural Friday at MRCF. The premise was good: I had been working here as an intern for two months, so I already knew most of the participants. In addition, I had the chance to attend another Cultural Friday workshop, a very fascinating one about drawing run by Caspar. At the same time I had doubts: Will it look silly? Will they be bored? How does the activity have to be designed to appeal to people that have probably heard very little about the circus? I was keen to share with them a taste of something that has always been part of my life and filled me with perplexity at the same time.…

All my doubts disappeared from the beginning of the activity. What I am especially pleased about was the participants’ welcoming attitude towards me and the things I was presenting. The group was quite numerous - around fifteen people showed up and this made the atmosphere animated. We started off with a short informative part, during which I showed them some videos of contemporary performances, both by famous circus companies and by lesser-known “underground” artists. Then we developed a discussion arising from the individuals' knowledge, memories and experiences. Step-by-step, a clearer picture came up of circus being traditionally a travelling art, along with the different artists that might be found in a company - from acrobats to clowns, animal trainers, funambulists, and jugglers. 

After that we switched to a more practical activity, namely juggling. We started from the very preliminary step of making the juggling balls out of raw materials, such as flour, balloons, wire, tape, and elastic. It soon turned out to be not too easy to actually make these balls and it required a fair amount of patience from all of us. However, no one gave up! Some of the faster ones could proceed to the second phase and attached a wire to the balls to obtain bolas (sort of chains). Apart from myself - jumping around, passing around scissors and replacing broken balloons - the group was relaxed and curious. At that stage, not everybody was clear we were actually going to use the tools we made, so when I announced it, it sounded almost like a joke: “Do you want me to juggle?!”