Ubuntu, Open Mic Night - 15/03/12

I may have mentioned the idea of a CAD (community action day) previously and in each phase we have to hold at least two of these. In Namibia (phase 1) we did a hospital visit, a clean up day and a summer school.

So Ubuntu was our first CAD of the UK phase and it happened last Friday. This was the name of an art and creative writing workshop one of our volunteers, Eden, ran through her placement, North of England Refugee Service (NERS - but be careful googling this since the first hit is North of England Rat Society) focussing on the concept of Ubuntu. According to good ol' wikipedia, Ubuntu is an African ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other.

Displaying Ubuntu Workshop Work

The CAD was a spin off - an open mic night to raise awareness about different types on homelessness involving the work from the workshops.

The Venue

We found a coffee shop run by a church called The Basement who offered a room for the event at a discount price. It is a very nice venue and with the room they provided us with a sound man and a P.A. as well as putting all the chairs away for us.

The Event

With beanbags, stalls, sofas and blankets we went for a relaxed atmosphere. We dotted around a couple of board games to play too. As well as displays of artwork and photographs there was a homelessness quiz or two being circulated.

The Audience

A couple of street performers came along to make sure we had someone playing however with over 60 heads through the door (maybe people caught on to the fact we had money behind the bar for a free coffee per person) the performance list got quite busy.

Performers on Stage

A youth group called All Points North joined the audience and also contributed performances. Poetry about homelessness; a talk about asylum seekers and a video; and an advert about an event they are holding to further raise awareness. As well as this we had a presentation and video played to also raise awareness.

My Job on the Night

So I some how landed the job of organising who is going on stage and when. It proved very stressful and hard to keep track of. At one point I accidentally started to say thank you to an act and introduce the next one before I realised she had another song to perform. The advantage was I could use a wireless microphone and have my voice heard whislt hidden way in any part of the room.

All in all the night was a great success and we were all very pleased with how it went!