Return(ing) to the future…

Thank you, everyone, for joining us and Akeelah Bertram at the first Return workshop the other week and helping shape the next iteration of this ambitious hybrid work!

Through a series of creative workshops, participants are invited to create a rich resource of stories, ideas and provocations around shared cultural and social heritage. These conversations will then inform a series of podcasts produced and broadcast by Sable Radio from Leeds in early 2023.

The new iteration of the Return artwork creates space for a participatory and collective exploration of loss, connection and displacement.

In Akeelah’s own words, “Between 2018 and 2019 I visited Ghana, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and the USA. During these trips I spoke with people from the African diaspora who were living and experiencing their shared heritage to varying degrees and with differing impacts. These experiences sparked questions about the ways people within the diaspora can connect to sites of their heritage if they are not physically able to visit them. I was inspired to develop RETURN – an installation that will create emotionally engaging exchanges between people in the diaspora focusing on locations in West Africa, North and South America, the Caribbean and Europe.”

Don’t worry if you missed out on the first workshop – we have 3 more coming up this year and will keep you posted.

You can learn more about the history of this project as well as this new iteration on the full project page here.