On Friday the 28 February Fluent in Both held their 2nd Anniversary awards evening and fundraiser for Nottingham Refugee Forum. Held at the New Art Exchange, the event was a sell-out, with 60 attendees enjoying the event.
The night was hosted by Bou, a wonderful French musician now residing in Barcelona and Anna, one of Fluent in Both’s core team. Themed around Africa the night was a real multicultural and multilingual celebration, from Cameroonian spiritual dance with Florette Fetgo, to Nigerian poetry exploring the Yoruba language. Guests also enjoyed hearing folklore stories from Abiodun Abdul, and from Kenya, Khandasi’s songs in Swahili. Highlights also included singer SUNIQ with her soulful singing, Nigerian Afro Beat singer J12, and host Bou gave us a taste of her own rap tunes. The band Blu.Print were real standouts as they adapted, improvised and jammed music to fit each and every moment. And finally a big shout out to Elias who created a wonderful video all about the work we do at Nottingham Refugee Forum which we hope to share with you soon.
There was lots of support and enthusiasm for the artists and award winners, plenty of dancing, and smiles from everyone. It was a celebratory, community-led atmosphere and a real joy to be there. Thank you so much to Hilario and his team for providing the space to sell our poetry books and be welcomed into the community. Keep watching this space for more collab projects to come!
