‘No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs’: Migration, Refugees and the Climate Crisis

LET’S ROAR TOGETHER FOR CHANGE!

ROARING Voices is a not-for-profit organisation that welcomes donations to support its work creating cultural events that combine entertainment with advocacy. www.roaringvoices.co.uk

Our ROARing Musicians:

Blánid is an Irish singer-songwriter, who has garnered plays on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 6, RTÉ Radio 1 and more; TV appearances on RTÉ 1’s The Late Late Show, All Arts TV & PBS; and featured vocalist slots on both Netflix’s ‘The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf’, and ‘Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin’ video game. After her 2023 UK tour this year she showcased at Whelan’s Ones to Watch, made her solo debut on RTÉ TV 1’s Fingal Sessions, was hand-selected by the prestigious Ivors Academy for performance and YouTubeMusic songwriting opportunities, and performed at The National Gallery with Isabella Summers (Florence and the Machine). Described as “one of our brightest stars” – Belfast Telegraph; and “Completely captivating voice” – Sian Eleri, BBC Radio 1 

Jeanette Murphy is an independent Irish/Nigerian songwriter, musician and producer from London.  With unique and enticing vocals, and skilled guitarist, Jeanette regularly takes part in the lively Irish trad music sessions in and about London. Jeanette is looking forward to showcasing her love for Irish music with Roaring Voices for this event.

Annu Sodipe tours with the Chineke Orchestra. In 2023 Annu performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. She has also performed with Stormzy at the 2023 Brit Awards and with the Afrobeat artist, Asaka, at the O2 Arena.

Lynda Olivia Nwabudike recently portrayed Mimi in La Bohème; and the title role in Anna Bolena for the Postgraduate Opera Scenes at Trinity Laban Opera. Lynda received the Opera Europa Eve Kleinitz Scholarship and  was the recipient of the Peter Harris Scholarship and the Kathleen Trust Scholarship at Trinity Laban Opera.

Sarah Wilkinson is a highly experienced pianist, vocal coach, repetiteur, and piano accompanist. She is the Director of Highbury Youth Choirs, Assistant Director to both Eclectic Voices and Highbury Opera Theatre and has performed at prestigious venues throughout the UK and abroad including the Queen Elizabeth Hall and St John Smith’s Square and on BBC Radio 4. https://sarahwilkinson.uk/

MUSICAL DIRECTOR

Gemma Storr most recently the featured composer on Furies’s ‘Ecotales’; Cowbois (Royal Shakespeare Company);  A Pacifists Guide to the War on Cancer (Complicité) UK/International tour); Ugly Chief (Battersea Arts Centre/CTN Tour); Snappy Operas (Mahogany Opera Group/UK Tour); American Idiot the Musical (Mountview School of Theatre Arts); The Gentlest Work (By Jove Theatre); Free Women (Folkestone Quarterhouse); Key to Return (BrightSparksP21). 

Our ROARing Panel

Gaia Vince is an award-winning science writer and author and journalist (the Guardian, New Scientist and BBC), Anthropocene researcher, global strategist, traveller, broadcaster, analyst, and speaker, who is particularly interested in the interaction between human systems and the Earth’s planetary systems.  Gaia also presents documentaries for radio and television and held senior editorial positions at the science journals Nature, Nature Climate Change, and New Scientist magazine.  She is also the founding member of the Climate migration Council, and a National Oceans Centre Ambassador.

Sonja Linden is an award winning playwright whose plays have been produced in  theatres across the UK and the USA.  Inspired by her seven year writing residency at Freedom from Torture, she founded iceandfire theatre in 2003  to bring to public attention  some of the  stories of the refugee clients she worked with in her Write to Life Project.  Among her current projects is Small Boats, an adaptation for stage in Sonja’s translation of a recent highly acclaimed French novel, narrated by a French female coastguard who failed to save a boatful of  migrants. A work of fiction, it is inspired by a real event in the English Channel in November 2021.

Lord Dubs was born in December 1932 in Prague and was one of the Czech children rescued from the Nazis in the Kindertransport. Today Lord Alf Dubs is one of the UK’s leading campaigners for human rights and justice and for the plight of Refugees,

Lord Alf Dubs studied at the London School of Economics before entering a long career in public service. He has been a local councillor, MP for Battersea; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office; Chair of the Fabian Society, Chair of Liberty, a Trustee of Action Aid, Director of the Refugee Council and a Trustee of the Immigration Advisory Service. He was also Deputy Chair of the Independent T.V. Commission, a member of the Broadcasting Standards Council, becoming Deputy Chairman in 1995, and then Deputy Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Commission until 1997.

Lord Dubs was appointed a Labour working peer in 1994 and is now an active member of the House of Lords. He serves on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. He is on the Advisory Board of the John Smith Memorial Trust, formed in 1996 to promote the ideals of democracy, social justice and good governance. Lord Dubs is also our valued Patron here at the Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith.

DETAILS OF MORE ROARers TO FOLLOW Roaringvoices.co.uk !