Past projects

FAVELA TO THE WORLD 2006-2008

(Project continues through to 2012)

During 2005, Paul Heritage set about building plans with UK partners to bring his long-standing collaborators in Brazil, Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, to introduce them to UK audiences, artists and professionals involved with young people at risk of gun and gang crime, and to lead pilot activities with young people in London and Manchester.

Support from Arts Council England and a special commission from Barbican:bite to create a show conceived specially for London audiences combined to allow People's Palace Projects to bring AfroReggae to the UK for the first time in early 2006 to perform From the Favela to the World in London, Manchester and Oxford, to work intensively with young people, and to lead trainings and seminars. The visit was widely seen as a powerful success. Barbican bite confirmed an invitation to return with From the Favela to the World in 2007, and to create a new performance for September 2008.

Out of the relationships forged around AfroReggae's first visit, People's Palace Projects brokered the formation of the AfroReggae UK Partnership, bringing together a range of UK arts and non-arts organizations who wanted to collaborate to draw learning and inspiration from AfroReggae in their work with young people here in the UK. The wider Favela to the World project was defined as a 7 year programme through to 2012 that aimed to explore how the arts can help young people at risk of gun and gang crime to transform their worlds. It was conceived jointly as a project that would evolve its programme through to 2012, leaving considerable autonomy and responsibility for partners to progress their practice and approach as they saw fit.

In 2007 AfroReggae returned to perform at the Barbican, and at the trainings and sharings that accompanied their visit, it became clear that a number of AfroReggae UK Groups involving young people in a range of settings in London and Manchester had emerged. Partners decided to develop these in a coordinated picture through to 2008, when AfroReggae would return to perform a new show Favelisation at the Barbican in September 2008, to be joined by young people to perform with them there. AfroReggae visited to lead trainings with young people earlier in 2008, and to perform in September 2008, with their young sub-group AfroLata also visiting Manchester and Newcastle to launch AfroReggae's involvement with the North East.

Partners:
Asian Dub Foundation Education, Barbican, Bigga Fish, Contact, Dance City, The Learning Trust, Metropolitan Black Police Association, Rich Mix, Shoreditch Trust, Theatre Royal Stratford East

Aims:
To transfer knowledge and skills from AfroReggae to artists and arts organisations in the UK. To explore ways which young people can use the arts as an effective means to change their world. To present UK audiences with great contemporary art and arts practices from Brazil.

Main Project Activities:
2006: Performances of From the Favela to the World at Barbican, Oxford Town Hall and Contact Manchester; Insight AfroReggae, a three week programme for fifty arts practitioners; formation AfroReggae UK Partnership; Youth and Police Seminar
2007: Performances of From the Favela to the World at Barbican; Training Forum for teachers, youth leaders, etc; public seminars on the empowerment of young people through the arts.
2008: Taking Control training weekend, formation of Bigga Bloco: performances at Stoke Newington Festival, Astoria Theatre and Barbican; performance by UK AfroReggae groups at Shoreditch Festival and EAST; performances of Favelization at Barbican; presentations by Afrolata at Toynbee Studios & Theatre Royal Stratford East/London, Dance City/Newcastle, Contact Theatre/Manchester.

Project Website: www.favelatotheworld.org

Evaluation:
From the Favela to our Manor by Dr Richard Ings. An 80 page report on the first year of the programme. "To the Beat of Where They Are" by Louise Owen (PPP Bulletin No.4)

Awards:
AfroReggae UK Partnership granted the Inspire Mark as part of the Cultural Olympiad, 2008

Project Funders:
Amnesty International
Amnesty UK
Arts Council England Grants for the Arts
Awards for All
Barbican
Contact
Dance City
The Dragon School, Oxford
Embassy of Brazil in London
London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise [LCACE]
Ogilvy's
Queen Mary University of London
Shoreditch Trust
TAM Airlines
The Learning Trust
Varig Airlines
Westfield Trust