Archive for January, 2008
Here’s an exciting start to 2008 with plans for a community garden in Leith (see Green Fingers for details of the Greener Leith meeting on Monday January 28 ). Plus news of other intercultural activities involving both Polish communities (see Home from Home and Breaking Bread) and Chinese communities (see China Now). Leith Open Space will be reporting progress on all this and more during the coming year so keep in touch with our blog. And don’t hesitate to add your own news and views.
January 25th, 2008
Kimho Ip is used to making music in unlikely places (that’s him on the right directing the FEAST in Castle Street last August). Now he’s preparing a different kind of musical feast in the Botanics this summer as one of Edinburgh’s main events for the intercultural programme of China Now in Scotland.
Regular users of Out of the Blue arts cafe in Dalmeny Street may well have spotted an interesting group meeting together for the first time as Kimho, a composer and musician brought together an extraordinary mixture of talent from east and west.
Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo is the name of a multi-media event which will happen on midsummer night in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh with the help of artists, musicians, singers and dancers: from Edinburgh’s electronic band Found to traditional Thai angkalung (bamboo chime) percussionists.
Bamboo is the living link between all the performances inspiring dance as well as providing the raw material for sculpture and musical instruments. “Bamboo is such a fundamental part of life in Asian cultures – it is almost the symbol of China� says Kimho.
Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo (sponsored by the Scottish Arts Council) is one of the main events in the Botanics’ programme of events for China Now in Scotland. More details to come.
January 25th, 2008
A good place to meet , this is a community orchard in Prague in late summer
How about this? A place where people of all cultures meet to grow fruit, flowers and vegetables and make new friends as they grow plants. Community gardens offer wonderful opportunities for bringing people together and it can happen in Leith. After a lot of hard work behind scenes, Greener Leith hopes to turn words into actions on Monday January 28 when a community garden is one of the main items on the agenda for their first meeting of the year. Please come along and join Leith Open Space in supporting this great project.
Plans for the Persevere Community Garden will be discussed at Greener Leith’s meeting in Leith Kirkgate Community Centre on Monday. As Alastair Tibbitt of Greener Leith explains: “The garden is adjacent to the Persevere High Flats, it is roughly triangular and walled in on all sides, but still gets some sunlight. It’s got loads of potential, and the council has recently split the space into a series of mini allotment plots - all of which are currently ‘bare earth’.”
Alastair hopes local community groups will get involved, sharing the work of turning bare earth into a fertile garden. The idea is to organise one or two events during the year, starting with a celebration to launch the site by planting some rare fruit trees in the garden.
Hoping to see you in The Persevere Room, Kirkgate Centre on Monday January 28 at 7.30pm! There are other interesting items on the agenda, such as the Pilton Park berry hedge. For more information see the Greener Leith website.
January 24th, 2008
“Everyone is welcome to attend and many local people do come along.”
In translation it means a ‘meeting place’, but Swietlica means much more than that for members of Edinburgh’s Polish community. And weekly social activities are not restricted to Polish people. Monday gatherings at Fort Community Wing are welcoming events for all local people, as volunteer organisers explain in a short article Kasia Raszewska has sent to Leith Open Space blog.
“The Edinburgh Polish Community ‘Swietlica’ was established in Leith in April 2006 by a group of people committed to making a positive change. Swietlica provides a range of activities and services for Polish migrants, particularly for people who are disadvantaged, isolated or vulnerable.
This is the first and very successful community facility for the new migrant Polish community in Britain, providing free advocacy, social support, guidance, and advice services. In its first year Swietlica received more than 4,000 requests for support from adults and children. This high level of demand confirmed the need for a community base and support services for the Polish community. Since then, Swietlica has been a focal point for Polish people, providing an evolving range of services including: welfare advice, information, counselling, education as well as social activities. Although the centre caters mainly for the migrant community everyone is welcome to attend and many local people do come along.
All services, activities and food are free of charge. All this has been made possible by the dedicated, steadfast commitment of a strong volunteer group of 30 Polish professionals: social workers, teachers, psychologists as well as service users who are regularly helping out at the Centre. The generous donations and funding not just from within the Polish community but also from the wider Scottish community are of great importance. In particular, the funding and support received from Multi-Cultural Family Base, Fort Community Wing, Cattanach Charitable Trust, City of Edinburgh Council, North & Leith Local Development Community Grants Fund, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Edinburgh have been of great assistance.
If you would like to find out more, visit Swietlica, open every Monday between 4 and 9 pm at Fort Community Wing, North Fort Street, EH6 4HR.”
Email: info@swietlica.org.uk
January 23rd, 2008
Edinburgh protesters kneel in silent ’submission’ at the Mound(thanks to Leith and North website for use of the picture)
There was a Guantanamo dog dressed in an orange coat, and a choir singing as we walked along Princes Street. But the most striking moment was when over 150 people wearing orange boiler suits knelt in silent protest while a young ‘guard’ in combat gear shouted at us: “I don’t want to see your eyes, look down, look down.”
This was the moment when people in Edinburgh, Belfast and London joined thousands of others in cities across the world as Amnesty International marked the sixth anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp on Friday January 11. Leith Open Space supporters were among them, donning orange suits to kneel in the infamous submission position outside the US consulate in Regent Terrace and then again at the Mound. You can see Nick Gardner’s report and pictures on the Leith and North website as well as many more pictures on the Amnesty Flickr page.
Since then Amnesty has emailed all of us who took part to say that the day following demonstrations the Chief of the US Military, Admiral Mike Mullen, admitted that he thought Guantánamo Bay should be closed - because he believed that negative publicity worldwide had been “pretty damaging” to the image of the US. (Find out more).
“Not a day longer”, a petition calling for the base to be closed, has now more than 3,000 signatures including the names of parliamentarians of all parties in Scotland and among them are our elected representatives for Edinburgh North and Leith Mark Lazarowicz MP and Malcolm Chisholm MSP.
January 23rd, 2008
‘This is the best ice-breaker I have ever seen.’
On a fairly bleak January morning it’s cheering to take a quick look back to a heartwarming December night when for a few hours Craighall Community Centre in Leith gave a glimpse of a Polish family Christmas with the traditional Wigilia (night before Christmas) celebration. Including a 12 course meal and a visit from St Nicholas!
Breaking bread: oplatek, the traditional highlight of the Polish Christmas celebration, has friends and strangers exchanging good wishes for the coming year.
Leith Open Space was delighted to be invited to join an international gathering of around
120 people including the Consul General of the Republic of Poland Aleksander Dietkow and his wife (pictured right), representatives of Fort Community Wing, Leith Harbour and Newhaven Community, Polish Connections Group, Community Empowerment Group and many others.
Surprise, surprise (and surprise)
We had two surprises: first we discovered there would be 12 courses – including delicious dumplings, beetroot soup (barzsz), many cabbage and mushroom dishes, and fish (traditionally meat is not served) all prepared by volunteers. Second, we discovered all this was washed down with water and spiced plum juice (traditionally alcohol is not served either). And third (make that three surprises), we were sitting next to a young man with a long beard who turned into St Nicholas with presents for us all before the end of the evening.
The highlight of the night was the traditional breaking of bread which had everyone up on the floor exchanging greetings and kisses with people they had never met before the meal began; ‘The best ice-breaker I have ever seen,’ said one of the guests.
As our hostess, Kasia Raszewska explained: “The climax of Wigilia is the ritual of the oplatek, a wafer of unleavened bread. Each guest takes one and, breaking off a small piece, exchanges it with someone else; both eat the piece proffered by the other and wish each other good fortune for the next year.”
Our thanks to Kasia for inviting us to this very welcoming and friendly event. Kasia was an active supporter of the Leith Open Space Opening Doors scheme last year when she ’shadowed’ Mark Lazarowicz MP for Edinburgh North and Leith. We look forward to welcoming new members from the Edinburgh Polish community to the next phase of Opening Doors and other Leith Open Space events this year.
Volunteers from Swietlica, the Polish community group based in Leith, who organised Wigilia with support from City of Edinburgh Council and the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland. Kasia is in the middle, wearing a pink jacket, and ‘St Nicholas’ is behind her next to the Christmas tree. See more pictures on the Swietlica Flickr page.
January 8th, 2008
