Before we had figured out the real details of the project, we a small COVID-Safe and COVID-limited launch on a freezing cold day in late September 2020. It was the first live music event that many of us had been to all year and depite the cold we realised the power of community gatherings. The event program is downloadable here! This event began to mobilise the community around the project’s idea; since then we’ve developed several partnerships, workshops and website that you can explore here. The launch was at the New England Regional Art Museum and three of the musical acts—Kerry Ho and Jhana Allan, Khalef, Hozan and Fahad, and Taffy—were supported by the Queer, Indigenous, Multicultural Arts Festival Winter Blooming, postponed due to COVID. The launch was really a line in the sand for Sujata and I to initiate ourselves as facilitators of the project and also gather some key stakeholders and interested community together.
Photos below by Patsy Asch.