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A FORTNIGHT OF FESTIVALS AND FIESTAS
* Leith Festival Comedy, visual arts. music, film, drama, book events, sport AND a gala procession! Residents of Leith, they are really spoiling you. Edinburgh, various venues, Leith, until Sun 10 Jun.
>l< Scotland’s Mardi Gras: The Byres Road Street Party Arrrrrrrriba! Mardi Gras is here, babies, kicking off the West End Festival in an explosion of colour. Samba Ya Bamba, Sticky Fingers and the Amphetemeanies will all be present and correct. See www.westendfestival.co.uk for more info. Glasgow, Byres Road, Sun 70 Jun.
* The Edinburgh Moonwalk It‘s too late to apply to take part, but thousands of the good ladies of Edinburgh and the surrounding areas will take to the streets at midnight (pictured) to raise money for breast cancer charities. Everyone wears a specially decorated bra. too, and often not much else. Check out the route at www.walkthewalk.org if you want to support the walkers. Edinburgh, Meadows, Sat 76 Jun.
ream girls
As Refugee Week launches a programme of cultural events, promoting tolerance and friendship, Kirstin lnnes talks to three teenagers with big ambitions
‘ve just met the UK‘s hottest new teen sensation. They‘re bright. sparky. gorgeous and talented — they act. they make films. they . . .
‘No! We can‘t sing. Don't put that we can sing!’ shrieks l4-year -old Hadrat Ahmed. clapping her hands over her mouth. eyes wide.
‘We do dancing. and rap. though. We make tip raps about our lives — about young girls having fun. And we act. We‘re good at acting‘ says liatma Mahfoudh (age: ‘lo-in-September‘ ). liatma. Hadrat and Marlene Madenge l‘lb-in-l)ecember'). call themselves Da Chicks. l)a Chicks want to be actors. just like Beyonce (‘except without the singing] says Hadrat. looking worried). They want their own BBC TV series. just like Tracy Beaker. They giggle. swap text messages and refuse to give me their full attention. just like any teenage girls. but they‘re not. not really. l)a Chicks are all refugees — Hadrat and Fatma from Somalia. Marlene from Congo. They‘ve been living in (ilasgow for between four and seven years and have grown up differently here.
Da Chicks knew each other locally. but only formed the group after their involvement with AI‘IFZICIOI')’. an outreach project run by Artists in lixile Glasgow. Artliactory offers (ilasgow pupils — mostly. though by no means exclusively. refugees and asylum seekers. the chance to work in different disciplines with a variety of international artists — some of them refugees themselves. ()ne of the products of these sessions. the short film Trapped. will be screened during Refugee Week.
Trap/ml was scripted. acted. filmed. lit. edited and directed by a group of around 20 local kids. all under
16. with the assistance of filmmaker Victor Kennedy. Marlene has the lead role, as a teenage girl alternately floating. lost. through a forest, and flashing back to a night of underage drinking. Hadrat and Fatma are prominent in the film. too.
‘The effect the project has had on the kids has been amazing.‘ says Chelsea McKinnon. who runs AnFactory and produced the film. ‘They’ve all gained confidence - they talk back. these days.” Hadrat agrees: ‘We're more open now. We used to be so shy!’
Da Chicks are now working on a new theatre piece as part of the National Theatre of Scotland Exchange project. a sort of convention for youth theatre groups: their deadline is to be ready to perform in the Tron Theatre at the Artists in Exile Glasgow Cabaret evening on Saturday 23 June. The Exchange project asks participants to ‘explore, through a theme of metamorphosis. what it means to be young, Scottish and international.’ It‘s high falutin’ language, but Da Chicks know what it means. ‘The play’s about change.‘ says Marlene. softly. ‘Maybe the change that you go through when you grow up. you know, being a teenager. being a girl.’ ‘Or maybe it means change when you move.‘ Fatma chimes in. ‘Change when you travel and swap countries, when you come halfway across the world. Like we did.‘ Da Chicks nod. as one.
For full details of Refugee Week’s intensive programme, see www.refugeeweek.org.uk Trapped will be screened at the GMAC Mini Film Festival on Wednesday 20 June, and again at the Artists in Exile Cabaret on Sat 23 June.
7—21 Jun 2007 THE LIST 25