Unity and Love were the watchwords of an afternoon of community groups joining together in Llanelli this November. We felt it was important to show this unity as there has been a display of hatred in the town towards people of colour. The Llanelli people only wish to show love, talent and diversity in their town and this afternoon was the beginning, a very
important beginning.
This means a great deal to many local people. We have numerous community groups where the people of Llanelli show their talents in a great number of ways. We are so very proud of them. The sadness has always been that they keep themselves separate from each other because the groups all have different skills and different goals. They think that what they do does not mix. This is not the case.
On Saturday, the 2nd November, we had a chance to show the dynamics of community groups being together. It was an extraordinary afternoon. There was such a diversity of people and talent. Two amazing groups decided to hold a Unity event. They were People Speak up and Llanelli Unites. It was very exciting. When I looked around the room, I saw what Llanelli could stand for as all of us were chatting and having a great time before the show even started. There were Welsh, English, Polish, Iranians, and Iraqis. To have these different people coming together in a spirit of story-telling, poetry, music and love was spectacular. I felt very privileged to be there and proud to know this was taking place in Llanelli, the place I love.
Llanelli has been going through some hard times as local people have been trying to face up to racism which has been permeating through our town. Hatred has been very loud and here this afternoon, love was the theme, a wonderful force to be reckoned with and we knew that this would continue in the future.
Instead of discussing the problems, we used the arts to show how we could be together in a spirit of harmony.
We were privileged to have as our guest performers the National Poet of Wales, Welsh Iraqi Hannan Issa, the Welsh Iranian singer and musician Parisa Fouladi.The Association of Polish Journalists and Writers in Wales were also represented here and I actually bought a Polish book of poetry for a Polish friend of mine.
Apart from being the National Poet of Wales until 2027, Hanan has appeared on Channel Four’s Art programmes and her work has been featured on Radio 3 and 4 for the BBC and Ffilm Cymru and BBC Wales commissioned her short film The Golden Apple. This can be seen on iPlayer. She was absolutely amazing, so talented and extraordinary to listen to, a master class in poetry.
Following the event, Hannan Issa said,
“I had a great time performing in Llanelli today at People Speak Up. It felt important after the tensions we’ve seen here. I am left with gratitude for a beautiful space doing important work to support local refugee communities.”
The tensions have not gone away but local community groups working together can help to support each other in a productive way.
For us this is a first step in encouraging local people to come together to support refugee communities. Instead of hate, we need to look towards love in Llanelli, to care about our communities and not to look at our town in a negative way. We have so much to be proud of here and although some locals think that nothing is being done to improve Llanelli, although they don’t know it , there is a great deal of work being done behind the scenes by so many of us.
The Welsh Iranian artist from Cardiff, Parisa Fouladi, performed her NeoSoul, Jazz and hip-hop style fused music which also included songs in Welsh. Fascinating to listen to, she has performed at many prestigious events in Wales.
For these two talented women to accept our invitation here in Llanelli, made us feel very proud . We had the privilege to see them perform and I, certainly, was moved by the whole afternoon, of talent, friendliness and even love.
The Association of Polish Journalists and Writers meet in this wonderful space once a week and some of their representatives performed for us.
Paulina Czubtka said,
“Presenting Polish poetry at a multicultural event was an incredible experience.”
Although I speak French, Spanish and German and I am learning Welsh, it was so interesting to listen to the sound of Polish poetry.
The whole afternoon of performance was an incredible experience for the audience as well. Eleanor Shaw, the Founder and Chief Executive of People Speak Up, a very inspiring woman, organised this with Steve Kelshaw of Llanelli Unites.
Eleanor said,
”Supporting our communities through creativity and storytelling is at the heart of what we do.”
Steve has worked hard to settle refugees in Llanelli, in a positive and supportive way, helping them to integrate in our society and making sure they have English and Welsh classes.
Steve said,
“The Unity event lifted our spirits and showed how music and the spoken word can help us celebrate all we have in common.”
I lived in France for 14 years and I had to do the same thing as I too was an immigrant in a foreign country. The Brits call themselves expats as that sounds so much nicer but we were immigrants to the French and we too had to integrate into French society.
It’s always a learning curve between different nationalities but it can be an exciting journey to learn about other people’s cultures and for them to learn about ours. Eleanor and Steve are quite right that music and words can teach us so much.
For me, the word that defined this afternoon was “joyful” because, yes, as Steve says, we have so much in common.
