Platforma Festival At Cambridge Junction – a  celebration of the arts by, with and about refugees. 

Cambridge Junction is pleased to be a partner in Platforma, a festival of arts, refugees and migration taking place across the East of England during October.

The arts centre is presenting three works: 2 theatre performances and a free exhibition taking place in the venue foyer.

Full of humour and beauty, award-winning one man show Penguin comes to Cambridge following a sold-out tour in 2023. Created and performed by Hamzeh Al Hussien, a disabled artist from Syria who arrived in England five years ago as part of the UK’s Syrian Resettlement Programme. In Penguin Hamzeh takes audiences on an unforgettable journey from his Syrian village to Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, through Gateshead, and deep into his vibrant mind—a place brimming with music, dancing, fantasies, and marbles. 

“From dodging bombs to dancing in nightclubs, Syrian theatre-maker Hamzeh Al Hussienenacts the story of his life” ★★★★ The Guardian

Digital live drawing meets the oral storytelling tradition in The Canoe Race, a collaboration between storyteller Marion Leeper and artist Tonka Uzu. This engaging and thought-provoking audio-visual performance takes you on a timeless journey to a remote atoll in the Pacific Ocean to meet Sky Mother and her nine splendid sons. What are they arguing about and how will they settle the quarrel?

Installation You Never Asked My Name has been created by artist Jill Eastland with a group of migrant workers, refugees, asylum seekers and precarious workers. In the exhibition, the dark blue tabards worn by low paid and precarious workers are brought to life with embroidery and the stories of refugees and migrant workers.

Co-produced by Counterpoints Arts in partnership with local artists and organisations, Platforma is a festival that takes place every two years in a different part of England. Other Platforma events taking place in Cambridge include exhibitions by Cambridge Black Creatives, studio artists based at Cambridge Artwork, and refugees in Cambridge as well as an immersive training day hosted by Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination. Other regional locations presenting Platforma events include Colchester, Diss, Ipswich, Diss, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Norwich, Peterborough and Snape.

Matt Burman, Artistic Director at Cambridge Junction said:
We’re very happy to be a partner in this year’s Platforma Festival and collaborating with venues across the region to give vital platforms to a true diversity of refugee artists working in the UK. Cambridge Junction is committed to foregrounding work by Global Majority, Disabled and LGBTQ+ artists and producers and this is an important moment to do all we can to bring communities together, to share and hear urgent stories, to be curious about the lives and art made by people from around the world and by new arrivals to this country. I believe curiosity is one of the first steps towards growing compassion for all those in our communities. Through compassion we can become genuinely inclusive as a society. And by being inclusive we can all share a new or renewed sense of belonging (to our city, to one another). Theatre gives us a literal stage on which to share stories that might allow us to see and experience the world around us in different ways. I hope you’re curious!”