Evgeny Shtorn

Evgeny Shtorn is a civil society activist, organiser and LGBT researcher from Russia. He worked for years in a leading St Petersburg think tank, the Center for Independent Social Research, while also collaborating with such human-rights NGOs as the Russian LGBT Network and Memorial. In 2018, he was forced to leave Russia and claim asylum. His field of work includes hate crimes against LGBT people, racism and postcolonial theory. As an activist he is now trying to create awareness among Irish LGBT community and organizations about the situation with gender based discrimination in Direct Provision where LGBTI and victims of domestic violence are suffering the double isolation. For these purposes, he created a grassroots initiative 'Queer Diaspora' in support of people who are seeking asylum.

Images by Tomás Tyner

Refugee and Asylum Seeker Experiences: Insights from Syrian and Sudanese Perspectives

Presenters:

• Nael Saoud, Connect Project Worker, Nasc;
• Mustafa Bakhit, Nasc Volunteer
• Susan Mackey, Social Worker Connect Project, Nasc. Susan will show and discuss a 10 minute video on a family reunification project for Syrian Refugees.

Organised by NASC

Images by Tomás Tyner

The Viables and Improvised Theatre

Members of Cork Migrant Centre Women’s Group & students of the MA in Applied Psychology Critical Community Psychology class engaged in applied improvisation in which audience and group members play together to enact words that relate to issues faced by refugees. Playback Theatre is an original form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories and watch them enacted on the spot.  This was followed by a performance by the Viables dance troupe.

Images by Tomás Tyner

Scholars at Risk Network Ireland

Powerpoint presentation of the talk on SAR Network Ireland by Rowena Pecchenino, NUI Maynooth

What is a Refugee? Overcoming barriers to integration in Ireland

UCC STAR Society hosted a panel discussion in the Aula Maxima, University College Cork titled "Welcoming Refugees: Overcoming Barriers to Integration in Ireland." The panel discussion was split into two parts. Part [1] the first half of the event will focus on Asylum Stories and will involve discussions from Asylum Seekers in Ireland about their experiences. Part [2] the second part of the event focussed on initiatives in the city focused on integration and ways that students can get involved. Speakers featured activists from the Asylum-Seeking community such as Ellie Kisyombe of Our Table, Bulelani Cornelius Mfaco of MASI and Haikal Mansor of Rohingya.ie.

Images by Célem Deegan

Artist's Session with Vukašin Nedeljković from the Asylum Archive

Artist's Session with Vukašin Nedeljković, Glucksman Gallery

Vukašin Nedeljković holds a Masters in Visual Arts Practice at Dunlaoghaire Institute of Arts, Design and Technology. He is a PhD candidate at Dublin Institute of Technology. He exhibited both nationally and internationally. His recent contributions include Reiterating Asylum Archive: documenting direct provision in Ireland, 2018 and Asylum Archive: an Archive of Asylum and Direct Provision in Ireland, 2016, 2017. Asylum Archive’s objective is to collaborate with asylum seekers, artists, academics and activists, amongst others, with a view to creating an interactive documentary cross-platform online resource, critically foregrounding accounts of exile, displacement, trauma and memory. www.asylumarchive.com

Organised by UCC STAR Society

Images by Tomás Tyner

Nurturing Dreams in a New Home

Nurturing Dreams in a New Home, with Sam Taylor, Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and Haikal Mansor, general Secretary of the European Rohingya Council.

Images by Tomás Tyner

Sanctuary Gig at the Glucksman

Ophelia, a hiphop MC and producer passionate about social and human issues, Outsider YP, a young alternative and conceptual artist  who has built a big reputation for himself and his Outsiders label, with Stevie G, a Cork-based DJ known for spreading the hip-hop, soul, Afro & dancehall gospel , and Citadel, a group of musicians from Kinsale Road Accommodation centre, who bring music from Burundi, Algeria, South Africa, Pakistan, India, Ukraine and Russia, joined forces for a lunchtime gig at the Glucksman gallery.

Images by Tomás Tyner