Old world, new life

Early in the week I received a message asking if I would go and see Mr Miah. M. Aslom Miah was one of the first generation of immigrants to settle in Rossendale, and we interviewed him last year for the Different Moons Archive. I first met Aslom when I arrived in Rossendale as a 19-year old student in 1966, and he was working then as a bus conductor on the circular bus from Haslingden to Helmshore. A very dedicated, serious yet sociable man, he went on to own a chain of curry houses, and later - when Horse + Bamboo moved to Rawtenstall in the mid 1980s - it turned out that he was living with his young family just round the corner from us.

Still living in that same house, Mr Miah is now a senior member of the Bangladeshi community in Rawtenstall. He has recently returned from Bangladesh, to visit his family and the village he grew up in - Moishashee, in Sylhet. There he is a major giver and supporter of the High School, and he told me how poor the school is - 600 pupils with just 4 or 5 poorly paid teachers. Aslom is shy about discussing his generosity and support for the school, but he clearly despairs of the current situation. He has a passion to support local village children in their education. Talking about his own life he returns over and over again to the fact that he was the first boy in his village to have a secondary education and to the great advantages it gave him. He clearly wants as many other village children as possible to share his good fortune. 

Mr Miah has now published his book 'Old world, new life' which tells his story. It covers many of the things he told us in our series of interviews, and he has been helped by a friend, Bruce Simpson, to make it into very readable and interesting story. Despite being the story of a personal and unique journey, telling of his Sylheti village background and his decision to seek work in the UK, in many respects it stands as a tribute to many of his generation who made a similar journey and now have families in Lancashire and more widely in the UK.

2015

We're planning the next stage of Different Moons. Shamshad Khan (above) is devising a new series of workshops to take to local schools and other groups. Arry Nessa is finishing the transcriptions of our 2014 interviews with first generation immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan and then we'll begin a new round of interviews.

All of this is in preparation for publication of a book of poetry by participants in the project, and a CD of a selection of interviews. This will be completed at the end of 2015, and the final full archive will be placed in local libraries and regional archives. 

In the meantime we've placed a record of the 2014 project on the Horse + Bamboo website. If you want look go to:

http://www.horseandbamboo.org/different-moons-gallery/ 

...to see photos and read more about the workshop and interview programme, and 

http://www.horseandbamboo.org/different-moons-whitaker-exhibition/

...to find out more about the Different Moons exhibition at the Whitaker.

The exhibition has closed

The Different Moons exhibition at the Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery in Rawtenstall has now closed after its 8-week run, after being extended for two weeks longer than planned. 

It's been a very, very successful event; the Whitaker estimate that they had over 5000 people visit during these two months, and the Comments Book is full of glowing feedback from visitors. 

We're already planning the new programme of events, and our core team of artists and teachers are all on board for 2015. So many people have contributed to the success of the project that it's impossible to list everyone here - but we'll single out the Heritage Lottery Fund with a big 'thank you' for their encouragement during the planning of the project, and their faith and generosity in funding us and our work. 

Extended opening announced.

A quick update to say that the Different Moons exhibition at the Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery in Rawtenstall has had its stay extended. Instead of closing on the 29th December it will now stay open another two weeks - closing on the 12th January 2015. Check the Christmas opening times before visiting over the holidays. 

One week to go...

The calligraphic piece I wrote about a couple blogs back is now on display in The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery in Rawtenstall. The piece is by Omani master calligrapher Hst Al-Awaidi and is now being shown in the top corridor of the Museum, leading to the exhibition galleries. 

There's now just over week left before the Different Moons exhibition gets taken down, so rush along if you haven't yet seen it - and don't forget to pick up a copy of the free accompanying brochure about Rossendale's South Asian communities and containing a handful of stunning poems written by women from Haslingden.

The Different Moons exhibition

I went to visit Mr Aslom Miah today. Mr Miah is one of the people we've interviewed for the project. Extracts from his interview - and a short and funny animation by Rehmat Gangreker based on one his stories - can be seen and heard at the Whitaker exhibition. 

I had wondered if Mr Miah, who must now be approaching 80, had actually managed to get to see the show - which although it's in Rawtenstall, not far from his house, is an uphill walk all the way. But I shouldn't have doubted - he had been to see it with a group from his family, and was very excited about the show. He said that his son had stayed for over 3 hours. He was also full of how well he had been treated by the staff at the museum - and the quality of the food in their cafe! Another reason to go - quite apart from the fact that the exhibition is only open for two further weeks after this. 

Looking through the blog I realised that there's not that many photos from the exhibition itself, so I thought I should add a few here to give a taste:

An unexpected legacy

Yesterday was very special - all the more so because it was all unexpected. 

Arry Nessa, who originally came to the Different Moons project as a volunteer, is now an important member of our team. Last week Arry went with Maryam Golubeva, the paper-cut artist who has made such a contribution to the Different Moons exhibition, to an exhibition of calligraphy at Old Trafford in Manchester, to celebrate Omani National Day. Calligraphy has a lot in common with Maryam's paper-cutting, and in our exhibition we bring together the two things - in fact three, because we combine it with poetry.

At the Manchester exhibition Arry and Maryam met calligrapher Hst Al-Awaidi. Awaidi is from Muscat in Oman and is an aeronautical engineer, but he studied in Liverpool and established the Liverpool Arabic Calligraphy Association. He is a master calligrapher and Arry asked him to visit the Different Moons exhibition before he returns home to Oman, and yesterday Awaidi did just that. 

But what was unexpected was that Awaidi brought along the original of a recent piece of work. The photograph above hardly gives credit to the detail and subtlety of the calligraphy that took 4 months work. The text consists of verses from the Quran, and the whole, both in design and content, explores and describes Awaidi's inner struggles. 

After visiting the exhibition he offered to donate the piece and asked me where I would suggest it was placed - somewhere that people could see and enjoy it. I suggested the Whitaker itself as the obvious place, because both the Different Moons team and the museum have been wondering how we could leave a legacy after the exhibition, which has been so popular with the South Asian communities in Rossendale. 

Awaidi was very keen on the idea and within minutes signed over the piece to an initial 10 month loan to the Whitaker. It's now at the Whitaker, and we hope that it encourages visitors to visit even once the exhibition closes.