A new post on offer

Above is a cover of a Mamluk copy of the Qur’an that dates to the early 14th century. It's from an excellent site ISLAMIC ARTS & ARCHITECTURE (http://islamic-arts.org) that I found from a link to the Burnley-based LOVE & ETIQUETTE Facebook page. It's well worth linking to Love & Etiquette (https://www.facebook.com/love.etiquette) as Rizwan Iqbal posts fascinating, beautiful links to sites promoting high quality visual arts, especially relating to Islamic traditions, as well as the great events they promote themselves. 

Another page I'm pleased to have posted today is on the Horse + Bamboo website advertising a new post of ARTS TEAM ASSISTANT. This is a 6-month post that is open to a young person (26 or under, and currently on Jobs Seekers allowance) to work with the artists at Horse + Bamboo, including on the Different Moons project. For that reason we would welcome applicants from a South Asian heritage background, although this is not essential. 

For more information and how to apply go to the Horse + Bamboo Opportunities page at http://www.horseandbamboo.org/opportunities/

To The Moon

I met Shamshad Khan in Manchester last week and we discussed and planned how Different Moons would develop this year. Shamshad had a copy of a lovely anthology of poems inspired by the moon, 'To The Moon', edited by Carol Anne Duffy. Once we finished I went straight out and ordered my own copy. 

We talked about starting work soon with two Haslingden-based groups. One would be the Rossendale Islamic Supplementary School and the other the youth group who meet at Haslingden Library on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Both would start work inspired by poetry, particularly one poem  in the anthology 'Speech Balloon' by Imtiaz Dharker, who was born in Pakistan but raised in Glasgow. To help things along with the young people we will tie this in with computer-based animation.

Man or Rabbit?

When I met with Jerry Smith and Sally Martin to discuss a funding application we're making for Different Moons, Sally reminded me that when she grew up in Sri Lanka, it was a Rabbit or Hare in the Moon that children saw, rather than a Man in the Moon, as is common in Europe. Sally immediately identified this as the reason for the name of our project - i.e. Different Moons. 

Actually I had several inspirations for that name, and the Rabbit/Man in the Moon is only one. I'm not sure how widespread this difference is. Sally felt it was to do with seeing the moon from a different angle but, again, I'm not completely sure if that is the case. Either way it's a fascinating phenomena, and a quick look at Wikipedia tells me that the Hare in the Moon is also a pagan idea, as hares are believed to gaze at the moon in Spring (presumably between their bouts of boxing and other crazy behaviour). The other well-known story is a Buddhist story of a selfless hare as a previous incarnation of the Buddha - you can find it here. 

As nearly all of the south Asian heritage population locally are Muslims, not Buddhists, I'm not certain exactly who or what they see when they look up in our sky and, on the rare occasion the clouds have parted, see the Moon. I must find out...

moon room, fountain room

We're beginning the serious business of fundraising for Different Moons. There's now a programme of 80 workshops being planned with local organisations and groups, and involving both local and national artists working with all ages across the Asian heritage community in Rossendale. 

These workshops will focus on people's stories - stories of families, memories of Asia, and of the first generation who arrived in England. The poet Shamshad Khan will lead these workshops over a period of two years starting in April 2014. The first phase of Different Moons will culminate in a celebration of the south Asian community with an exhibition at the Whitaker, in Rawtenstall, plus a special festival of events. 

The exhibition will take place in the upstairs galleries, featuring a Moon Room and a Fountain Room. The second phase will be the creation of a book, website and CD of the collected stories, and many will be made into films and animations. This will be the focus of our work in 2015 and into 2016.

A Way of Life

In between working on other Horse + Bamboo projects I'm continuing the research and planning for Different Moons. Local historian John Simpson suggested I look for a a booklet published in 1981 called 'A Way of Life: The Muslim Community in Hyndburn and Rossendale', written by Jackie Smallridge.

Copies in Rawtenstall and Haslingden Libraries seem to have gone missing, but I finally tracked a copy down in Accrington Library - where John Simpson works. The booklet, typed and cheaply produced, turned out to be not so much a history as a source of information for outsiders about the local south Asian community, including the languages, traditions, etiquette and other customs. It inevitably contained a lot of information about Islam which I found valuable and sympathetic. All in all a useful guide, if now slightly out of date.

A Festival!

Planning for Different Moons has now started in earnest after meeting with Shamshad Khan (above) and confirmation from the Whitaker (below) that they would be delighted to host an exhibition starting in October 2014. 

With a substantial programme of community workshops in the run up to the exhibition and with a good number of related events taking place during the exhibition, we've decided that  it makes sense to think of the whole thing as a Festival. The Different Moons Festival!

So my research into the history of the community continues. Shamshad and I will soon be meeting with interested individuals and groups, planning workshops and other creative activities; finally the inevitable budgeting has begun with the intention of making funding applications to support the programme. 

A year away...

Haslingden, late 1950s, photograph courtesy of RM Nostalgic Railways. The period when the first of the immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh were beginning to arrive in Rossendale to work in the cotton textile mills that were short of a labour force, especially for the unpopular shifts - usually the night-work. 

If you were trying to find this scene today you would be stuck. The station was closed in 1964, the railway disappeared and its route is now the A56 Haslingden By-Pass, opened in the early 1980s. The chimneys have been demolished too.

We also have agreed with the Whitaker (Rossendale's Museum & Art Gallery) to work towards an exhibition in exactly a year's time celebrating the history of the South Asian Community in Rossendale. We've also started planning the next stage of Different Moons, and soon expect to begin working on new projects within Haslingden.