Decolonise Choir - pilot

Decolonise Choir aims to co-create a space where POC can come together and discover the joy, the strength, the healing, and the resistance in singing together, share in the collective experience of harmonising, and tap into the power of oral tradition.

We've now run three sessions at the London LGBTQ Centre in Blackfriars, which has been amazing, but the centre can't facilitate more often than once a month. So this will be our pilot session at the Dalston Victoria, to test the venue out - because the choir is aiming to run fortnightly rehearsals from mid-June to September in order to perform at Decolonise Fest 2024!

So come, bring your voice and help us road test, and have a good time! Pay what you can, free, and donation tickets are available.

What to expect:

• Somatic practice and grounding ourselves in song
• Building community - getting to know one another and create together
• Collective alchemy - contribute to and make suggestions for the choir’s direction, repertoire, and definition
  Manifesto:

• This choir is a space crafted for and by people of colour
• Collective singing is a radical act of joy, and joy is an act of resistance
• We embrace music as a balm for individual and collective trauma within the POC community
• Discrimination has no place here
• We demand and create space to celebrate the diversity of POC voices
• We all shape the tapestry of our collective sound
  

About the facilitator:
Ishani (she/they) has been a member of Decolonise Fest’s organising collective for 5 years. They've worked with other organisations around London to diversify the music scene, including First Timers Fest and Girls Rock! London.
She wants to combine the healing space that collective singing can bring with the healing space that being around our siblings offers - to build a choir for POC in London.

Accessibility:

The Dalston Victoria has step-free access throughout the venue including the food and drink area. Our session will take place in the live room. The live room (through the bookshelf door) is dimly lit but we will be aiming to utilise stage lighting to maximise visibility (particularly pertaining to use of visual aids). There is a wheelchair accessible gender neutral toilet with guardrails in this room.

There is accessible car parking nearby.

Food and drink is available on site.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Victoria Dalston, 451 Queensbridge Road, London, United Kingdom