OBX Connects – Technology as a tool for resistance in the UK’s immigration system
Join OBX (The Observer Building’s Creative Technology Hub) on 25 July from 6.30pm-8.00pm for the forthcoming OBX Connects talk.
OBX Connects are monthly free-to-attend talks by local and national digital artists on varied topics. July’s talk will look at how technology can be used in an uplifting way – as a tool for resistance and resilience within the UK’s immigration system.
It continues the energy of June’s Refugee Week, with speakers Rossana Leal, founder and CEO of the Hastings-based Refugee Buddy Project and Lamin Joof, a musician, chef and trustee at music charity Hear Me Out.
Rossana will speak about the migrant and refugee-led charity Refugee Buddy Project and the campaign against immigrant detention centres, such as Northeye in Bexhill which is an ex-prison site where a 1,200-bed centre is being proposed. The UK is the only country in Europe which practises indefinite detention, in which people are held in detention centres for administrative purposes for an indefinite time scale.
Lamin Joof has previously been incarcerated in three immigrant detentions centres in the UK, which is where he encountered Hear Me Out. The charity runs music workshops, gigs and radio stations in immigration detention centres as well as platforming musicians who met while in detention. Lamin will speak about his experiences in immigration detention, and about how music technologies helped him to cope. He will also talk about projects he has been involved in following his release from immigration detention, where technology has been used as a means of amplification, awareness raising, connection and solidarity.
Tickets to attend are free but need to be booked in advance via Eventbrite: eventbrite.co.uk/e/technology-as-a-tool-for-resistance-in-the-uks-immigration-system-tickets-896214149647
More info at: therefugeebuddyproject.org hearmeoutmusic.org.uk
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