Continuing the Festival’s dual-heritage work in understanding communtieis, this session airs specific community differences.

#LIF2020 begins today with a theme of ‘exchange’. Following on from the Cultural Connectedness Exchange session held at 2pm, Lorraine Maher -artist and founder of IamIrish– hosts a Mixed Heritage Mixer, to which we invite people of all dual and/or mixed heritage Irish backgrounds to trade stories about
-racial assumptions and exchanges
-the lived experiences of mixed-race Irish people (at home or abroad)
-the additional pressures Covid-19 has placed on you as mixed-race individuals or communities; and
-what the role of culture has in helping you access all sides of your heritage.

This continues our dual-heritage work from 2019, whilst creating an important link between the north and south of England, through which we hope to learn more about the specific challenges posed in our communities. As a seasoned artist and mixed heritage forum host (not to mention IamIrish founder, which celebrates Irish Black lives), Lorraine is well placed to facilitate an active and thought-provoking debate, which will inform future projects we run together. For this reason, the Festival really wants to hear from you about your needs, experiences and hopes for culture here in Liverpool, in a real cultural exchange and we encourage people from all Irish mixed race heritages to be involved.

This is a Black History Month and Writing on the Wall partnered event, developed via Creative Organisations of Liverpool. It is supported by the Mayor’s Fund (Liverpool).

The film below is a quick edit of the Zoom event that was held as part of the Liverpool Irish Festival at 6pm on 15 oct 2020 and has been generated for use with subtitles. It remains a document of our start point.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=978073272704603

This is an In:Visible Women marker. It shows this event continues our In:Visible Women work. These events are always open to everyone, but are female led and often contain stories pertinent to women. In:Visible Women began in 2016 and shows the Festival’s dedication to promoting equity and hearing from women who have, historically, been diminished by societal systems. This is a small contribution to making invisible women -and their stories- visible.