10 March 2021
Smashing Times are delighted to present an online panel discussion ‘Creative Voices for Diverse Narratives’ as part of the Imagine Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics.
The aim of the discussion is to support the telling of different stories and to build connections between diverse communities. Creative Voices for Diverse Narratives panel discussion takes place online on Monday 22 March 2021 at 7pm.
Panel members include Mary Moynihan, writer, director, theatre and film-maker and Artistic Director, Smashing Times; Noelle McAlinden, Visual Artist, Creative Advisor and Mental Health Campaigner, Curator and Cultural Broker; Richard Edgar, Author and Historian, Dave Randall, Musician and Writer and Dr Stephen Herron, Researcher, Academic, Cultural Anthropologist, and Community Relations Facilitator with Smashing Times.
This event is presented as part of Creative Connections; a cultural, arts-based project using creative processes of theatre, film and new digital technologies to promote reconciliation and positive community relations between people and traditions in Northern Ireland.
Imagine Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics is a non-profit charity, with no full-time staff or offices. Each March they organise a week-long series of events aimed at engaging people in political/cultural discussion and debate in the broadest sense. The festival seeks to cover a wide spectrum of issues including, but certainly not limited to, mainstream political debate.
The speakers for the event are diverse and hugely exciting for all those lucky enough to get a ticket for the online event. Mary Moynihan is a writer, Director, Theatre and Film-Maker, Artistic Director of Smashing Times.
Elsewhere, there is Noelle Mc Alinden; a Visual Artist, Creative Advisor and Mental Health Campaigner, Curator and Cultural Broker. Impressively, Noelle is a Creative Adviser, Curator, Arts Educationalist, a former Head of Art and Design in a Post-Primary school and Senior Lecturer for Arts at Fermanagh College of Further Education.
The panel will also include Richard Edgar is an Author and Historian based in Portadown. He has a keen interest in Genealogy and is also a regular contributor to Portadown Heritage Tours. There will Dave Randall; a London based musician and writer. He has toured the world playing guitar for Faithless, Dido, Sinead O’Connor and many others, and has released his own critically acclaimed albums under the name Slovo.
Last but not least there will be Dr Stephen Herron, a Researcher, Academic, Cultural Anthropologist, and Community Relations Facilitator with Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality Dr Herron is one of just several military anthropologists in the UK and Ireland.
Participation in the festival is open to all and while the main debates will not be party-political, groups and individuals are encouraged to debate those ‘difficult’ and contentious issues that normally don’t air in public discussion.
Smashing Times are a resident Carmichael organisation. A theatre company which focuses on promoting diversity within Ireland, their work bands the world together in the most positive sense. You can keep up date with all their work here.
Finally, you can follow their social media accounts too; their Facebook here, and their Twitter here.