We Are Migrant

Part of Pomegranates 2024

(Mon 29 Apr: 7pm)

Join us for the finale of Pomegranates Festival 2024 to celebrate International Dance Day with a triple bill of poetry, film and dance featuring our festival artists-in-residence.

Spoken word artist Jim Mackintosh will perform poems from his latest collection We are Migrant (Seahorse Publications, 2024) and some of his brand-new poetic reflections following his Pomegranates residency. Jim's work resonates profoundly with the Pomegranates festival – born in times of uncertainty, displacement and border restrictions as the only festival home for the diverse dance forms of the different migrant communities across Scotland.

Performance artist and human rights activist Mare Tralla will premiere her short film commissioned as part of a new series of screen trad dance productions, drawing her inspiration from Pomegranates and the wider world of trad dance. You can also join Mare at one or all three trad craft workshops she leads as part of Dance Around the World – the festival exhibition of trad dance books and artefacts at Edinburgh's Central Library.

The evening will culminate with hip-hop theatre show Sequins, a new choreography by MC, dancer, spoken word artist and director Jonzi D, who is widely recognised for his influence on the development of the UK British hip-hop dance and theatre scene. Jonzi will work with twenty Scotland-based traditional dance artists accompanied by live music and a sequence of specially commissioned poems by poet, playwright and BBC broadcaster Ian McMillan.

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Established in 2022, Pomegranates is Scotland’s annual festival of international dance. Initiated and produced by Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland in partnership with Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland, Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh City Libraries, Dance Base and the Scottish Storytelling Centre. This year, the festival features artists’ residencies and social dance sessions, exhibitions and tours, shows and workshops, plus our first Pomegranates Family Sunday. Find out more about Pomegranates below.

Pomegranates