BEMA, FOCUS & Arcola Theatre Present Arts Fundraiser

Flyer design Zofia Walczak  You are invited to join us Sunday 11 December to celebrate an afternoon of experienced and emerging artists from all walks of the creative industry – music, dance, spoken word, theatre and comedy. Hosted at the Arcola Theatre - now one of the most respected arts venues in the UK, blazing a trail in artistic excellence and innovative management since day-one – this event promises to be jam-packed full of artistic delights.    The Black & Ethnic Minority Arts (BEMA) Network is an informal alliance of arts organisations, individual artists, promoters and producers who have an interest in developing cultural activity as a means of promoting tolerance, equality and education. Dance: Emashi (African dance, drumming and more) Djs: Bogossy Freshfrency & Oya Bun Spoken word: Cezanne (Painter and poet), Hyacinth Myers (Poet), Ngoma Bishop (Poet, novelist and edutainer), Stephanie (Poet & artist) Live music: Farafina Crew, Black Slate, Casey, Naldo, John Blood & The Highlys Comedy: Gantan (Stand up comic) Theatre: Judith Jacob (Casualty, EastEnders, No Problem) Only £3 entry. From 3-7pm Arcola Theatre 24 Ashwin Street Dalston E8 3DL

Public Meeting: Together for Transport - Monday 12 December, 6.30pm

Hackney Unites is proud to be supporting the Together for Transport initiative which wants to protect Hackney’s local railway stations from staffing cuts. There is a public meeting on Monday 12 December, at 6.30pm at the Old Fire Station, 61 Leswin Road N16 7NX.

There will be speakers from:

• Disability Backup (highlighting the value of station staff to disabled people using rail transport)
• The TSSA (rail workers’ union),
• Jennette Arnold (Labour Party GLA member covering Hackney) and
• Anna Hughes (Green Party candidate for the GLA).

This will be an opportunity to hear about the government’s ‘McNulty Report’ and its recommendations which if carried through will see the closure of ticket offices at six of the borough’s railway stations and reductions at a further three (the government is also planning above inflation fare increases).

However, this meeting is not intended to be just a ‘talking shop’ we want to establish rail user groups (similar to the park user groups already active in the borough) for each railway station in Hackney. Elsewhere, rail user groups have been active in their communities and have worked with train operating companies to win improvements to stations, and have campaigned successfully to maintain staff on their stations.

This meeting will initially focus on Stoke Newington, Stamford Hill and Rectory Road, and we have invited speakers from the company Abellio which will be operating the train services through these stations from next year, (but if you use any station in Hackney and want to get involved, please come along).

Bring your friends and bring your ideas about how we can create a voice for passengers in the borough.

The meeting is supported by the N16 Magazine: http://www.n16mag.com/news/latest-news/974.html

Help us promote this meeting by forwarding this email onto friends, neighbours and colleagues who you use Hackney’s rail stations, by forwarding this email on, by sharing it on social networking sites, and by promoting our facebook event https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=552496836&ref=notif&notif_t=friend_confirmed#!/events/248155985240504/

If you have any time over the next week, and can help by leafleting outside one of the stations, then please email woodsg@tssa.org.uk

Please consider forwarding this email to Hackney people who may be interested. Hackney Unites is a coaltion for social justice, if you are not already on our mailing list, you can sign up on-line (http://eepurl.com/bPJDH) to receive regular updates.

Many thanks

John Page
Secretary
Hackney Unites

Money for Old Prose

On Saturday, December 11, at 7:45 pm, a group of 
renowned actors and musicians will give a special 
performance at Old St Mary's Church, Stoke 
Newington, in aid of a great local cause.
 
Hackney residents and stars of stage and screen 
Selina Cadell, Paul Bradley, Paul Jesson, Carrie 
Quinlan, Maggie Steed, Michael Thomas, Jane 
Wymark and The Occasional Choir are stepping 
forward into the spotlight to help save the 
beautiful, 400-year-old church from closure.
 
All proceeds from their performance - an evening 
of festive readings and song called Money for Old 
Prose - will go towards the fundraising effort to 
transform Old St Mary's into a vibrant arts 
centre for the whole community.
 
This is the fourth year that the group has joined 
together at Christmas in support of the project, 
St Mary's Arts Centre for the Community. Actors 
Selina Cadell and Michael Thomas say:
 
'It is such a pleasure to perform in the old 
church. For an actor it has a warm acoustic, and 
the audience sit like friends in a front room. 
And a tiny church like this, in the middle of a 
busy city, feels like a stolen treasure. When the 
great new church was built for an exploding 
population, this quiet old church next to it 
could have been demolished. But it wasn't, and it 
stands for all demolished buildings; the one that 
got away.'
 
Fundraiser Sarah Robson says:
 
'We are thrilled that Selina, Michael and the 
whole troupe are coming back for what promises to 
be another wonderfully entertaining evening, and 
for helping to raise funds for the work needed to 
save and transform the church. As well as being a 
gem of a theatre for our community, Old St Mary's 
could become a place to bring our children for 
art classes, an affordable venue for our 
teenagers' first gigs, a space to book for a 
special occasion and a treasure trove of history 
for pupils to explore.'
 
Tickets for this very special event are £12 / £10 
concessions and are available on the door. To 
reserve a ticket email artsmanager@smartn16.org
 
For further information about Money for Old Prose 
and the St Mary's Arts Centre for the Community 
project, please contact John Field on 02076907449
 
Details about the project are also available at http://www.smartn16.org/