Music & Collaborate Writing for Refugees

Cultural Voice & Liberty

Who we are

My name is Oluremi, I am a visually impaired musician and creative writer from Nigeria and now a refugee in London.

Due to being a refugee in a new society, I have struggled to nurture, promote and showcase my musical and creative writing talents, as it has been exceptionally difficult to navigate a competitive industry in an entirely new society. I have struggled to be able to get my talents and creative craft out there in the world due to a number of factors. 

What we're trying to do

I have established Cultural Voice and Liberty, a platform through which asylum seekers, refugees and people with disabilities can develop and promote their talent.

With the money that we raise, we want to launch a pilot project in September 2023 for 5-10 people. 

This pilot will be a series of workshops, over the period of 8 weeks, (list the workshops and what you will cover) 

These workshops will be specifically tailored toward participants and their skill sets in creative writing and music. These workshops will be run by industry experts, and designed to develop participants skills and content. After the workshop series, we want participants to be more autonomous and start to work on their own however, with the connections from industry experts. We will be a vehicle to navigate and find support for their talents within the industry which otherwise, may be inaccessible due to barriers. 

The primary aim of the project will be a collaborative piece of writing, which will be launched in the first quarter of 2024 to celebrate the voices of participants.

Why it's important - The Facts

The importance of this project is that it will create a safe place for members of our community to develop their original talent and exchange ideas with one another. It will also help them to develop their talent and give them the confidence and the self-esteem required to form a career path in the industry.

Employment rates of new refugees are well below average. The proportion of refugees who were employed was recorded at 49 per cent at 21 months in 2010. However this was well below the UK average of 80 per cent (Office for National Statistics, 2009a).1 More than one-half of new refugees in employment felt that they were overqualified for their jobs.

Less than half (48%) of Disabled music makers responding to Youth Music’s survey for their report on disability in music said that they had been able to find a teacher who met their learning needs. 43% reported that they had experienced a severe or moderate limitation to taking part in a music lesson of any kind in the past 12 months. 

I want to change that for other people who might be in a similar situation to me. I am on a mission to make the industry more accessible for everyone. I want to create a platform for creative writers and musicians with a disability or from a refugee background, where their talents can be nurtured, celebrated and promoted, to really make the industry accessible for everyone.

How will we do it?

£2500 funding 

We will be able to deliver the pilot project by the end of 2023 and 10 beneficiaries will take part in the project to develop their skills in creativity.

£4000 funding

We'll be able to deliver the pilot project and showcase the collective work through a targeted marketing campaign and produce a hard-copy book of participants’ creative writing. 

£5000 funding

This will enable us to deliver the project and showcase through our own event the music and creative writing talents from the community, and allow for studio time to record songs from the project and to book a space to hold a book and music launch.