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What is England? Festival Launch: European Debut - Bishi's The Good Immigrant at The Old Church

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Time 20:00
Date 20/04/18
Price £11.2

Critically acclaimed artist and composer Bishi presents her European debut of The Good Immigrant – a song cycle for voice looper, sitar and electronics.

Tonight, Bishi will be taking us on a personal and intersectional journey reflecting on her experiences. As a British-Bengali daughter of immigrants, adopted by London’s community of alternative queer nightlife, she has lived through a unique cross section of London’s contemporary urban landscape.

Programme:

7pm: Doors open.

DJ set from NTS's Teju Adeleye.

7:30pm: Artistic Director Deborah Coughlin launches festival.

7:45pm: European debut of The Good Immigrant song cycle by Bishi.

Co-produced with composer and sound designer Jeff Cook, this work was premiered in January 2018 in New York. This is the show’s first European outing. The music is inspired by ‘The Good Immigrant’, a collection of essays by 21 BAME writers, ruminating on race and identity in contemporary Britain edited by Nikesh Shukla. Each song is a response to a particular essay in the book, with special audio quotes sampled in from personal interviews conducted with writers Nikesh Shukla, Salena Godden and Darren Chetty, ending with a choral setting of Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Where The Mind is Without Fear’.

9:00pm: What Is England? Panel event.

Chaired by Artistic Director Deborah Coughlin, discussing English identity at a time of a rise in toxic nationalism: Join Broadly Editor Zing Tsjeng and more in a discussion and Q&A about English identity.
This discussion may not be suitable for under 16s.

Between each section of the evening DJs will be performing a playlist inspired by the evening’s themes. The Old Church bar will be open throughout the evening.

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