Late Night Exchange: World Refugee Day

This special Lates event marks World Refugee Day. Join us at The Exchange for talks, performances, films and drop-in activities to learn more about the experience of refugees, honour the contributions that refugees have made to their communities and advocate for the rights and protection of refugees worldwide.

Our varied and thought-provoking programme includes a panel discussion chaired by Professor Nando Sigona, exploring the challenges that asylum seekers and refugees face today and the contributions they make to their communities. We’ll also hear stories of hope and home from individuals with lived experience who have sought sanctuary in Birmingham.

These themes will also be considered in a special live art performance. You are invited to enter parts of The Exchange that are usually hidden and participate in interventions created by students from the University’s Drama and Theatre Arts department and members of Birmingham’s Iranian community with lived experience of displacement, including the Nahal Music Group of migrant children led by Sara Teymouri. This unique and powerful event is directed by Dr Pablo Pakula.

You can also view Not a single safe place, a series of powerful films featuring testimony from survivors in Ukraine and Poland. These important films raise public awareness of gendered violence in conflict and displacement.

This event is presented as part of A Place to Call Home – a new public programme of exhibitions, activities and events exploring what home means to all of us. Understand diverse experiences through the eyes of people who have lived through them and find out about the latest social justice research at the University of Birmingham.