Musicians! You’re invited to East Music: Song and Tune Exchange Session at Poplar Union on Saturday 6 July
After an incredible pilot session, we are thrilled to be back at Poplar Union for a Summer Edition this July.
Bring your instruments and voices along with songs or tunes from across the world to play, sing and share. There may be an opportunity to play to a live audience later in the evening.
This is a free, friendly and inclusive session for players of all levels of experience. Global Majority* and LGBTQ+ music makers are particularly welcome. The session will be led by one of our East musicians.
Date: Saturday 6th July 2024
Time: 4-6.30PM
Duration: 2.5 hours including a 30 minute break
Location: Poplar Union
Ages: 18+
Images taken by Sylvie Belbouab from the pilot East Music session in March 2024.
What participants said from our first East Music session back in March:
“I really enjoyed the session with like minded musicians it felt really communal”
“…the best thing was the space was failure-free. That’s what makes it accessible to musicians of all levels”
“I really enjoyed the Mauritian-style improv we did as a group”
“I loved hearing us getting bolder and more integrated as a group as the session (and after-session session) continued”
More about the project:
This is a new strand of our East Storytelling project, and we hope to extend it to further more regular sessions. The session builds the tradition of one of our regular partner organisations, The Black Smock Band, which has been running queer folk music sessions for many years. Andy Bannister and Paul Burgess from the band bring all that experience to this new cross-cultural project.
East Music is also a development of work we’ve been doing with the East Storytelling Project, which has long included songs and instrumental music. You can hear some of this on our East Archive. We road-tested the idea of a cross-cultural music session with some of the regular collaborators at Toynbee Hall, and this led directly to the musical elements of the last East performance, Ten Years East, which you can catch on YouTube.
It’s going to be a fun session, so if making music with other people is your thing, or even if you just want to give it a go, book your place!
Produced by Daedalus Theatre Company in partnership with Rua Arts and Poplar Union.
*Global Majority refers to people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as ‘ethnic minorities’.
