Sharing Songs Across Cultures 

Songs often carry memory of place, language, family, and identity. In these sessions, people who had recently arrived in Manchester shared songs from across the world; from Iran, Sudan, Syria, Eritrea and beyond. As participants sang and played together, these different musical heritages met and evolved, creating new connections between participants and cultures. 

In the context of displacement and uncertainty, music became a way to hold on to cultural identity as well as building something as a collective. By the end of the project, these shared songs had become part of a new shared heritage, rooted in both participants’ pasts and their current life in Manchester.