Soul City Arts

A bit of background on who we are and what we do.

This past year we continued to build our Soul City Arts community enabling new audiences to experience our work. Delivering some of program from within our Port Hope venue in Birmingham as well as beyond, we have been able to build regular programs like never before, with events happening throughout the month. Looking to 2025 building towards the next phase. We’ve only just started after 20+ yrs experimenting

Soul City Arts Wrapped 2024. It's been an exciting year as we expanded our regular programme, both within our Port Hope space and beyond. From our regular intimate listening sessions to large scale installations like Sleepers, we have been committed to delivering high quality productions right here in our community. We appreciate all of your support and look forward to building something even better with you in 2025. We are excited to bring 'Ramadan Streets' to the city... but more on that soon. Until then have a peaceful and prosperous new year. Mohammed Ali MBE , Rajpal Pardesi (he/him) , Helga Henry , Safwan Chowdhury , Jehangir Malik OBE ,

Soul City Arts presents the Sparkbrook Film Festival which takes place at our Port Hope warehouse venue in Sparkbrook, Birmingham. We wanted to breathe life back into the nostalgic traditions of neighbourhood cinemas, once popular in the 60s and 70s around the city, serving as places of gathering for early immigrant communities from South Asia. The festival will include various films ranging from classic movies like The Message and independent British films like Die Before You Die. We could not resist including a screening of Rocky IV for all those parents wanting to show their kids what they grew up watching! The festival runs from Friday October 25th-27th. Tickets and a full programme are available from the link below. https://lnkd.in/esxkNBpe Mohammed Ali MBE

A written account of someone who experienced the cave….

We are proud to launch Sleepers......

Sleepers is an immersive experience inspired by the story of the ‘Seven Sleepers’ in the Bible and the Qur’an. Join us to experience the latest arts installation from Soul City Arts as we invite you to enter the cave. The public will be guided by a host to experience a cave-like setting along with soundscapes replicating the feeling of being isolated away from city-life. It will take place at ‘Port Hope’ – an arts centre in the heart of Sparkbrook, Birmingham. Visitors can experience our cave installation through two curated experiences. During the day there will be regular opportunities to experience the installation as a group. The experience will last approximately 30 minutes with time to sit and reflect. By night we will be offering a limited number of extended experiences that invite visitors to stay overnight. These extended visits will start at 8pm and run though until 8am. ‘Sleepers’ has been supported by the University of Birmingham through their Culture Forward imitative. Book Now: https://lnkd.in/ek3s4VAN

We wanted to open a portal, a window through which we could connect with the lives of others, where distance was no object. Working with our US collaborator Asad Ali Jafri we brought together two communities that might otherwise never have met, being thousands of miles apart in Chicago and Birmingham, for a singular experience of immersive dining and conversation – all in real time. We created the ‘Magic Table. and re-purposed a recording studio in Chicago and our Soul City Arts warehouse in Birmingham. Whilst having a team in place in Birmingham, I was able to fly to Chicago to help set the table! We dusted off the live streaming technology we thought we had left behind with the COVID pandemic and attempted to push the boundaries further. In our two theatrically lit spaces, screens and projections were used to create the illusion of a shared dining table spanning an ocean through a screen, where diners in both locations could share food and conversation as if seated together. We invited two guest chefs- Munayam Khan in Birmingham and Maryam Khan from Chicago, both of which recreated each other’s dishes in their locations during a live cooking demonstration at the end of the dining table. We then ate together, exchanged thoughts, feelings and stories awoken by the memories of food and cooking. Despite the distance, an incredible intimacy was created, with diners sharing memories of family, love, loss, and bereavement across two continents. The events were supported by the UK’s University of Warwick and A/Prof. Dr James Hodkinson who faciliated a brilliant conversation, with hosts Manpreet Darroch (UK) and Megha Ralapati(US) in place. You had to be at the table to really feel the magic, but we have attempted to capture a bit of it in this short video.

We are hiring. Come join our team... We are now in our 2nd year of Arts Council England NPO organisational funding bringing two exciting roles to expand our small team. Follow the link to find out more. https://lnkd.in/exeUUnPH

We at  Soul City Arts are expanding! Might one of the two paid roles be for you or someone you know. If so come join us. We are now in our 2nd year of Arts Council England NPO organisational funding with two exciting roles to expand our small team. We have the amazing Jennie Detheridge leading the recruitment with us and all information can be sourced with her and via the link below: https://lnkd.in/gVvkZzsX Look forward to connecting you with you soon and if you can, would appreciate a share. Thank you Raj :)