Beyond Skin visited Suffolk Community Centre in Belfast with our special guest, North London rapper and DJ, Raphael Frank, as part of the Belfast Harbour funded #Arts Dialogue project.
In a truly musical collaboration, Beyond Skin and Raphael provided the summer scheme with an exclusive masterclass in music production and Djing, using instruments from all around the world.
#ArtsDialogue was formed in March 2017 at the Northern Ireland Global Peace Summit. It is an inter-generational diverse team of artists, young peace activists and professionals in conflict resolution and a collaboration with six organisations; Beyond Skin (Northern Ireland), Heartbeat (Israel-Palestine), The Music Project (Sri Lanka) &Escuelas de Paz (Colombia) with assistance from United Network of Young Peace Builders and Brehon Advisory.
Jenni Barkley, Belfast Harbour’s Communications and Corporate Responsibility Manager, said: "Belfast Harbour is delighted to support #Arts Dialogue which, through ground-breaking initiatives like Beyond Skin, is working to enable Northern Ireland’s young people to contribute meaningfully to the peace dialogue here."
"The Beyond Skin workshop at Suffolk Community Centre was a fun, unconventional but powerful platform for young people in that area affected by conflict to communicate their personal experience and perspective using, not just words, but music, performance and creativity. For many attendees, it was a unique opportunity to have their voice heard on the very issues that affect them most."
Combining decades of experience in peacebuilding, community development and youth work within very different areas of conflict and post-conflict, Arts Dialogue collective have designed a shared approach to enabling youth as agents of change through the Arts.
The Northern Ireland programme of workshops & events are delivered by members of #ArtsDialogue. Some are based locally and others internationally with artistic content shared and developed with #ArtsDialogue partners globally.
Pictured – Children from Suffolk Summer Scheme Youth Group with Raphael Frank (Producer, DJ and Rapper) Claire- Louise Turner, Tessa Ann Greer, Elpitha Lyssary, Darren Ferguson (Beyond Skin) and Jenni Barkley (Belfast Harbour).
