L’Academy des Beaux Arts Fundraiser Lancaster

There will be a congolese night at the Gregson community centre, Moor Lane,
Lancaster on SATURDAY 5TH AUGUST

To raise money for a group of students at L’Academy des Beaux Arts in
Kinshasa, D.R.Congo.

These students are either entirely self supporting 14-17 year olds who are
orphans of the war in Congo, or have parents who are employed by the
government and due to the poverty and politics going on there, haven’t been
paid for months so can’t afford to feed their children, let alone support
them through their education.

My friend, Mary-Jeanne Wengamilabou (wife of Dr.Miteyo who is the director
of Caritas International for the entire region of Africa, and a really sound
woman who enjoys effecting positive change in the world with a bit of direct
proactive empowerment of individuals) ,is their teacher and mentor and
organised them into a youth group and asked them what they’d like to do to
help themselves…
and they said they would like to sell their paintings
and have sent them to me

£100 pays for one student’s fees for the entire year
so it’s entirely conceivable that from a party and painting sale at the
gregson we can pay everyone’s school fees off and have a damn good party to
boot!

and loads of beautiful beautiful art work to put on our walls afterwards
Profits from the art work will go directly back to the students themselves,
via Mary-Jeanne.

The evening will consist of

7-8 viewing of the paintings, shaker/percussion making workshop for
children/young at heart/whoever wants to make noise when the band play later
8-9 talk by “zigy”, an ex journalist from congo, now a refugee living in
derby, who had to leave congo because too many people wanted to murder him
after he wrote stories about the child soldiers in the congolese press and
rescued a couple;
(zigy will talk about the child soldiers and the political situation in
congo and answer any questions anyone might have… ) , + for children or
people who might not enjoy a talk as much, learn to play an african game
called Mancala, which everyone can play together whether they are 2 or 92
9-11 solo woman vocalist from Rwanda
followed by
“Bana Congo” - an energetic 6 piece congolese band with a dancer
(fit men in grass skirts and leopardskin tunics for all you lovers of
scantily clad fit men!)
really really fun rockin band
in lancaster for the first time ever
(zigy’s band)
singing some fabulous songs about how to make the world a peaceful and happy
place and really ready to get everyone up and dancing and shaking your bums!

11-12 dj set with congolese music

no smoking in the back room to protect the paintings which will be on show
and for sale, and the children who are all welcome and might prefer not to
breathe in the smoke

smoking space still available everywhere else in the gregson for people who
just want a fag!

and everyone’s happy!

Please support this event, I’d like to send as much money as possible back
to congo and turn this poverty thing right over onto its head!

Admission
£2/£3 before 9pm
£4/£5 after 9pm

****************************************************************************

Also wanted:

The young people from Congo have just written to me saying that they are
also in need of art materials, as even if you have money there at the minute
the materials are really hard to come by.
They have asked for donations of any of the following:
Canvas
(if anyone has a roll of this knocking about, there will be someone going
back over to Kinshasa in the next month and will be able to take these back
to the school when they go)
Paints
Brushes
Any other art materials suitable for use on canvas that you may have
knocking around in a cupboard collecting dust.

It would be good to send back as much as possible, as you will be able to
see on the night, these young people are incredible artists and really need
as much support as they can to be able to keep on going at it, and finish
with a qualification that will let them be able to go on and earn a living
afterwards.
Mary Jeanne’s son and daughter have offered to use up their weight allowance
on the plane with taking back art materials
so there is plenty of space for as much as we can manage to collect
at the moment they are using old maizeflour sacks and old curtains and
scraps of material to paint on, and really low quality paints (not that it
shows in the artwork if you ask me, but they say this makes their work
substandard and difficult, and proper canvas and paints will really help)

Really hope to see you on the 5th august,
and please contact me if you can help with any art materials or would like
to make a donation.
All profits go directly to the students themselves.

Love
Lucy
on behalf of
Desire Lunzihirwa, Patrick Aleko, Yanick Luzwaki, Nicaise Bondo, Armel
Pululu and friends