Nadia Nadarajah & Omeima Mudawi-Rawlings: Flarewave, a new deaf arts festival in the South East! (with BSL video)

Nadia Nadarajah and Omeima Mudawi-Rawlings are two members of a 9 person steering group who are bringing a brand new arts festival to Brighton.

Entitled ‘Flarewave’ and armed with the vision of bringing deaf and hearing artists and audiences together, this one day event in Brighton has an excitingly jam packed schedule.

Nadia tells us more in her BSL vlog, with an English transcript available below. Further down the page, Omeima, the original visionary of Flarewave, also explains in more depth the importance of the festival and what it sets out to achieve.

Transcript for Nadia Nadarajah:

Hello, I am Nadia Nadarajah. I would like to tell you about Flarewave arts festival in Brighton which is aiming to attract visitors from the South East of England and further afield.

We have a wealth of deaf and hard of hearing artists in this area but unfortunately there aren’t any opportunities to connect with or lead mainstream based arts events.

Omeima Mudawi-Rawlings – a visual artist and textiles printer – moved from London where there are ample arts opportunities to the South East in Sussex where she noticed a gap in the provision of opportunities for deaf artists and a considerable lack of deaf awareness from arts organisations.

Seven years later Omeima decided to set up Flarewave, supported by a steering group of professionals with varied backgrounds to provide participants with experiences of theatre, literature, poetry, film, family events, stalls and visual arts exhibitions.

It will be held at a mainstream venue and we have invited hearing professionals who want to engage with deaf audiences as well as a range of deaf professionals. This is a great breakthrough for us, to have our work shown on the same equal platform.

This is very exciting as it’s the first professional arts festival held in the South East of England and a great showcase of arts work. The steering group responsible for creating and facilitating the festival is made up of 9 individuals including myself.

I work in theatre, writing, film and as an actress. Omeima works in textiles. Sophie Stone is an actress for television, film and theatre. Zoe McWhinney is a film and theatre actress and Visual Vernacular performer. David Ellington is a film maker an actor Alison Rogers gives tours and talks on visual arts exhibitions. Alison France works in fine arts. Christopher Sacre will be leading family events and he is also a sculptor. Matthew Jones is a graphic designer who designed our logo.

Why did Matthew create this logo? Blue and green represents the sea and the shape represents how we intend to bring deaf and hearing people together and make waves.

The sign for Flarewave represents how the South East has many light houses – it’s a way of showing people we are here.

We are excited to announce that the festival will take place on 24th September at 10am till 4pm at Brighton Dome – a fantastic venue which has wanted to work with deaf and hard of hearing artists and audiences for many years.

This is a great opportunity to work together and for our visitors and artists to network. The day is an opportunity to explore and find out more about what deaf artists want going forwards and also to find out what audiences want to see.

There will be debates taking place with a panel and a series of speakers. Family events will welcome those who are deaf or hearing or mixed. Film makers will capture activities by deaf youth.

There will also be a relaxed discussion in the cafe. Two deaf authors will be present on the day with their published books, giving talks and offering inspiration. We will have tours that tell us about the wealth of deaf history abound.

The whole event will be accessible to all as we also have BSL-English interpreters to ensure non BSL users are able to access everything fully. Normally at events we find access is provided for deaf audiences, however at Flarewave the roles are reversed as it’s our hearing audience that we are providing access for.

As well as the exciting day events we also have an evening of comedy with deaf stand up comedian Gavin Lilley as well as an improvised comedy performance by a group of deaf actors. This will be translated into English and voiceovers provided by our interpreters.

This will not be a stand alone event. This is a taster festival so that we can use feedback gathered to run a 3 day festival next year. This will aim to showcase work in visual arts, theatre, poetry, literacy and more.

We hope you continue to follow our journey and we hope to see you there. We welcome everybody! Thank you.

Omeima Mudawi-Rawlings:

I am a British-Sudanese combined textile artist and crafts-maker. I have exhibited both nationally and internationally and was awarded an MBE for services to Deaf and Disabled people in the arts (2022) and recognised by the Arab British Centre Award for Culture as having contributed to the British public’s understanding of the Arab world (2019), based in Hove, East Sussex.

I moved to the area of Hove and noticed a gap in provision for Deaf and HoH artists (particularly visual artists). This was a catalyst for the planning and development of an arts organisation to be established called Flare. During COVID I started speaking to peers in the broader arts sector and through collaboration, we have realised this first-of-its-kind festival in the South East which will become a 3 day bi-annual event.

The name Flarewave links with the passion and heat of the word flare and wave indicates the position and location of Flare, which is in a renowned coastal town.

Partnering with Brighton Dome we intend to showcase and platform established and emerging artists from both visual and performance art and crafts domains. This has come through a direct experience, having moved into the area myself, 7 years ago.

Flarewave wants to encourage and promote art in all its forms in the southeast region and open up opportunities for deaf audiences to experience choice in attending deaf-led events across the UK.

The event will be for artists, and audiences of all ages, with family focused events, book clubs, celebrating deaf authors in the region and beyond, filmmaking and filmmakers, as well as providing opportunities for learning that will benefit the arts sector, by better understanding how to make events accessible, inclusive and integrated best practice.

I hope this will be a positive experience and be a catalyst for people. I hope it will be exciting and novel to have something so close to home for many and to feel afterward that they will be more involved in the arts and its different forms more frequently.

We are still keen to engage with practicing artists, performers, and craft makers who wish to be involved, particularly with our stalls. We encourage people to approach us to discuss their art and how they might be involved this year, or next for the full 3-day program.

We hope to platform and encourage more deaf people to take up a career in the arts and for both deaf and hearing audiences to want to enjoy deaf perspectives, bridging the gap and making deafness less othered and more mainstream which in turn provides more opportunities for deaf and HoH artists.

You can book tickets for Flarewave by going to:

https://brightondome.org/event/30242/flarewave_festival/

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/flarewaves-comedy-night-tickets-409044401817