Day of Action Against the Hostile Environment

Join us on Saturday 30 July, 11-5pm, for a Day of Action Against the Hostile Environment as part of Brent Biennial 2022: In the House of my Love.

The day will include talks, screenings and workshops with activist groups, writers and artists. Together we will reflect on the impact of a decade surviving, creatively resisting, and working to make change under the Hostile Environment policy, which continues legacies of racism since Empire.

After the extended physical separations of the last years, we will gather together with key voices and organisations to share and learn from each other. Our aim is to better inform advocates for migrant rights within Brent and beyond, amongst migrants and bystanders alike.

On the day we will be joined by LGSMigrants (Lesbians & Gays Support the Migrants) who will share their Homo Office Manifesto and key principles of anti-immigration raid activism; Citizens UK and Migrants Organise who will speak about their latest campaigns for migrant rights in Brent and beyond; author Leah Cowan who will introduce her book ‘Border Nation‘, an incisive analysis of the colonial roots and current violence and oppression of UK border enforcement; and artist Daniella Valz Gen who will lead a meme-making workshop.

As part of the event we will be hosting a delicious lunch catered by Sufra NW London to continue conversations with participants, speakers and guests. Children welcome. Support for travel within Brent is also available. Please email shama.khanna@metrolandcultures.com with requests.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: WATCH OUR DOCUMENTATION OF THE DAY OF ACTION ON DEMAND

WATCH: Introduction to the Day of Action by Shama Khanna, Associate Curator for Public Programmes

WATCH: Presentation by Aliya Yule from Migrants Organise (with BSL interpretion)

WATCH: Presentation by Amardeep Singh Dhillon for Lesbians & Gays Support the Migrants (LGSM)

WATCH: Short Q&A with filmmaker Lynda Ouazar

LISTEN: Hear from author Leah Cowan here. READ: A transcript of the discussion is available here.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

READ: A quick guide to action against the Hostile Environment by Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants

DOWNLOAD: A series of resources by Migrants in Culture

WATCH: Lynda Ouazar set up a food bank for undocumented people in the first lockdown, supporting those who lost their jobs and houses overnight, and who were unable to seek official help. She joined the Guardian for this collaborative film-making project, Made in Britain, to try to unearth some of these hidden stories in her part of east London.

Hostile Housing, a Renters Research Project: Hostile Housing is a product of the London Renters Union participatory action research project ‘Our Homes’. In summer 2019, a group of renters were employed by the union to research their own and their wider community’s housing situations. Together, they led the research process and decided what the final outcome of the project would be.