Yesterday we held the 2015 Haslingden Mela at Community Link – with a dozen stalls (arranged by Habiba Shenza) selling food, clothes, shoes, offering crafts and mendhi. We also had some interesting entertainment – Stories from the Arabian Nights told by Shellac Tesab in Urdu, colourful Rajasthani marionette and hand puppets from Diana Baylis’s Black Cat Theatre, and…

Read More »

Today we cleared the Apna up; took Hudhaifa’s calligraphy pieces away, and left everything else under a huge dust-cloth. Almost three months to the day that it opened. Those three months of activities at the centre in Haslingden have been an enormous success, with over 1000 people participating in workshops, meetings, events and training sessions. So…

Read More »

This coming Sunday, 1st November, we’re offering a unique opportunity to meet Hudhaifa Al-Awaidi, one of the Senior Calligraphers from Oman. Awaidi has been providing special classes at the Apna and on Sunday he’ll be showing his work.  Please drop by; it’s very informal and Awaidi will be on hand to answer questions – he’ll even show you how…

Read More »

Kain Leo has now finished work on her second animation and she has sent me the film plus a few screenshots. The subject is a continuation of the first short film – Mr Aslom Miah‘s story of leaving Bangladesh for England and, in particular, the terrible wrench of having to leave his mother.  The film is another colourful…

Read More »

One of the most exciting strands of our Different Moons programme has been creating short animated films inspired by the interviews we’ve made with some of the first generation of immigrants to Rossendale from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. We’ve now made 10 films, created by wide range of animators. The latest two films have been…

Read More »