Contemporary Roma Experience - Program

THE CONTEMPORARY ROMA EXPERIENCE Presented by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC in collaboration with the Canadian Romani Alliance

FRIDAY OCT 24, 2014 7:00 - 9:00 PM Vancity Culture Lab at The Cultch (1895 Venables Street) .....................................................................

PROGRAM Musqueam Welcome, Audrey Siegl

Roma in Europe

• Dr. Shayna Plaut, Liu Scholar Alumna, UBC • Dr. Daniel Radulescu, Sastipen European Network • Daniel Manson, PhD student (Anthropology), UBC

Roma: Struggles and Achievements in Canada

• Julia Lovell-Mohammed, activist and filmmaker • Florian Botos, visual artist, musician, and activist • Gina Csanyi-Robah, Director, Canadian Romani Alliance

Question & Answer Period ~10 minute intermission ~

Diego El Cigala in Conversation with Jafelin Helten, flamenco artist With musical interludes by violinist Lache Cercel, alongside Nader Khaledi, Davide SanPaolo, Sam Schiechet and Paul Thousand.

Please join us after the event for a reception in the lobby with light snacks from Tamam Fine Palestinian Cuisine, and a cash bar.

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Diego El Cigala in Concert Tomorrow!

This event is held in conjunction with Diego El Cigala’s performance at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC (6265 Crescent Road) taking place on Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 8pm.

Details at chancentre.com.

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC

Since 1997, the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC has earned an international reputation for its striking design, stellar acoustics, and exceptional programming. Artists, critics, and patrons alike are unanimous in their praise of the facility, winning it a place among North America’s premier performing arts venues. From classical, jazz, theatre, and opera to world music, the Chan Centre is a vital part of UBC campus life – a place where the artistic and academic disciplines integrate with one another to inspire new perspectives on life and culture. Past performers and guest speakers include: Wynton Marsalis, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Renée Fleming, Dan Savage, Mariza, Sigur Rós, Mavis Staples, and Hugh Masekela. www.chancentre.com

This event is part of the Chan Centre Connects series which is programmed by Artistic Presenting Manager Christine Offer in conjunction with the Chan Centre Presents series. The purpose of these events is to engage the community in global issues and intercultural experiences through the lens of the arts. Through Chan Centre Connects, we ask: what broader impact do the arts and artists have on the shared human experience?

Canadian Romani Alliance

The Canadian Romani Alliance is the first national umbrella advocacy organization representing Canada’s diverse Roma peoples and communities. The mission of the CRA is to be a national Romani voice utilizing advocacy and public education to raise awareness about human rights abuse, institutionalized discrimination, societal prejudice, and inequitable public policy targeting marginalized communities, in Canada and internationally.

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Florian Botos

Florian Botos is of Hungarian Roma background and came to Canada as an asylum seeker in 2001. He is a visual artist, musician, and community activist. Like his role model, Janos Balazs, Florian is also a self-taught artist. He brought a fresh and unique style into the art world in Hungary beginning in 1996. His hand drawn, original art is strongly rooted in his Christian faith. Every image he has drawn carries biblical messages derived directly from the scriptures.

Hence, he named his style of art “Pictures Of A Thousand Words”. In Hungary, Florian’s art has been displayed in exhibitions at the Budapest Museum of Fine Art, the Roma Parliament Gallery, and the Hungarian Ethnography Museum. Since 2001, Florian has had numerous exhibitions in Canada and has frequently performed with his band, V-Roma. In 2012, Florian helped lead a demonstration at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in Vancouver to help Roma refugees fight against institutionalized discrimination.

Lache Cercel

Before leaving his homeland to settle in Canada, Lache Cercel was one of Romania’s premier musicians. From a musical Romani family, he trained at the Academy of Arts in Bucharest, became a soloist with the Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and, in 1986, was awarded the “Artist of the People” Citation by the Romanian government. Since settling in Canada in 1998, he has furthered his musical studies at Vancouver Community College and collaborated with musicians from a diverse range of backgrounds. Some of his Canadian performance highlights include the Victoria Jazz Festival, Mission Folk Festival, the Western Premiers Conference, Victoria First Night Celebrations, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and Festival by the Sea in St. John, New Brunswick. He is the current musical director at Vancouver’s Chai Lounge. Cercel’s music is firmly rooted in strong Roma tradition infused with classical and improvisational jazz. The listener feels the strong roots and hears the history of tragedy, struggle and ultimate survival that is part of Roma music.

Gina Csanyi-Robah

Gina Csanyi-Robah is a Canadian born educator of Hungarian Roma background. She has been an educator for 14 years, including when she served as Executive Director of the Toronto-based Roma Community Centre for four years, and as President of the Board of Directors for three years previous. She worked diligently at creating a physical office space to help Roma refugees, raised awareness about the negative Gypsy stereotyping and institutionalized discrimination toward Roma in Canada, and joined the struggle to prevent the detrimental Bill C31 from becoming the current legislation known as ‘Protecting Canada’s Immigration and Refugee System Act.’ Gina has continued to work collaboratively with other community groups and individuals that are fighting for justice for refugees. In 2012, Gina was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of her service to Canada’s Roma community.

The same year, Gina was also presented with the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers’ 2012 Advocacy Award. On April 8, 2014, Gina was invited to speak at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland to participate in the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner’s first ever International Roma Day event. In September 2014, Gina founded the first national Romani organization in Canada, the Canadian Romani Alliance.

Diego El Cigala

Diego El Cigala is, quite simply, the most exciting and innovative flamenco singer in the world today. A multiple Latin GRAMMY award winner, his earthy, exultant and richly emotive voice marks him as one of the great singers of the last century. Born into a family of flamenco musicians, El Cigala began his solo career in 1997. A mere four years later Corren Tiempos de Alegría was nominated for a Latin GRAMMY award. Following this, El Cigala and legendary Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés released a duo CD, Lágrimas Negras (Black Tears), which became one of the most astonishing breakthroughs in the realm of world music selling million copies worldwide. In 2010 El Cigala travelled to Argentina, land of the tango, where he collaborated with two of Argentina’s tango masters – bandoneon player Néstor Marconi and guitarist Juanjo Dominguez. El Cigala is currently touring his 2013 recording Romance de la Luna Tucumana, which offers a fresh take on the Argentinean tango tradition. www.elcigala.com

Jafelin Helten

Jafelin was born in Venezuela and came to Canada in 1996. She acquired the Flamenco bug in Vancouver shortly after arriving. Today she is Vancouver’s popular Flamenco singer performing weekly as a cantaora in the local Flamenco scene with the groups of the area, such as Centro Flamenco, Flamenco Alcala, Al Mozaico Flamenco, Karen Flamenco, Alma de Espana (Victoria) and Los Gitanos Academy. She has also performed at music festivals in Toronto, Calgary, Kelowna, Victoria and Vancouver. Jafelin has continuously studied or collaborated with the highest caliber of Flamenco artists including David Lagos, Melchora Ortega, Rafael de Utrera, Eva and Domingo Rubichi, Dolores Agujetas, Jesus Montoya, Sara Salado, Gaspar Rodriguez, Emilio Orchando, Ricardo Lopez, Cristo Cortez, David Hornillo, Christina Hall, Manuel Tane, Momi De Cadiz, and Jesus Flores de Moron, among others. She has recorded two albums.

Her first, Tantos Caminos, a Flamenco work with guitarist Gerardo Alcala and her second, Algo De Mi, a Latin Jazz style Boleros work with various musicians. www.jafelin.com

Julia Lovell-Mohammed

Julia Lovell-Mohammed is a Canadian of English Roma background, raised in Vancouver. She founded the first Romani organization in Canada in 1996 in response to large number of Roma refugees seeking asylum. The Vancouver-based, Western Canadian Romani Alliance (WCRA), had a mandate to combat anti-Roma racism, myths and stereotyping via public education, the media and ongoing dialogue with various human rights organizations. The WCRA organized cultural events, educational programs, assisted Roma immigrants and refugees with housing, school registration, social integration, and assisted Roma survivors of the Holocaust and their families with compensation procedure. In addition to these activities, Julia was involved in the making of Opre Roma: Gypsies in Canada, a film produced in 1999 by the National Film Board of Canada. The film was nominated for Best Multicultural/Race Relations documentary at the 2000 Golden Sheaf awards in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Shortly afterwards, Julia helped to create another film called Suspino, A Cry for Roma, based on the experience of Roma persecution in Europe, from progroms in Romania to make-shift camps in Italy.

Daniel Manson

Daniel is a PhD student in Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. His research seeks to understand the deportation of Roma migrants from France as part of a political regime that produces spatial and social boundaries in Europe. Daniel’s ethnographic research focuses on the everyday lived experiences of Romanian Roma migrants living in “illegal” settlements in Strasbourg, France. Ultimately the eviction and deportations of Roma are only considered publically legitimate insofar as they target “undesirable” subjects and non-citizens. In accounting for the impact of punitive immigration policies and discourses on the everyday lives of Roma migrants, Daniel hopes to illustrate how deportation actively creates the undesirability of the populations it targets.

Shayna Plaut, PhD

Dr. Shayna Plaut, originally from California, has recently completed her PhD at the University of British Columbia. She has worked on issues regarding Romani media, advocacy and civil society since 2001 and her Master’s and PhD work focus on how Roma represent themselves in their own media/journalism. In 2003-4 she lived in Macedonia working with Romani journalists and members of the civil society. Resulting from her years of work with Roma people, Shayna speaks the Arli dialect of Romanes, the Romani language. Upon return from the Balkans she served as the country specialist for Macedonia and the Balkans Regional Action Network Coordinator for Amnesty International USA. Shayna speaks widely in the Balkans, Hungary, Canada and the US and has published numerous academic book chapters and articles as well as journalistic pieces focusing on Romani media and advocacy. Shayna continues to work with (not for) Roma to advocate for their rights and dignity in Europe as well as, most recently, in Canada regarding unfair changes to Canadian refugee policy and its discriminator targeting of Roma refugees, as well as other vulnerable refugee claimants from “safe” countries.

Daniel Radulescu, PhD

Dr. Daniel Radulescu is a Romanian Roma academic, human rights activist, and founding member and president of a NGO called Sastipen, the Roma Center for Health Policies in Romania. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Strategic Management and Public Policies, and in April 2014 he completed his PhD in Sociology. Since 2007, when Sastipen was established as a grassroots organization aimed at improving Roma access to public health services in Romania, Daniel has coordinated the Roma Health Mediation Program for nine years and authored several materials that supported the training of medical students, Roma mediators, community facilitators and formal and informal Roma leaders in advocacy and lobbying campaigns. Between 2009 and 2010, Sastipen investigated and monitored two cases of discrimination that restricted access of Roma women to obstetrics-gynecology services in Romania. These cases were referred to the National Council for Combating Discrimination and were also cited in U.S. Department of State Human Rights Reports for both 2009 and 2010.

Through its remarkable work, Sastipen was invited to become an official Council of Europe Roma Decade of Inclusion (2005-2015) supported initiative.

Audrey Siegl

Audrey Siegl (ancestral name sχɬemtəna:t ) was raised in East Vancouver by a single father of East Indian and British heritage, and by her mother’s Musqueam family. In recent years she has moved back to the Musqueam Indian Reserve, located south of Marine Drive where she has worked in the Musqueam Language and Culture Department to revitalize the hən̓q̓ əmin̓əm̓ language. Audrey has been active in the Idle No More movement. In 2012, she was involved in organizing the protection of c̓ əsnaʔəm (Marpole Midden), and more recently has been active at the homeless tent city in Oppenheimer Park. Audrey is running with Canadian Office and Professional Employees (COPE) on a platform of Indigenous sovereignty, housing justice, and an end to violence against women, especially First Nation women. Audrey wants to radically change Vancouver and to build a city where basic needs and humanity come before corporate profit and corporate politics.