Banafsheh Bahrami

I was born in Tehran, Iran. I studied Visual Art (BSc) and then Fine Art(MA) at Azad Faculty, University of Tehran.

As an artist, my main study was about modern visual art. I had over a dozen private and public exhibitions in Tehran. I have also worked as a private tutor, teaching art to children and teenagers.

I am fully computer literate and experienced in using graphic design software, having worked as a graphic designer for 11 years.

I came to the UK in 2005 and I settled down in Rochdale. At present, I am studying English at Hopwood Hall College.

Since April 2007, I have been attending the Exodus training programme at Community Arts North West. This has opened a new window of opportunity for me to get know about other artists and get more involved in community art.

What is important to me is the integration of diverse cultures to build up a more friendly society. My dream and ambition is to continue my visual art, with which I will be able to display my ideas about art, and to work in the UK as a graphic designer. Beside this I hope to work with and help other people, especially young people.

I am a highly motivated professional, able to adapt to different systems of operation. In my previous position as a graphic designer with a large international company, I thrived in a dynamic and competitive environment. I am used to working within a team and am considerate and supportive of my colleagues.

Emmanuella Machozi Yogolelo
A gospel singer originally from Democratic Republic of Congo. Emmanuella has performed at Exodus Live and is a member of the Beating Wing Orchestra who performed at the Manchester International Festival 2007.

Contact: 07824 421149

Jean Blanchard Azip

DJ, singer, songwriter, dancer, workshop leader

Born in the DR Congo, Jean is a refugee artist based in Manchester. He moved to the UK as a lone child seeking asylum after losing his family during the war in his native Congo.

Since his arrival in the UK 10 years ago, Jean has rebuilt his life, re-educated himself and is now a successful artist. Helping others overcome difficulties and problems in their lives is Jean's passion as well as engaging in community arts, sharing his life story and experiences, artistic abilities and skills during workshops with the community. This, says Jean, is a way of giving back to the community for giving him a chance to rebuild his life.

These workshops are suitable for all age groups, schools, colleges, universities, young offenders' institutions, prisons and community centres and cover the following disciplines and topics.

Music, poetry & visual arts
In these workshops, Jean tells his story and experiences to the participants and based on this, the participants then choose to write songs, poems or can draw images reflecting all the emotions in Jean's story. These workshops are popular among students and school pupils especially those doing performing arts studies.

African dance and drumming
In these workshops participants learn African dance and drumming. This is designed to enable participants to create a piece of dance and drumming performance to be performed at the end of the session.

Refugee & asylum awareness
This workshop is designed to educate participants about refugee and asylum issues. Having escaped to safety from his war-torn country aged 15, and living in the UK, Jean strongly believes that it is important for him to talk of his asylum and refugee experiences to community members many of whom have not heard of these directly from a person with a refugee and asylum background.
In this workshop, Jean gives details of his experiences during the war, how he lost his family, the pains and torture he endured, his escape, and his early days in the UK having no family and friends, the culture shock and how he managed to turn his situation from bad to better using his mind and imagination techniques.
This is an inspiring and motivating session where participants can ask questions and engage in discussion regarding these issues. As well as the above, Jean educates the participants about the history, culture, way of life and geography of his native Congo.

Entertainment
Apart from the above workshops, Jean has a 10 piece African music and dance band. The band is called Britannia Rumba. As a band, they have built a strong reputation as one of the most exciting music and dance groups. They have performed at the G-Mex, Bolton Octagon Theatre, Contact Theatre, greenroom and many more venues and festivals in the North West. The band also performs at private functions such as birthdays, weddings,and anniversaries electrifying the crowd with their infectious Congolese Soukouss dance music.

Contact: 07944 503444
contact@deplaizir.com
www.deplaizir.com www.myspace.com/deplaizir www.youtube.com/deplaizir

Kabos Kembia Louison

My name is Kabos Kembia Louison. I am from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

I was born in Mbuji-Mayi in the Congo on November 26, 1970. I am married and have two lovely daughters, Alexia who's 4 and Gabriella who's 2. My wife's name is Rose, she and my daughters recently joined me in the UK after almost two years of separation.

I have a degree in Economics and have worked as a teacher in a children's school in the Congo while I was a student. After my graduation I worked for the World Health Organisation in their Polio Programme, and took part in National Immunization Days vaccinating children from 0 to 5 years old.

I arrived in the UK in January 2005 as an asylum seeker. At present, I am taking part in the Exodus Training Programme for refugee artists to help me develop my artistic skill and get involved in community art work.

My principal art skills are graphic design, photography, film making and video editing. I have also developed other skills including painting, web designing, some break dancing etc. and I am also a very good football player.

Kelly Ndikumana
My name is Kelly Ndikumana I was born in Burundi, Central Africa where because of the war I had to move to South Africa for a while and then to Manchester. I attended high school at Manchester Academy where I achieved all my GCSEs and started college at Loreto where am doing a National Diploma in Health and Social Care and am currently at Salford University studying for a degree in Mental Health Nursing.

I am a member of Afrocats that specialises in African dance and drama and I have performed in various places like at the G-Mex for the Deputy Prime Minister, seminars, refugee festivals and ceremonies. I have been part of the play called 'Where is Home?' which we performed at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, greenroom, Contact Theatre, the Zion Centre and even received an award at Art 06. I have also been part of another play called 'A Letter from Home' which was sponsored by Manchester University.

I completed the Exodus training with Community Arts North West which lasted for six months, where we had to learn and develop our skills on facilitating workshops like dance and drama workshops, where after the training I got involved with the Royal Exchange Theatre with the help of Jean Blanchard Azip and Janine Waters for more drama workshops. I have also done African dance workshops in Cumbria with young children, London on a youth festival and in Bolton doing workshops in schools.

My passion is in acting and African dancing, doing workshops in both styles. I am willing to learn more and explore all areas so that I can develop on my skills to become a better artist. My thanks go out to Cilla from CAN, Magdalen from Afrocats, Jean from Britannia Rumba and Janine Waters from the Royal Exchange Theatre. All these people have helped me a lot in developing my skills so far.

I have just finished playing a part in The Graduate at the Garrick Playhouse in Altrincham.

Maryam Patala

My name is Maryam Patala and I'm from Iran. I came to live in the UK in May 2003 because I wanted to be given the right to design my life the way I wanted to.

I can't say when I started doing art work, as since I can remember I was painting and then at primary school I fell in love with textiles. Ever since then all my summer holidays were devoted to trying a new art form and that's why I have experience in such a variety of art forms including painting, drawing, textiles, acting, sawing, decorating, hairdressing & make up, face-painting, card-making, in fact, any creative thing really.

I don't want you to think I am only claiming to be able to do these as, to be honest, these are half what I can actually do. As an artist, I just need to see how something is made once, and then I would be able to make it myself.

I have done a lot of work with the community such as leading art workshops and managing workshops which were led by other artists. The final product of all our workshops has been exhibited or given to participants to take home as a souvenir. Sometimes I get commissions to do art pieces for museums at different exhibitions.

I enjoy working with people. It teaches me a lot, and I love finding out about different cultures and having the opportunity to engage with people from all walks of life.

Having been on Exodus training at CAN, I have had the opportunity to meet other artists and workshop leaders which has been fantastic. I now have more to offer after finishing this training.

Neige Tchientcheu

My name is Neige Tchientcheu and I am from Cameroon, I am 25 years old and I have been in England since 2003 where I have studied English and gained a NVQ level 3 in hairdressing and beauty.

I have been singing and dancing, with a bit of acting since my youth, which allowed me to get involved in many different activities. I have performed at events, festivals and ceremonies such as Cameroon International Day where we had to perform for the Prime Minister amongst others.

In the UK, I have developed my performing skills on different occasions, for example during Refugee Week, Exodus Festival and more. I also chair a community group called Dasram, which helps refugees and asylum seekers to get involved in the community. We run activities such as football, gospel choir and dancing. I am one of the dance teachers.

In 2006, I was in the play called Letter from Home sponsored by Manchester University and featuring Britannia Rumba.

Now I am training to be a Community Artist with CAN which will enable me to improve my skills for running workshops. It also makes me think about how I can use my skill for the community.

As the days go by, I discover what I call my 'Divine Gift', and this is my Afro- Caribbean creative hairdressing talent. So now I focus on this Divine Gift and can call myself a professional artist in this domain.

I have been doing artists' hair forn stage for the Afrocats dance group, Miss Black Britain (with Silk Photography) and more. I am a hairdressing artist and my vision is to make my users feel happy, confident and satisfied on stage and in life.

I would like to set up a social enterprise which will enable the community to benefit from our affordable prices, from our quality and professional services. It will also give them an opportunity to learn more about Afro-Caribbean hair.

I take this opportunity to thank all CAN staff!

Pat Mackela

Known as Pat Mackman from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He plays both the drum kit and hand drums as well as percussion. Because of his drumming skill he was chosen as the main drummer in the Beating Wing Orchestra to perform at the Manchester International festival with Reem Kelani.

To keep the beat and tempo for good and professional music, Pat also works with Serge Tebu, Martin Milner, Esther Clarke and Zack in the newly created Manchester Afro Jazz band, Kokorico.

Pat is among those who believe that music brings peace of mind- no one can break it because music indeed is a power, because if you don't catch the rhythm you are going to like the message and both make a powerful connection.

Saranda Bogujevci
My name is Saranda Bogujevci; I am from Kosova but have lived in Manchester for seven years. I came to England when I was 14 years old, with my father, uncle and four younger cousins. I was medically evacuated from Kosova after receiving multiple gun shot wounds and losing eight members of my close family.

Because I had to spend a lot of time at the hospital, I could not attend school but at the hospital they had a centre where children could go and learn. After four months I started secondary school in Manchester, but because I couldn't speak English, I couldn't do my GCSEs, so I had to stay a year behind. The school I attended was a Roman Catholic high school and I am a Muslim but other refugees from Kosova were already attending the school. I had special support teachers to help me with English language and I attended other classes, maths, science and art. I had support teachers for my other classes as well. The students were very helpful and before I started school, two teachers came to visit me at home and gave me everything I needed before starting school.

After I did my GCSEs I started my 'A' levels at a Catholic college in Manchester. The college was more mixed than the school.

Now I am 21, I did Fine Art: New Media and Spanish for a year at Chester. Now I am studying Interactive Arts at Manchester. I did fine art at school, sculpture, print making, clay, painting, drawing and so on.

At college I carried on doing Fine art, I also did Media Studies and Graphic Design and Spanish GCSE. I got very interested in Digital art; I have done a few videos, a music video, an opening sequence of a thriller which was shown at the Cornerhouse and other sorts of video.

After losing my family and getting injured, for my family and I it was very important to get justice, and in 2003 my cousins and I went to Belgrade to testify against one of the men who did the shooting. We were the first children and Kosovar Albanians to testify in a war crimes trial and with the accused and his family being present in the room.

I have talked to many schools about what happened to my family and what happened in Kosova, since I started school here in England.

I am a member of Manchester Aid to Kosova and I've been involved in many different events and projects.

Serge Tebu
Born in the 70s in Cameroon, central Africa, I got a sax as a gift from my dad when I was 4 but I was using it like a stick to chase chickens in the street! I started drumming the furniture at age 8. I didn't know I would become a musician.

At age 16, I started classical piano and then moved to jazz after a year. I was in high school when I started organising shows and concerts for the youth.

In 1996, I met Zebson Pindy who became my music teacher. He taught me jazz harmony, improvisation, arrangement and composition. I studied with him 6 days a week, at least 10 hours a day, for 3 years.

In 2000, we had the idea to develop the school to a high level. We opened the ZEBSON JAZZ ACADEMY in Douala (Cameroon). I was the first manager as well as teacher. The academy is still running.

In 2003, I set up and ran a music studio. I composed/arranged for artists from all over central Africa.

Now I'm living in Manchester and play piano and bass guitar. I composed music for a friend of mine, Laurent Camara, a radio presenter at Wolverhampton Community Radio, as a theme tune for the programme Out of Africa. I also wrote and produced music for UK African artists Pit'a Mbongo and Emma Kemta for their next album.

In April 2007, I started training as a community artist at CAN and I met Martin Milner, a fantastic guitarist who's now my mentor. I formed a band called Kokoriko playing jazz and Latin standards in original style (a fusion of British + African feels) and my own compositions. My vision with Kokoriko is:

• to bring together musicians with jazz experience for a new approach mixing African and Asian rhythms on jazz harmony.

• to get Asian and African musicians involved in jazz by organising workshops, exhibitions and concerts.

Through CAN, I was asked to join the BEATING WING ORCHESTRA playing alongside 12 other international musicians directed by acclaimed Palestinian composer Reem Kelani. We performed at the very first Manchester International Festival in June 2007 and again in 2009 with Amadou and Mariam.

If you want to hear my music you can visit my virtual spaces at www.virb.com/sergetebu or www.myspace.com/sergetebu. I'm available for all musical occasions.