Voices of Hope and Compassion

On Sunday 22 June from 4pm to 5:30pm, there is a free concert being held at the Corn Exchange led by Michael Rosen. This will be an uplifting and moving event organized by History Works on behalf of Cambridge City.

Michael Rosen will perform poetry commissioned for the event.  School children will perform dances and dramas and musical pieces inspired by Michael Rosen's words, plus their own poetry and music composed in empathy about the Refugee experience.  The concert will mark the end of this year's national "Refugee Week" festival and our theme is "Our Home, Our Community" to mirror the national theme which is "Community as a Superpower!" 

As the event is free and not ticketed you can arrive when doors open from 3:30pm to be seated in time for the 4pm start. 

For the event, HistoryWorks has also partnered with Sing! Community Choir, Cambridgeshire Library Services, and Roving Books with charities supporting Refugees (including the Refugee Hardship Fund and CamCRAG, Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group).

In the past year over  5,000 school children have been working with the poet, Michael Rosen, alongside the historian, Helen Weinstein, through school workshops and assemblies. The compositions reflect on what happens when individuals, families and communities are driven out of their homes, because of war or climate catastrophe, persecution or threat of genocide. The school children also learn about the continuing difficulties survivors and refugees face as they try to build new homes and recover from the trauma of their experiences.

Age suitability

We suggest that the event is suitable for children aged 9 and upwards because wars and genocides will be addressed in the words and performances.  Children under 9 years of age should only attend at the discretion of adults in their family and we recommend that adults follow-up and guide their children in discussing the issues they will hear and learn about during this event.

Refugee fundraising and Michael Rosen book signing

This year we are collecting donations for two Cambridge charities that support Refugees and Asylum seekers. Both charities will have stalls at the event to explain how they help Refugees. The charities are:

• CamCRAG which is Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group. You can donate cash at the Voices of Hope and Compassion concert or anytime via their donation page
• The Refugee Hardship Fund, which is administered by the Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum Refugee services, supporting refugees, and destitute asylum seekers. If you would like to make a donation, please go to the fundraising information page.

Michael Rosen will be doing book-signings with a pop-up bookshop called "Roving Books" where you can purchase from a range of his titles and have the books signed by Michael in the Corn Exchange foyer too! You can also ask for selfies in the foyer between 2.30pm and 3.30pm and purchase books after the concert too, because Roving Books will be open from 5.15pm to 6pm.  If you purchase books from Roving Books the profits will go to the Refugee charities mentioned above. You can also bring a Michael Rosen book from home to be signed and/or take a selfie, and have a chat with Michael, then make a cash or card donation at the Refugee charities’ stalls.