Emmanuela Yogolelo
I admire CAN hugely as an arts organisation that celebrates arts and culture from refugee and new migrant communities. CAN does genuinely support artists to realise their creative ambitions and to grow successful careers in the region and in the UK.
I have direct personal experience of this as a Manchester-based artist with a refugee background. Over the years, I’ve taken part in many of CAN’s workshops, training opportunities, and, lately, in its artist-in-residence scheme during 2018-2019. CAN’s Exodus Festival gave me space for my first ever live performance in the UK. All of this has contributed to me launching a singing, song-writing, and producing career in the UK.
CAN has opened the door to other work. Currently, I’m working part-time for CAN as an Assistant Producer with the Kámoši Juniors Performing Arts Group, a project in Leigh in the Borough of Wigan. CAN played a big part in helping me set up Amani, the African arts and cultural organisation that I lead. The organisation is like a trampoline for those first bounces in launching, or in my case, as I settled in the UK, relaunching a career, in the creative industries.
www.emmanuelayogolelo.wordpress.com
@emmanuelayogol1
SoundCloud: Emmanuela Yogolelo