Celebration of city’s cultural diversity
Sunderland proved it has 21 good reasons to be a capital of cultureastalentsfromallbackgroundshowcasedtheirskills.
A mini Mela was hosted as Sunderland City of Culture 2021 Bid team paired up with Sunderland Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) Network to hostacelebrationofnationalities before a packed audience.
The organisers gathered together 21 acts to perform at SunderlandBangladeshInternational Centre in Hendon to show the range of talent from across its communities.
Indian dancing group Hindu Naeu Sang, martial arts experts, Afrian drummers and fruit carvers joined blind Polish DJ Rafal Marzec on the bill.
The night was opened by deputy mayor of Sunderland, Councillor Doris MacKnight, followedbyRebeccaBall,director of the bid, and Kam Chera, of The Funky Indian restaurant.
The organisers had aimed to bring together people from 21 different countries for the celebration, but bettered that by another three.
Steve Donkin supported Sunderland BME Network’s chairman Kamareswaradas Ramanathas to help plan the event, which also drew on the backing of the Friend of the Drop In, based at St Mary’s RC Church, Young Asian Voices, International Community Organisation of Sunderland and the Gentoo housing group.
African People of Sunderland,WISHandFastFeetSunderland also helped volunteer for the night, with the use of the hall given to the event by the venue’s leaders.
Steve said: “The whole intention was to really drive home how diverse the community is across the whole of city of Sunderland.
“It was a tremendous evening and with the support of all parts of the community, weknowthatthebidforcityof culture 2021 will be successful.”
Mr Donkin assisted in this rolewithSentientBusinessDevelopment, which works with the network.
The performers were singerJessicaDaleandsinger andguitarplayerLewisColin, who appeared in the Genfactor talent competition, along withOliviaGlover,Genfactor winner 2016; fruit sculptor Vijayalakshmi Subramani,
Barry Etherington; Thornhill Schoo student Chloe Donkin; Daisy Pringle, winner of Cities Search for a Star; DJ Rafal Marzec; TheVIPGirls;rapperYousuf; Zahra Pornamazeh; vocalist Keith Gregson and Mark Leadbeater, head of Hislop House Thornhill School.
Countries represented wereBangladesh;Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Iran, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan,Portugal,Poland,the USA, Togo, Somalia, Syria, Sri Lanka,theIvoryCoast,Turkey, the Philippines and the UK.