Communities across Llanelli come together at Unity event.

Posted on Nov 14, 2024
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On Saturday 2 November Llanelli Unites and People Speak Up held their first Unity event, to celebrate and bring cultures, languages and stories from Llanelli and Carmarthenshire’s diverse communities.
The event hosted at People Speak Up, Park Street, Llanelli invited National Poet of Wales, Hanan Issa and musician Parisa Fouladi to perform.

Welsh-Iraqi poet, filmmaker, and artist Hanan Issa is the current National Poet of Wales. She an author for adults and young people with, and her publications include her poetry collection My Body Can House Two Hearts, Welsh Plural: Essays on the Future of Wales and her children’s poetry anthology And I Hear Dragons. Her winning monologue With Her Back Straight was performed at the Bush Theatre as part of the Hijabi Monologues. Hanan Issa is part of the writersroom for Channel 4’s award-winning series We Are Lady Parts. Her work has been featured on Radio 3 and Radio 4. Her short film The Golden Apple - a Ffilm Cymru/ BBC Wales commission is available on iPlayer. She was the 2023 Hay International Fellow and is the current National Poet of Wales until 2027.

Following the event, Hanan Issa said, “Had a great time performing in Llanelli today at
People Speak Up. Felt important after the tensions we’ve seen here. Left with only gratitude for a beautiful space doing important work to support local refugee communities.”

Welsh Iranian artist from Cardiff, Parisa Fouladi performed her NeoSoul, Jazz and hip-hop style fused music, which also includes performances in Welsh. Parisa has performed at some of Wales’ most prestigious music events including Llwyfan y Maes at the National Eisteddfod, Tafwyl, Swn, Focus Wales, Gwyl Fach y Fro and 2023’s Trawsnewid: Transform event in Aberystwyth.

There was also poetry and spoken word sharing's from the Association of Polish Journalists and Writers in Wales, who also meet at PSU every week.

"Presenting Polish poetry at a multicultural event was an incredible experience. We were aware that the audience did not speak Polish, but it was amazing to see how fascinated most listeners were by the sound of the Polish language. After our performance, many attendees approached us, eager to discuss the poetry and learn more about it. It was a great honour to perform alongside such talented poets and musicians. I am grateful that the Association of Polish Journalists and Writers in Wales Dialog, which is cooperating with People Speak Up, be part of this event," says Paulina Czubatka, the main editor of the anthology of the Polish poetry in Wales "Whisper in the Rain" and secretary of the Association of Polish Journalists and Writers in Wales Dialog.

Founder and Chief Exec of PSU, Eleanor Shaw said, “Supporting our communities through creativity and storytelling is at the heart of what we do. We want to drive forward change, working in partnership with Llanelli Unites and Llanelli Multicultural Network. We wanted to create a space where we celebrate and welcome all our communities across Carmarthenshire together and share cultures, languages and stories. We were thrilled with the feedback from those who were able to attend, and we will be running more events like this in the future.”

“The Unity event lifted our spirits and showed how music and spoken word can help us celebrate all we have in common”. Steve Kelshaw from Llanelli Unites