POCKETS OF CALM Paris, April 29-30, 2025 In Paris this week the heat shot up to summer temperatures. At the CEDRE @caritasfrance we set up the table in a shady spot in the courtyard and prolonged it with a separate table for clay. The garden had come into flower, the atmosphere was serene and there was time for long conversations and detailed work. One man drew page after page of caricatures, scarcely pausing. Another, who was there with his two little daughters, wrote a poem and talked about his admiration for Victor Hugo, Voltaire and Baudelaire. A third, told a story from the Coran about a prophet with a basket of figs who went to sleep for a hundred years : when he woke up the figs were still fresh. On the other side of the courtyard there was music and dancing, the two little girls joining in with shakers, before coming over to play at the table. The next day we were dismayed to find a huge bulldozer parked just outside the CEDRE next to the little market, probably to dislodge the tents that have sprung up on the traffic island under the ring road. But the same serenity permeated our session at La Semeuse where we were again joined by the association Melting Point, (a solidarity network for LGBTQI+ people in exile seeking asylum in France.) Around the table bracelets were made and images copied, traced and re-interpreted. A few cyanotypes were made in the sun, and some men from Somalia we had invited from the CEDRE were pleased to be welcomed and to discover this new space. Local residents popped in and out, we found ourselves sitting back and watching interactions, and thinking how extraordinary it is that people manage to find these pockets of calm in the busy dirty city. Kate France and Naomi Press #paris #displacement #refugees #lgbtqiplus #communitygarden #community #psychosocialsupport #arttherapists #togetherwithrefugees🧡 (fb)

CLOUDS - PART TWO Dunkirk, April 30, 2025 Today the weather was hot. The humanitarian area outside Dunkirk felt harsh and sparse - fewer NGO’s and the ground arid, desert like, more like the height of summer. Everything felt displaced. In this off-road area there had been earlier tensions but now there was an atmosphere of waiting - much as we have experienced before in this setting. Waiting to see the doctors @medecinsdumonde, waiting for food, waiting to cross the Channel, waiting for a place of safety… We learnt that hundreds of people have crossed in small boats this week in calmer seas, while those visiting the doctor largely presented with skin complaints from failed attempts, as well as foot injuries from walking. Today we experimented with a bright new cloud tablecloth which we laid on the ground above the large world map. We wanted to bring clouds again, reflecting the sky onto the earth’s surface, creating a visual dialogue. Conversations were possible and included journeys, complicated plans aborted, the pain in displacement. Amid frustration and exhaustion, we witnessed genuine care between people - friendships, sometimes formed in other places or countries, during other extended periods of waiting. We met men, women and children from a larger range of countries than usual - including Guinea, Niger, Somalia, Yemen, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan… One young man spoke of his enjoyment at looking together at the world postcards. There was shared curiosity, a little bit of space for imagination, discovering, wondering. A group of children - parents close by - played both on the world map and inside the van - relishing the time and space for drawing, building, playing, joint attention. Finally, the clouds, lifted off the ground and onto the side of the psychosocial activities van, offered a fresh shift in atmosphere and perspective in this off road waiting area. Bobby Lloyd, Miriam Usiskin, Johannes Maertens #psychosocialsupport #clouds #waiting #worldmap #displacement #limbo #wondering #curiosity #togetherwithrefugees🧡 (fb)