City-wide festival set to mark worldwide commemoration.
A multi-venue celebration of global music and culture featuring a diverse programme of artists takes over Birmingham from today until Saturday to mark Refugee Week.
The festival, curated and delivered by city-based arts charity Celebrating Sanctuary, will see a series of talks, special performances and workshops with musicians from Angola, Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Sudan, Ukraine, UK and Zimbabwe given at Ikon Gallery, Ikon Slow Boat, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Symphony Hall foyer, Ort Cafe, and Midlands Arts Centre
Music and culture fans are invited to a festival introduction and meet-the-artists session with Millicent Chapanda and Ben Pathy on board the Ikon Slow Boat – a converted canal barge moored at Brewmaster Bridge in Brindleyplace – on Wednesday 20th June (4pm-6pm), before a free intimate set from Senegalese kora player and singer Kadialy Kouyate at Yorks Cafe in Ikon Gallery (8pm-8.40pm).
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery hosts the free Refugee Week 20th Birthday Celebration on Thursday 21st June, featuring performances by Writers Without Borders, Sisters in 
Guinea-Bissauan virtuoso guitarist Tony Dudu and his project Gumbe Jazz give a much anticipated free show as part of the popular Jazzlines Free Gigs programme in the foyer of Symphony Hall on Friday 22nd June (5pm-7pm).
Later the same evening, Congolese singer-songwriter Didier Kissala will perform a special acoustic set at Ort Cafe (8.20pm-10.30pm), with a second stirring performance from Tony Dudu and Gumbe Jazz (9.20pm-10.30pm). Tickets for the evening, priced £5, can be purchased on the door.
Celebrating Sanctuary’s Refugee Week Festival 2018 programme culminates in a six hour extravaganza across spaces at Midlands Art Centre featuring live performances from The Refugee Choir, a collaboration between the European Youth Music and the St Chad’s Sanctuary Refugee Choirs, led by Lizzy Cragg (Birmingham Opera Company).
Also performing will be feted Birmingham singer-songwriter Layla Tutt, African-Latin collective Afro Mio, Ukrainian singer-songwriter Iryna Muha, Midlands roots band Culture Dub Quartet, Sudanese singer and Ood player Hassan Salih Nour, Zimbabwean Mbira players and singers Millicent Chapanda, Chartwell Dutiro and Anna Mudeka, Guinea-Bissauan singer-guitarist Nifeco Costa with his band Babock Jazz, and a joyous finale with music, dancers and drummers from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s The Redeemed, led by Didier Kissala (12pm-6.15pm).
There will be a number of workshops throughout the final day, including kite-making, arts and craft workshop, women’s craft collective, textile working, face painting, drumming, salsa dance and art and conversation (1.20pm-4.30pm, booking required on the day).