Celebrating 15 years of creativity, community and empowerment

Full feature by EXPOSED MAGAZINE

UK’s first theatre company of sanctuary celebrates 15 years of creativity, community and empowerment

5 MINS READ

Founded in 2010, Stand and Be Counted Theatre, the UK’s first theatre company of sanctuary, has transformed countless lives across Sheffield and beyond. At the core of their work is one simple message: art has the power to change the world. 15 years on, and SBC continues to provide a staggering array of creative opportunities, workshops and empowering projects, reflecting the strength of community to overcome barriers to access. To celebrate their anniversary, Exposed’s Ruby Deakin took a front row seat to hear their story.

Stand and Be Counted Theatre works with refugees and asylum seekers across the north of England to empower self expression, bringing together arts, culture and social justice to ensure equality of opportunity for all. Their co-creation work includes live music, workshops, exhibitions, physical performances and digital arts, ensuring that those with lived experiences are at the heart of all their projects.

The Soap Box Collective, an SBC co-created programme, holds weekly sessions aiming to boost confidence through creativity, discussing how theatre and arts can make the world better for everyone. The workshops are often led by creative professionals with lived experiences of seeking sanctuary, providing a relaxed space to facilitate creative work and conversation.

Levi Udeh has been a member of the Soap Box Collective since it launched three years ago. “Every Thursday, no matter what, you always have somewhere to go,” he said. “It has not just added creativity, but it has also added confidence to our lives. We go out there and whenever we see challenges, we know that we can utilise what we’ve learnt.”

The idea to create football shirts to commemorate the anniversary was a no-brainer.
Throughout the year, members of the Soap Box Collective and SBC leaders workshopped various ideas for badges and crests to appear on the shirts. The Collective collaborated with Sheffield local Kazna Asker, known for her political activism through fashion design and her involvement in multiple community projects. Together with Among Good People, a brand committed to working with campaigners and charitable causes, two symbolic shirts were launched.

The collection premiered at Fabric of the World, an alternative fashion show held in Leah’s
Yard as part of Sheffield’s Migration Matters Festival, which took place in June.

SBC’s Digital Director, Smart Banda, was instrumental in bringing these designs to life. “We have a lot of people in our group who love football, so the idea of creating a football t-shirt felt very natural,” he said. “We embarked on that journey of what it would look like if we brought a piece of everyone’s world into this fashion show, a piece of their hearts. That’s where these wonderful ideas of ‘fabrics of the world’ came from.”

Levi added: “Fabrics of the world’ are things that collect us together – people who come from different backgrounds, religions and cultures. For something to come to life, there has to be several people who can have their input.”

The final shirt designs represent the shared experiences of those seeking sanctuary, both locally and globally. The blue and yellow ‘sanctuary’ shirt signifies the colours of Ukraine, and the black and white home shirt includes green and red details, a nod to the flags of Palestine and Sudan. The home shirt design also features the word ‘peace’ in both English and Arabic.

“It feels really good for a piece of culture, a piece of solidarity, to be embedded within these t-shirts,” Smart said. “As soon as somebody wears this, it feels like they’re carrying a bit of those values.”

Since the launch of the campaign, stars, writers and actors including Ian Kershaw, Julie Hesmondhalgh and multi award-winning comedian Aisling Bea have expressed their support, sharing their shirts on social media.

“It’s very exciting when somebody that you’re a fan of starts cheering about the work,” said Rosie. “This is another great example of how we’re all in it together. It’s been lovely, through this shirt, to be able to have conversations with different people who have different audiences, and reach a far larger set of people than we typically would be able to reach.”

She added: “I’m really proud of our charity and all of the people for making the decisions that they make every day.”

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Photography by Smart Jervas Banda & Khaled Al-jawad