Coleraine Library hosts free events to celebrate Good Relations Week

Throughout the week events will be taking place in a number of libraries across Northern Ireland where library visitors can enjoy art exhibitions, children’s Storytime and craft sessions, creative writing, storytelling events and much more.

This year’s events are inspired by the Good Relations Week theme ‘People making change for Peace’. Alongside these events Libraries NI will use social media to recommend a number of books that explore the issues of identity, diversity and cultural voices through fiction.

From Monday, September 16 to Saturday 21 Coleraine Library host a Museum without a Home exhibition. This is an award winning, international, touring photographic exhibition by Oxfam and Amnesty International.

The images are of real objects that Greek women, men, and children donated to people in need of protection in Greece, to comfort them and help to make the difficulties of daily life more manageable. It promotes solidarity with refugees and other migrants and showcases items donated by Greeks to migrants.

Also on Wednesday, September 18 (2pm) Coleriane will offer a workshop entitled Whiteflag – Mark Smulian in creative conversation.

Mark is a multi-instrumentalist: acoustic and electric bass, oud, guitar and keyboard musician, with over 40 years’ experience in live performance, composition and studio music production.

At this event Mark shares his fascinating story of living in Israel, co-founding the first Israeli Palestinian rock band called WhiteFlag and a Co-founder of Heartbeat – an organisation uniting Israeli and Palestinian youth through music.

The event will feature some music performances. For information call 028 7034 2561 or email [email protected]

Helen Poston, Libraries NI Service Development Manager said: “The Good Relations Week events offer the public the opportunity to celebrate all aspects of culture in a welcoming, shared space, while also benefitting from the broad range of free services people can access in their local library. Libraries NI delivers a range of inclusive activities to celebrate diversity, promote respect, create a greater understanding of our shared history and improve access to opportunities.

“With such a diverse programme of events taking place, there is something for everyone. I would encourage anyone interested to come along and take part in one of the many free events taking place in their local participating library.”

Community Relations Council Chair, Martin McDonald, said: “This year we have selected the theme ‘People Making Change for Peace’ as we seek to showcase the contribution many thousands of people make to creating and sustaining good relationships across the community.

“We are delighted to have such strong support from organisations and a packed programme of over 200 events across Northern Ireland which showcase the fantastic work and the people behind it that is so important to our society,” he adds.

Good Relations Week supports the Northern Ireland Executive’s Together: Building a United Community (T:BUC) strategy and sees government departments, community groups, local councils, charitable organisations and authorities alongside libraries, host events throughout the week.

For details of all library events, check out the Libraries NI website www.librariesni.org.uk.

For more information about other events happening in your area, visit www.goodrelationsweek.com.