Spiro Ark have been instrumental in bringing together some of the contributors for this concert. Join them, if you can!

An uplifting evening celebrating Jewish and Roma cultures together in music, dance and poetry whilst also shining a spotlight on an important cause. On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we will restate our commitment to calling out threats and abuse faced by all minority communities. We are stronger when we stand together and when we celebrate the similarities in our diverse, yet remarkably similar cultures.

The performers:

Florence Joelle is a Paris-born, London-based Gypsy jazz and blues singersongwriter and record collector. ‘Joelle’s sensuous purred vocals and sprightly jazzy songs lend proceedings a contemporary edge while circumventing mere nostalgia.’ The Independent ****

Phien O’Reachtigan, a spoken word poet, is the youngest of 12 in a family of Pavee people, more widely known as Irish Travellers. Self-taught with very little formal education, he moved around the UK and Ireland with his family during his formative years, when he began to write poems to describe how he felt inside. Phien is cochair of the National Gypsy-Traveller-Roma council.

Gabor Boros is Vice Chairman and Holocaust Delegate of the International Romani Union and the Holocaust Representative of the National Gypsy Traveler and Romany Council. He will speak about the history of the Roma people and classical Roma music.

Luludinka is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed Roma dancer who
regularly travels around Europe to share the Roma and Sinti culture.

Bis-Bas’s music is a spicy fusion of Klezmer and Middle Eastern, from soulful Sephardic songs to lively Balkan rhythms. Vocalist Jonny Mosesson is from Aden, where Eastern influences merge with Spanish and North African music. Violinist Bogdan Vacarescu is Romanian; Jake Painter is one of London’s leading Jazz trumpeters and guitarist Peter Michaels expresses his East European heritage.