Migrant Steps / Göçmen Adımlar (2013-2014)

I facilitated this theatre project with Turkish-speaking women living in London, in collaboration with Day-Mer, London’s Turkish/Kurdish/Cypriot community organisation, and supported in kind by partners such as North London Community House and Goldsmiths University.

Starting from the image of a travelling tortoise, the project asks: What happens if migrant women engage creatively with the urban space?  How does it affect their understanding of home?  Can those who often stay within restricted areas and stick to the same routes between home, the shops, kids’ school, be encouraged to wander freely?  Through fortnightly drifts purposefully yet safely getting lost in different corners of London and workshops exploring our bodies and voices and searching for other forms of dis- and re-orientation on alternating weekends, participants devised and performed a theatre production, professionally designed and documented by other Turkish-speaking artists thanks to our Arts Council England grant. The project won the Walk21 Vienna Walking Visionaries Award 2015 in Walking and the Arts.

Watch the live theatre performance here:

Watch the documentary by Alev Erdoğan here:

Read an interview with Naz Yeni on the project here: https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/25161/