It’s never been more important to push back against the relentless anti-refugee polemic that has been massively energised by the evangelical ravings of Donald Trump. Pushing back against the dark words of the extreme right comes an explosion of colour to the city with the Refugee Week Festival, an event celebrating the beautiful cultural mix we are lucky enough to enjoy in the UK from a sweeping array of gifted artists in exile. Four days of talks, special performances and workshops, across several venues, begins with a meet the artists session with Millicent Chapanda and Ben Pathy onboard The Ikon Gallery barge and a performance from Senegalese kora player and singer Kadialy Kouyate. It’s an impressively curated lineup from Birmingham based charity Celebrating Sanctuary with several essential events including Guinea-Bissauan virtuoso guitarist Tony Dudu and his project Gumbe Jazz performing in The Symphony Hall foyer as part of their Jazzlines strand and the BMAG hosted Refugee Week 20th Birthday Celebration .The festival concludes with a mammoth six hours of music, dance and workshops at the mac on Saturday. Check out the full festival guide here.

Wed 20 Jun to Sat 23 Jun at various venues