The acclaimed ‘imaginative and inspiring’ Trench Brothers project starts this week to commemorate the contributions and personal stories of ethnic minority soldiers in the First World War.
Award winning charity HMDT Music is working with greatly respected Community Interest Company Strike a Light – Arts and Heritage, to explore the stories of the impact the Indian Army Military Hospitals in Brighton and the British West Indies Regiment training camp in Seaford had on local communities at the time.
We are seeking volunteers to help embark on a voyage of discovery exploring local newspapers, archives and anecdotal reminiscences. Between February and July 2018, we will offer training and support to research members of the Labour Corp who found their way to Sussex and their stories when they arrived. We will undertake visits to The Keep archives, The Chattri, Seaford Museum and Newhaven Fort as well as interview Sussex residents who may have links with this theme.
These findings will be captured and showcased as part of the interactive Trench Brothers Exhibition being shown at Newhaven Fort from August 2018, which features a creative response to the research as part of a bigger event.
The final strand is an education project involving eight local schools using puppetry, composition, artefacts, costumed interpreters and cross-curricular learning, leading to them performing a newly commissioned music theatre work by composers Julian Joseph and Richard Taylor and librettist Tertia Sefton-Green alongside jazz and opera singers, musicians and puppeteers at Brighton Dome in October 2018.
Find out more about this fascinating yet complex period of history and the result of these epic global changes affecting a small corner of Sussex: http://www.hmdt.org.uk/hmdtmusic/trenchbrothers/
For more information about getting involved with this project, accessing training and becoming a research volunteer, contact Project Coordinator: Nicola Benge: strikealight@rocketmail.com by 30th February 2018.
Trench Brothers project
