Emerge in Yarra

Emerge in Yarra will ignite the cultural landscape of Melbourne's inner north with a vibrant multi arts program taking place from Thursday 29 June – Saturday 8 July, 2017.

Now in its fourteenth year, Emerge in Yarra will continue a long tradition of unearthing and celebrating amazing new creative talents from Melbourne's emerging refugee and culturally diverse communities.

With 10 events over 10 days following Refugee Week, the festival will include commissioned works and new collaborations across visual arts, multimedia, theatre, dance, music, storytelling, spoken word, poetry and more.

The festival will officially launch on June 30 with Submerge, an immersive, subterranean arts experience featuring multimedia projection work by African Australian artists Guled Abdulwasi and Aysha Tufa, electronic soundscapes by Film School, and spoken word by Common Ground artists.

A festival favourite, Cookin' Up Community will see artists and creative entrepeneurs, Neda Rahmani with Saba Alemayoh, and Jaime Wilson – Ramirez with Oscar Jiminez, collaborate over two sessions on July 4 and 5, to cook up a feast of music, songs, stories and cuisine from distant homelands.

Emerge in Yarra will feature two stunning contemporary visual arts exhibitions from respected Kurdish Australian artist Rushdi Anwar, and collaborators I-Yen Chen and Yumemi Kiraki, will evoke themes of home and history, both remembered and forgotten.

For music lovers, the Black Orchid Stringband will continue the legacy of legendary West Papuan musicologist Arnold Ap with their debut album launch on July 1. The Visible Project Showcase on July 2 will launch some fine new music by upcoming artists who have participated in MAV's Visible Music Mentoring Program including: Neil Morris, Semina, Kaiit Waup, Cyprien Kagorora and Koraly Dimitriadis.

For musicians who want to hone their business skills, the B4U Play Forum on July 1 will be a great chance to network and hear from industry experts, while the Campfire Stories: Arise will be a relaxed and intimate evening on July 4 with storytelling and spoken word from around the globe.

The festival will culminate on July 7 with a captivating new work, Osono, created by Our Culture, fusing West African and First Nations traditions of music, dance, theatre and storytelling, exploring the journey from grief and loss, to unity and celebration.

Produced by Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV), Emerge provides a platform in different locations around Victoria, to celebrate and acknowledge the important contributions of emerging refugee, culturally diverse and First Nations artists and communities. Emerge in Yarra is an outcome of MAV's Emerge program which aims to empower and connect artists and communities through culture.