Earlier this year Mafwa Theatre celebrated the official opening of the Roxby Community Garden with a 'Family Flourish Day'. Over 250 people came along to this community gala to enjoy the beautiful weather with music, workshops, poetry, performances, dancing and food.
This event was part of 'Flourish', a wider calendar of events run by Mafwa Theatre during Spring and Summer 2023. The Flourish programme was designed to bring the vibrant communities of Lincoln Green together in the Roxby Community Garden to enjoy work from artists exploring our relationship with nature and the importance of sustainability, community and creative expression.
The Family Flourish Day was commissioned by Leeds 2023 as part of 'My Word, My City, My Neighbourhood' and was held in partnership with Leeds City Council and Lincoln Green and Mabgate Neighbourhood Fund.
We worked alongside the Leeds 2023 team to organise, market and run the event, with a fantastic bunch of Leeds 2023 staff coming along to help things run smoothly during the event.
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The day was a huge success, there was a fantastic atmosphere in the garden. 'HelloHipHop' founder and dance teacher Phil Tang taught kids how to breakdance and they showcased their new moves on the Roxby Community Garden stage. Audiences gathered round to be serenaded by Opera North commissioned singer and storyteller Marco Woolf and talented singers and poets from Leeds Conservatoire. We were also treated to a poem about womanhood written and performed by members of Kuluhenna Drama and the debut performance of Mafwa's new puppet show ‘Michka & Me’. Activity stalls where attendees could make bee hotels, bird masks and seed bombs proved to be very popular, as were the henna tattoo and face painting stations. The event was pedal-powered, courtesy of Reaction Bike-Power (many thanks to the hard-working attendees who hopped on the bikes & kept things running).
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Tribe Four Films came along to capture the event. They also joined us last year for 'A Roxby Close Get Together', a similar community gala we held in the Roxby Community Garden after it had undergone it's initial transformation stages. You can track the progress that was made over the last 12 months by watching the 2022 and 2023 footage from Tribe Four Films.
'A Roxby Close Get Together', footage from a community gala held in 2022. Film created by Tribe Four Films.