Come along for a beautiful evening of Iraqi Oud music and talks, in support of creating food gardens in Baharka camp, Erbil, Iraq.

Baharka camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP's) has existed since 2014, when ISIS drove residents from Mosul and the surrounding towns and villages out of their homes.

Anthea Barbary and Dr Mikey Tomkins are fundraising in order to create food gardens in Baharka. Anthea's family are from the North of Iraq and involved with Baharka, and Mikey has had extensive experience creating food gardens in a Syrian refugee camp in Duhok, Iraq between 2014 and 2017.

The evening will be a beautiful combination of Oud playing from Iraqi Musician, Ahmed Mukhtar, a talk from Dr Mikey Tomkins and Anthea Barbary about their gardening project in Baharka camp, Iraq, and insights from our very own Lewes based author Lulah Ellender, who has recently written a book called 'Grounding', which is about finding a home in a garden.

Born in Baghdad, Ahmed Mukhtar has been playing the oud and Arabic percussions since 1979. He has worked with many folk music groups and musicians in the city. In 1983, he began studying both the oud and percussion at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad with the Masters Ghanim Haddad and Jameel Jerjis. In 1985, Mukhtar began working with Arabic orchestras and performing on Iraqi TV with a variety of Iraqi groups. A few years later, in 1990 he attended the High Institute of Music in Damascus where he continued his studies of the oud and Western percussions. In 1999, Mukhtar earned an MA from the London College of Music, and in 2003, he received a Masters Degree in Performance with a focus on Middle-Eastern and Arabic music from SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies), London.

Lulah Ellender's second book, a memoir titled Grounding: Finding home in a garden, was published by Granta in April 2022.

Lulah teaches creative non-fiction and works as a book coach helping people start, develop and submit their manuscripts. Her work has appeared in publications including The Guardian, YOU Magazine, a/b Auto/Biography Studies and Sussex Life; and online at granta.com, The Junket and Caught By The River. She was Writer in Residence at Charleston's Festival of the Garden 2021 and 2022, and the Wealden Literary Festival 2021. She lives in East Sussex with her husband, four children and various animals. When she’s not working she loves to tend her garden, walk on the beautiful South Downs and swim outdoors.

"Gardens are places of play and creativity. They are also a source of solace and comfort, helping us cultivate a sense of belonging as we grow, dig, plant and tend the soil. Through the simple act of nurturing a growing space we can come home."

Dr Mikey Tomkins works as a researcher, artist, and practitioner in the field of urban agriculture. The focus of his work is the argument that local food production needs to be included in any discussion regarding sustainable cities. This involves the use of hand-drawn maps, field implementation, and community engagement to make the idea of local food production a reality. For example, Mikey has been engaged in fieldwork in Iraq for many years, helping to develop agricultural and food gardens in refugee and IDP camps. Also, in the UK Mikey has been running the Edible Mapping project that uses imaginary maps of cities such as Brighton, Peterborough, or Newcastle to enable residents to better visualise what a city full of agriculture might look like.

Anthea Barbary has been an acupuncturist and hypnotherapist for 25 years, is one of the Directors of the Social Enterprise 'Routes for Change', founder of Alternative Lewes, and is now involved in humanitarian work in Iraq, which is where her family are from. She is particularly interested in the relationship between gardening and wellbeing, and working with women in Baharka.

EVERY PENNY OF PROFIT FROM THIS EVENT WILL GO TOWARDS THE GARDENING PROJECTS IN BAHARKA CAMP, ERBIL, IRAQ.