This spring we’re exploring photography again through Art Club with Lens Lab - with photowalks, portraits and hands-on printing. Looking back at Photogreening felt like a fitting place to begin. We can’t wait to see what new perspectives emerge this time!
Through the photos, new textures of Lincoln Green came into view. Small, easily overlooked moments of green and familiar places seen from new angles. It was a different way of looking at a neighbourhood many participants call home.
Participants used 35mm film to photograph gardens and plant life around Lincoln Green, capturing small pockets of green within the urban landscape.
The project began with a simple question:
What do our local green spaces mean to us, and how can we grow them?
Our spring Art Club workshops with Lens Lab began this week, so we’re looking back at Photogreening, a photography project Mafwa members created a few years ago with photographer Emily Ryalls.
It’s a beautiful exhibition and it was a real treat to hear people share the little things that caught their attention and how everyone had such different ways of connecting with the work
Last week we took a group of participants over to Bradford for a little day trip to visit the Turner Prize exhibition at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery🖼️
The shortlisted works draw on themes of memory, labour, migration, care, power & place, playing with colour, shape & texture in really striking ways.
We love being part of Leeds’ amazing food growing community 🌱
If Lincoln Greeners or the Roxby Community Garden has meant something to you, nominations for the Feed Leeds Food Growing Awards are open🥕. Anyone can nominate! Details below
A few moments from last month’s Communication & Creativity performance.
What began as conversations about family & tradition grew into scenes full of joy, chaos & tenderness, shaped through play & improvisation. Sharing this with friends felt like the perfect way to celebrate.
📸Annabel Cohen
There was time to meet Art Club participants and local residents too, chatting about creativity, growing food and the work happening in and around the garden. A really lovely way to round off another year working together 💚
At the end of November, the lovely folks from the Nature Neighbourhoods team stopped by Roxby Community Garden for a little autumn reset 🧹🍂
We spent the morning litter picking, tidying the space and restocking the vegetable library as winter set in.
Last chance for Christmas delivery 🎄
Order by Fri 19 Dec for guaranteed delivery!
Our shop features prints, pins & more, with every purchase supporting our work with refugee and asylum seeker communities in Leeds.
www.mafwatheatre.co.uk/shop
A few moments from our Communication & Creativity workshops at @universityofleeds.bsky.social
Over the past few weeks, participants have been sharing stories, exploring family life and thinking about the joyful, awkward and chaotic moments that happen when generations and traditions come together.
A green background covered with scattered metallic star and sequin confetti. On top sits a cream-coloured card tilted slightly. The card reads: “Communication & Creativity Celebration. YOU’RE INVITED! Stories, culture, tradition & performance. 17th December | 12–2pm. Alec Clegg Studio, Stage@Leeds. Free to attend. RSVP info@mafwatheatre.co.uk.” Mafwa Theatre and University of Leeds logos appear at the top corners.
You’re invited! 🎉
Join us for a final sharing of scenes from our Communication & Creativity workshops, exploring how culture is passed on across generations & the chaotic celebrations that bring families together across the world.
📍 Stage@Leeds
🗓 17 Dec, 12–2pm
RSVP: info@mafwatheatre.co.uk
Hearing so many lived experiences, challenges and hopes in one room was an important reminder of what community-led change can look like. This project has been fundamental in shaping our plans for Lincoln Greens green spaces and in connecting our work to a much bigger picture.
The project wrapped in Manchester back in October with two days of connection and reflection - a big evening get-together followed by the Creating Nature Neighbourhoods, Towns & Cities conference at Co-op HQ. Lots of energy, ideas and big conversations about how we build greener neighbourhoods
Over the last 2 years we’ve been part of Nature Neighbourhoods, a national pilot exploring how community orgs can lead meaningful, place-based action for people and nature. What a joy to learn alongside so many brilliant groups across the UK @rspb.bsky.social @wwf.org.uk @nationaltrust.org.uk
black and white skateboard from Welcome Leeds with rose motif says "Don't Mess with Yorkshire"
Hyde Park Book Club t-shirt, modelled by someone perched on a beer keg. "MEGA DEAL … LOW PRICES … £12.99"
Brudenell Social Club mascot pin badge is a happy dog face
someone wearing a Remember David Oluwale t-shirt
leeds gift ideas 🧵
(trying to focus on local creators and institutions, I'm sure I'll miss some classics)
✨Little gifts with a big impact ✨
Every item in our shop holds a story & every purchase helps us continue to offer free creative sessions, travel support, childcare to over 200 participants each year.
🎁If you’re choosing thoughtful gifts this season, our shop is open buff.ly/LYa9IQr
Bei and Danmore stand in front of an orange, navy and white balloon display at the Leeds Compassionate City Awards. Bei holds the framed award certificate for Lincoln Greeners, and Danmore holds the golden owl trophy.
A display table at the awards ceremony showing the golden owl trophy, the framed award certificate for Lincoln Greeners, printed event programmes and order of service sheets, with a cabinet of civic memorabilia behind it.
Bei, in a red jacket, stands at a podium holding the golden owl award and smiling. Danmore stands just behind her, also smiling. A Leeds Compassionate City Awards banner and flowers decorate the stage area.
A close-up of the golden owl trophy reading “Environmental Achievement of the Year – Mafwa Theatre, The Lincoln Greeners Project,” held in front of the illuminated Leeds Civic Hall at night, with two large golden owl statues visible in the background.
We’re so proud that Lincoln Greeners won Environmental Achievement of the Year at the Leeds Compassionate City Awards!🦉🧡
From a small weekly gardening group to a thriving community growing food, sharing skills and transforming the neighbourhood - this award belongs to everyone who’s been part of it.
⚠️ Following yesterday’s announcement by the Home Secretary to radically overhaul the UK asylum system, we condemn in the strongest terms the proposals made.
The scale and scope of the measures announced are abhorrent and represent a catastrophic threat to the right to refugee protection.
🧵1/4
🍂 We’ve spent the last month running Art Club with Space2 - free creative mornings using leaves and natural materials. Everyone’s been experimenting in their own way, and it’s been such a lovely mix of play, colour and seasonal creativity!
www.mafwatheatre.co.uk/current-proj...
🌿 Filming at the Roxby Community Garden!
The Nature Neighbourhoods team joined us in the Roxby Community Garden the other week to film a short piece celebrating the end of the project and highlighting Mafwa’s involvement. 🎥
Keep your eyes peeled for the finished video!
We’re thrilled to receive funding from Unlimited & the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to upgrade equipment & spaces for our weekly groups 🌿🎭
This small capital funding will help us make our creative spaces more accessible & welcoming for refugees, asylum seekers & settled communities in Leeds.
🌼 Fancy joining us in the garden? Lincoln Greeners is free and open to all, sign up today:
www.mafwatheatre.co.uk/sign-up
Late last month we visited Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, exploring their orchards & vegetable beds & learning about their growing practices 🍎. It’s always inspiring to see how urban farms are able to thrive!
The Lincoln Greeners were savouring the best of both seasons earlier this month. We enjoyed the late summer sun whilst preparing for the months ahead, picking vine leaves & harvesting pumpkins. 🍁
Shoutout to Asnie, who brought her sash along to celebrate being a Miss Global England finalist! 👑
Blue poster with illustrations of scissors, leaves, flowers, and seed pods in a cyanotype style. Large orange text in the centre reads “ART CLUB.” Smaller white text below: “Wednesdays, 1 Oct – 26 Nov, 10:30am–12pm, Roxby Community Garden.” Logos at the bottom: Better Together, National Lottery Community Fund, Leeds City Council.
🍁 New this autumn: Art Club 🎨
Free weekly creative mornings in Roxby Community Garden with Mafwa Theatre & Space2. Explore playful, nature-inspired art like cyanotypes, leaf prints & more.
Spaces are limited so sign up today!
www.mafwatheatre.co.uk/sign-up
✨ Kuluhenna Drama returns 25 Sept! Free, weekly drama group for women & non-binary people from refugee, asylum seeker & settled communities. Thursdays 10:30–12 at Anglers Club, LS9. Sign up 👉 www.mafwatheatre.co.uk/current-proj...
In a time when division is often in the headlines, it’s vital to share projects creating space for dialogue & solidarity.We’re proud to feature in Chapel FM’s Bridges Not Borders, a brilliant series empowering refugees & asylum seekers to share stories.
🎧 Listen: www.chapelfm.co.uk/elfm-player/...
We’re opening our doors at Patrick Studios this Sat for Leeds Open Studios (11–14 Sept)! Step inside artists’ workspaces, meet makers & join activities. Our studio will be open for a nosy + we’ll be manning a stall downstairs, come say hi!
eaststreetarts.org.uk/event/open-s...
