Meet The Team

Project Manager 

Peggy Mulongo has 12 years of  experience in community development projects.  She is is responsible for organising the recording and preservation of the stories & memories of the Congolese community in Greater Manchester, aiming to provide a permanent public archive of 25 oral histories at the North West Sound Archive and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Archive and through Community Arts Northwest’s website. Her role includes outreach work and promotion of the project within Congolese communities across Greater Manchester; organising a high-profile live heritage event in Manchester, where the musical oratory inspired from participants’ stories will be performed in June 2014; promotion of the archive and audio-visual recording of the musical composition widely; recruitment and training of volunteers involved in the project.

 

Lyricist/ Director

Cheryl Martin has worked as a poet, playwright and director.  She’s written operas before – for the Buxton Opera Festival and the BBC Philharmonic.  She’s also written over 25 productions for stage and BBC Radio 4, the World Service, and for African radio networks.  A Manchester Evening News Theatre Award winner as both writer [musical Heart and Soul, Oldham Coliseum Theatre] and director [Iron by Rona Munro, Contact Theatre], she co-produced and directed an Edinburgh Fringe First winner for Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre [The World Is Too Much].  Not to mention directing and devising previous CAN shows Another Country [Z-Arts/Decibel] and Heart’s Core [Z-Arts].  Loves working at CAN!

 

Musical Director

Tyndale Thomas MBE  has contributed greatly to the development and integration of Gospel/Inspirational music within the music industry, fusing Inspirational Gospel music with other world music genres. Tyndale is currently the choir director of the Liverpool harmonic Gospel Choir, One Voice Community Choir in Preston and the One Voice One Heart Youth Singing ensemble based in Liverpool. He has worked in the capacity of director at the Philharmonic for over ten years and has been instrumental in many high profile projects, such as the celebrations of Preston becoming a City in the Queen’s Jubilee year. Tyndale is a prolific song writer and arranger and is regarded highly by Music Services throughout the country, nationally and internationally. He has also worked on plays for BBC Radio Four, where he was contracted to write and arrange music, vocals i.e. A Gathering of Old Men and Chaos Built by Design.  “Singing for me is Life!”

 

Musical Assistant/Vocalist

Emmanuela  Yogolelo is originally from DR Congo, she has been singing from the age of 6 in church choirs and bands back home and now in Manchester. She is the founder member and Lead vocalist of the African Gospel Band Testimony.  She is also part of Beating Wing Orchestra a Manchester-based international music collective. Emmanuela writes Afro world music and Afro Jazz in Swahili, Lingala, French and English. She writes lyrics from the heart brought to life with sweet mesmerising melodies.

 

Musical Assistant/Percussionist

Pat Mackman is a drummer from DR Congo based in Manchester since 2005. Pat started drumming from an early age; he plays drum kit and percussion and various styles of music including Congolese style Reggae, Bossa Nova, Soukouss,  Zouk and Gospel. In 2007 Pat was selected as the main drummer of Beating Wing Orchestra and performed with Reem Kelani at the very first Manchester International Festival and with Amadou & Mariam in 2009 Manchester International Festival . In 2010 Pat took part in The DNA of a City, a BBC Radio Manchester project looking at the diverse communities of Greater Manchester, the Beating Wing Orchestra was involved in a very special recording with some of BBC philharmonic musicians. Pat plays music with many church groups, and other Congolese and African groups in the UK.

 

Volunteer Coordinator

Christina Fonthes is originally from DR Congo and has been working with the Lisapo Project since its inception. She is a freelance translator & interpreter and a founding member of Rainbow Noir, as safe space for LGBT people of colour in Manchester. She is a writer for Media Diversified and a regular contributor at Black Feminists Manchester. As well as providing her own oral history, Christina has conducted and transcribed several of the Congolese oral history interviews in English, French and Lingala. She represented the Lisapo project as a spoken word artist at the Platforma Festival in October 2013.  Christina is responsible for co-coordinating the volunteers, and managing the social media platforms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Producer and Media Team Leader

I am CAN’s Creative Digital Producer and Media Team Leader. I have worked for many years as a film maker and digital artist and more recently as a creative producer and programme director.
I have a particular interest in digital learning and leadership development. As Programme Director for  Blaze, I worked with young people from across the North West in an ambitious programme of new work linked to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. I currently manage CAN’s Creative Digital Programme, developing new and exciting work with young people, artists and communities through video, photography, sound, music, animation, digital art and social media.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Artist

Gary Stewart is a freelance artist.  Hewas Head of New Media at Iniva, the Institute of International Visual Arts based in the new gallery space Rivington Place, London from 1995-2011 where he curated Iniva’s digital programme including installations, exhibitions, public and online projects.  He is now a partner in the London based research, production and performance group dubmorphology.
Gary co-conceived the Encounters: Transforming Lives installation with Paul Heritage. He trains, leads, and facilitates the groups of young people in each residency location within the research direction set by Paul, to create the Encounters: Transforming Lives installation.

 

Digital Assistant

Leah Llewellyn is a freelance documentary maker who has has been working with the Lisapo Project since its inception. She completed her BA in Social Anthropology from SOAS with honours and has a Masters of Philosophy in African Studies from Leiden University, where she specialised in Ethiopian performance. Leah has conducted and transcribed several of the Congolese oral history interviews and produced the audio recordings for the national archives. She is currently documenting the process of rehearsal through to performance for the Congolese heritage inspired music oratory. She runs media workshops for the team of volunteers and will assist CAN’s digital/video artist in the creation of an inactive video instillation that will be an integral feature of the final performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Assistant

Mahboobeh Rajabi is a digital media trainee at Community Arts North West (CAN). She studied Theatre Directing in Iran and continued her education in the UK, studying Media (Moving Image Production).  Her interest and field of study is based on Far East of Asia. She joined CAN  at the end of 2010 as part of Exodus, taking part in “Film Jam” and continued her involvement through a wide variety of other projects, including “Big Writing for a Small World”, “Hearts Core” and Do I.T.” Her training at CAN is in making digital videos, stop motion animation, creative writing and social media. She joined Lisapo media team as part of phase two and worked as editor, photographer and VJ Digital Artist assistant.