This Friday: 3.5 metre tall puppet Little Amal to visit Bristol
Posted on: 20 Jun 2022Little Amal is the partly animatronic puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee, the centrepiece of a performance art project called The Walk.
On Friday 24 June, Amal will be walking through the streets of Bristol as part of a tour of England for Refugee Week.
The artwork captured the attention of the world in 2021 when she embarked on a journey across Europe in support of refugees. Since then, she has travelled over 8,000 miles and appeared at various protests and festivals.
To find out more about the story behind the puppet and the idea behind it, visit the Little Amal website.
On Friday 24 June at 16:00, Little Amal will begin her journey outside Bristol Old Vic before walking through the city’s historic old city – before leaving at the Harbour.
The concept behind Little Amal is that the puppet represents young refugees displaced from their homes, in search of their mothers, a new school, and a new life.
The Walk celebrates migration and cultural diversity, telling the refugee story as one of potential, success, respect, hospitality, and kindness through art – it is a half international arts festival, half endurance event.
With this message more important than ever, Amal (which translates to ‘hope’ in Arabic) is visiting Bristol as part of a UK tour that will take her to a range of cities all over the country. Last month the massive puppet travelled to Poland to meet with children who have fled Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.
Little Amal’s Bristol visit will be celebrated with a full day of performances at Bristol Old Vic, Welsh Back, Corn Street, Broad Quay and Cascade Steps – the destinations of the puppet’s procession.
At Bristol Old Vic at 15:00, there will be a free workshop making bird puppets to fly alongside Amal on her walk, followed by music from Syrian Musicians. Little Amal will arrive at the theatre at 16:30, followed by Bristol’s first Poet Laureate Miles Chambers (pictured below) reading his piece, ‘Bristol Bristol!’.
The amazing array of activities does not stop here, there will be a wide range of theatre and music performances as well as stalls run by Refugee support organisations, all curated by Bristol Old Vic.
The theatre’s Artistic Director, Tom Morris, had this to say about Little Amal’s appearance: “We are excited to welcome Little Amal to Bristol to meet the community, to see our beautiful city and to find out more about Bristol’s status as a City of Sanctuary.
“Amal travels everywhere with a spirit of curiosity. By welcoming her to Bristol we will also learn from her, understanding more about our own complicated past and our dream of being a fairer and more welcoming city in the future.”
A full list of performances and a route map for Amal’s journey through Bristol on Friday 24 June can be found on the Bristol Old Vic website.
To find out more about Little Amal and The Walk, head to the website.
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Stan is a born and bred Bristolian, recently graduated from studying English Literature in Sheffield. His passions are music and literature and he spends the majority of his time in venues all over the city, immersing himself in Bristol’s alternative music scene. A lifelong Bristol City fan, Stan’s Saturdays are spent watching his team both home and away.
