Livia Barreira - Migration Matters Stories
Livia Barreira's Path to Joining the Migration Matters Team as Audience Development Manager - 2 mins Read
Tell us about your journey here to the Migration Matters Festival?
It was in 2019 when I first heard about the Migration Matters Festival. At that time I had been living in Sheffield for three years and I picked up a brochure about the festival somewhere in the city centre. I immediately thought it was such an interesting arts festival. So I attended the opening party that year. In the following year, the pandemic came and the festival was 100 percent online. I took part in the festival through an online theatre piece with Side by Side.
In 2021, I had an idea for an event to celebrate the Lusophone Community (people who are from countries where we speak Portuguese as the official language) in Sheffield. As a Brazilian person, I know it is quite a dispersed community in the city and I also wanted to make Portugueses, Brazilians and Angolans get to know each other and socialise. It was a very beautiful event, and it gave me a better idea of how meaningful this festival is.
In 2022 I had my podcast Living in Sheffield where I interviewed two amazing female migrants who are entrepreneurs in Sheffield.
Last year, I also got a position with the festival as the Audience Development Manager, a job which I am proudly doing again in 2023. My background is in communication, and one of the things I most enjoy in life is connecting people with each other and great events/experiences. I believe that we only live once and it must be the best experience possible.
The Migration Matters Festival is just brilliant! We definitely need more spaces to celebrate our various cultures and their priceless impact on our society. As human beings, when we celebrate diversity we have a very rich opportunity to connect and learn from each other. I have been learning quite a lot since I first got involved with the festival.
Also, for us migrants in the UK, it gives us a safe space to explore our culture/identity in full for nine days. These are intense, wonderful days that for sure will leave a big smile on our faces! If you have the chance to experience the Migration Matters Festival, at least in one event, I am sure you will feel touched by it.
