Faith and Lipstick, migrants telling their own stories

Faith and Lipstick, migrants telling their own stories

On the 17 July, the IKON gallery hosted their annual Soap Boxes event, where at the gallery a number of local Migrant Voice activists spoke for five minutes each with ten quick-fire soapbox presentations and a Q&A from individuals and groups supporting migrants in the Midlands.

This event is part of The Migrant Festival 2022 and Ikon’s Arrivals programme for Summer 2022.

What was different about this event is that the main speakers were migrants, not only with lived experiences, but who have campaigned for both themselves and others.

We heard how it felt like to be in the middle of the war in Ukraine thinking it was your last day, and also how people got fed up with delays and the injustice of immigration rules who then went on to go public with their cases, embarrassing the Home Office into positive action.

A concurrent theme of the event was the strength of people refusing to give up.

One of the comments really stuck out when one of the speakers was asked what drives them not to give up hope. She responded with both power and humour: “Faith and lipstick.”