SECA Welcomes Anna Lo to Strabane

The Strabane Ethnic Community Association (SECA) is delighted to be welcoming Anna Lo MLA to the Alley Theatre on June 19th to highlight the increasing diversity in today’s society and reflect on the struggles many in the ethnic community are faced with on a daily basis.

Bobby Rao, leading activist within SECA said he is delighted to be hosting Anna Lo’s first official visit to the North West. He said he found strength in her support in raising awareness of the increasing role of the ethnic community within the area. “It is a proud occasion for our Chairman Narendra Babu and SECA to have Anna here as she is the first ethnic MLA in Europe. After her election to the assembly it is the first visit she will be making to the North West area.”

As part of her trip to Strabane, arranged by SECA, Anna Lo MLA will be delivering a key note speech to a selected audience before the Northern Ireland Premiere of “Mushroom” at the Alley Theatre.

The play is a wonderfully witty piece of theatre that focuses on the lives of six young people – some from Ireland, some from central Europe. Their everyday lives collide and interweave, the play has twists and turns, parts are particularly amusing and parts will profoundly move the audience. The main characters are Martin, a young Irish man searching for information about his late Romanian mother, and Ewa, a young Polish woman, who journeys to Ireland searching for her estranged husband. Mushroom looks at the different ways in which immigrants view their relationships with their adopted state. Some find their new homes as strange and ugly, other view it with disappointment and some simply see it as another “galaxy” far away from the previous homeland.

Anna Lo said this week, “I am very pleased to be asked to open this play in Strabane. This is the first ethnic play to run in the new Alley Arts Centre and recognises the increasing diverse community in Northern Ireland. We all need to feel that we belong and it is not easy in Northern Ireland to be included all the time. I hope this play identifies barriers and encourages inclusion.”

Source: Strabane Chronicle