The Home Affairs Select Committee is trying to develop a consensus
on immigration policy. Can we give them a hand?

This free discussion event will consider all sides of the question and give everyone a chance to work out their views in a calm, friendly and impartial setting.

We'll begin with a light dinner. Please bring something to share if you can!

Bob Bollen and Perry Walker are both members of the Talk Shop team. Both are also experienced facilitators. Bob, formerly a project manager in IT, brings his experience in community mediation to help design how we handle emotive issues. Perry, who is a Fellow both of the New
Economics Foundation and of Involve, has developed a number of
participatory formats.

Talk Shop's website is www.talkshopuk.org 
The Home Affairs Committee's inquiry is at http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/home-affairs-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/inquiry13/

'The London Klezmer Quartet returns to New Unity in Newington Green with an acoustic show based on their new album, 'To the Tavern'.

A band arrives at dawn at a railway station in a small middle-European country town for a 24-hour sojourn. The musicians find their way around, get to know the locals and lead a rowdy session at the local tavern, before exhaustion sets in as they see in the new day. 

With a wealth of traditional-style compositions by the band, this adventure in celebratory and soulful Jewish wedding music also features the irresistibly sonorous vocals of Indra Buraczewska in traditional laments, a Warsaw Yiddish theatre hit with a hint of jazz (‘Goodbye New York’) and a song about beetroot soup. 

Ilana Cravitz (violin), Susi Evans (clarinet), Carol Isaacs (accordion), Indra Buraczewska (double bass and vocals). 

Tickets: £11 in advance (incl. booking fee) or £13 on the door. Students, under 16s  and MU members: £5.50 in advance (incl. booking fee) or £6 on the door. Under 10s free. 

Visit http://www.wegottickets.com/event/396549 to book in advance.

LGBTQI+ streetside memorial for those who've been and those who are

We will mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) with a streetside memorial and a ceremony at our Upper Street location (277A Upper Street, N1 2TZ). The memorial will include photos, drawings, candles, names, mementos, flowers, and other items contributed by participants to remember those who have suffered for their sexual orientation or gender identification, and those who continue to persevere. As much of Western Europe and North American becomes an increasingly hostile environment for marginalised bodies, it is even more important to gather together in a queer and queer-supporting community to celebrate our strengths and commemorate our losses. 

7:00 - 8:00 - bring your contributions (these can be personal to friends and family members, or more general gifts for community in general) and assemble the memorial.
8:00 - 8:45 - ceremony indoors
8:45 - 9:00 - we move outside to the streetside memorial for song, candles, and words

March 5th, 2017

Does race, ethnicity and cultural/social origin matter? Carola Emrich-Fisher will offer an account of the Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity workshops in the US and of her attempts of bringing them to Hackney.

Carola grew up in South-Western Germany near the French border. She spent most of her adult life in Boston, MA, where she worked as a Choral Scholar at First Church in Boston (UU). After relocating to London in 2015, she has been performing as soloist at New Unity and has also been attending services here.

This meeting will build on the previous meeting in Newington Green. There will be Guidance and Discussion of what kind of Brexit deal we should campaign for in the urgent build up to the start of the Article 50 process What should the new relationship with Europe look like- Norway; Switzerland, Guernsey? What domestic policies should compensate for the impacts of leaving the EU? Should we have a slow and orderly exit, preserving law that derives from the EU in place unless and until Parliament repeals it piece by piece after careful debate?