WORLDbytes correspondent Onyeka Igwe reports from Cabaret without Borders an event organised by the Manifesto Club, in opposition to the Home Office’s new visa controls on visiting artists and academics. These controls have already prevented a plethora of creative visitors coming to the UK leading to concerts, exhibitions and international programmes being cancelled. Under the new rules the Home Office effectively determines international programming, what we can and cannot watch, share and experience and whose work merits a UK visit. Meanwhile numerous institutions are co-opted to police and report on visitors they are granted permission to host. This lively cabaret event sees a wide range of artists express their opposition through artistic interventions and personal testimonies. Among the artists and speakers were author Maureen Duffy, cabaret singer Barb Jungr and Josie Appleton, Convenor of the Manifesto Club.
