YUMI open day at Fulford Cross Allotments and Walled Garden, September 3

Next Saturday’s showcase for YUMI’s assorted projects and the foods and flowers from around the world will run from 11am to 4.30pm. Carol Klein, presenter of BBC1’s gardening show Gardeners’ World will perform the official garden-opening ceremony at 2pm and the day will involve not only food but also music, performances and exhibitions to demonstrate the work of an organisation that brings together York’s international community.

Highlights will include exhibitions of YUMI’s projects and plans; work in progress for the YUMI art book about the garden and its people; and the chance to see the story of the YUMI garden and explore it.

Korean, Bangladeshi, Japanese, Mexican, Venezuelan and Ukrainian food will be prepared al fresco by YUMI cooks; children can enjoy activities from the Philippines, Japan and India; and there will be the chance to make multicultural rosettes and decorate plant pots and join in the Brazilian capoeira and French Bal Musette sessions. English songs, travellers’ tales of traditions and food will feature too and garden produce will be for sale, along with honey from a neighbouring allotment.

An exhibition of the YUMI book project will be held in the café at City Screen, York, from December 17 to January 17 next year.

The book is being put together by two workshop leaders, documentary photographer Karen Lennox and YUMI’s writers’ facilitator Jenny Zobel, alias JZ as she prefers to be known. Since 2007 Karen has been documenting the farming year of four families in rural Bangladesh and supporting the families in making their own photographic records of daily life; for YUMI she is undertaking workshops involving making your own pinhole cameras and learning new techniques..

Writer and broadcaster JZ is leading the writing workshops, where participants are encouraged to write about their own responses to the garden and about the thoughts and memories that gardens evoke.

JZ was born on the Caribbean island of Martinique, educated in France and Senegal and worked for many years in London as a radio producer for the BBC World Service before moving to York seven years ago. Here she created the Finding A Voice project for people from different cultural backgrounds, and she works as en education consultant at the Centre for Global Education at York St John University, running workshops in schools on community cohesion, identity and diversity, social justice, human rights and climate change.

YUMI has been awarded a grant from Arts Council England to cover the photography and creative writing workshops for volunteers of all ages from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Workshops are being held over four months this summer at the YUMI garden created in February last year, and the inspiration for these workshops has come from the garden, the people who work there, the produce they grow and the memories and stories evoked by the universal acts of growing, cooking, eating and sharing together.

‘This is a very exciting project and a challenging one too,” says Karen. “When I first heard about YUMI’s International Community Garden I was inspired by the ideas behind it; the exchange of knowledge and experience between people from different cultures, working together to grow food locally and in a sustainable way.”

Twenty members are participating in the workshops. Two volunteers from each workshop will then work in collaboration with graphic designer Ned Hoste to create the YUMI art book, filled with the photographs and prose from the workshops. Alongside the book, the words and images will be the centrepiece of the forthcoming exhibition at City Screen, showcasing participants’ new-found creative skills and telling the colourful story of the garden.

As YUMI project co-ordinator and founder Sasiki Hubberstey explains: “The aim of the project is to bring together people from minority backgrounds to express their unique perspectives through images and words. The book they create will raise awareness of York’s fantastically rich mix of cultures and inspire other community groups to fully explore and celebrate the artistic skills, resources and potential of their volunteers and networks.

“The book will also be a beautiful tribute to the legacy of these people’s heritage, told by people who don’t usually think of themselves as storytellers or photographers.”

YUMI was established in York because the city is now home to 92 ethnic minority groups and 78 languages. “We have a huge range of nationalities but often very few people from each of their ethnic minorities,” says Sasiki.

“There can be a feeling of being invisible, which, if they were in any other city in the UK, such as Leeds, they would not feel that way,” says JZ.

“That’s why integration is embedded in every project we do,” says Saiki.

What is YUMI?

YUMI is the York Unifying Multicultural Initiative, a voluntary organisation set up by Sasiki Hubberstey in November 2004 for people moving to York from multiethnic backgrounds. It empowers 530 members through skills development in a range of activities, while also raising awareness of the rich diversity of York’s modern make-up.

From the humble beginnings of four volunteers at YUMI’s first event, the organisation now has 96 volunteers from 28 different ethnic backgrounds who are involved in YUMI activities at every level.

If you are interested in finding out more about YUMI and the project, please visit yumiyork.org or find YUMI on Facebook at facebook.com/yumiyork or on Twitter (@YUMIYork).

How to find YUMI’s International Community Garden at Fulford Cross allotments.

If approaching by foot from the Millennium Bridge, the allotment is the second to last on the left. If travelling by car, head out of York on the A19 to Selby; turn right off Fulford Road immediately after Aldi; park at the top of the slope and then follow the track between Danesgate Centre and the Steiner School. Go through the wide gate; YUMI’s allotment is the second on the right; the walled garden is opposite.