A FREE festival celebrating the stories and lives of refugees and asylum seekers in Bradford is set to launch for the first time online.

Intercultured Festival will bring a series of talks break down stereotypes and bring people from all walks of life together, inspired by the need for marginalised communities to have their voices heard.

Founder Mussarat Rahman, a Halifax-turned-Bradford lass who works for BIASAN, said it has taken six years to bring InterCommunity Talks to life, pooling all of her experiences together during the pandemic to start a deeper conversation about sanctuary seekers.

Taking place between October 23-30, the sessions will be led by Bradford's communities via the festival's Eventbrite page.

To kick off the events, BIASAN Women’s Hour, led by Kongosi Mussanzi and Jane Gregory, will discuss women’s rights, issues and global conflicts which affect us all.

Samar Shahdad will hold an Evening of Transnational Poetry with an international line up of poets discussing their experiences on the themes of language, identity, memory, home and belonging.

Comedy troupe No Direction Home will perform alongside stand-up comedians from refugee and migrant backgrounds, mentored by award winning comedian Tom Parry.

Other events include a conversation with Bradford 2025, Vie Clerc’s ‘In Limbo’ and a panel discussion around how sport and exercise help refugees.

Mussarat, who lives in the BD4 area, told the Telegraph & Argus: "We formed a partnership with Refugee Forum, and received support from Platforma, and BDProducingHub. It felt relevant and important for the community to have a voice, particularly in these testing times.

"We just felt like this while this whole pandemic has been going on, we felt the communities were depressed. I felt like it’s not just mistrust but the energy of the community was changing, getting to a point they needed to voice their concerns. They needed to be seen.

"These communities are in the UK and alive and kicking and they’re part and parcel of who we are.

"All the information that’s sent out by the Government, this is where all the misunderstanding has come out by the marginalised community.

"People are not understanding and they’re creating negative stereotypes, so we’re trying to break down negative stereotypes people are still buying into about marginalised communities.

"Bradford is a very reactive to helping refugees and asylum seekers so for us as a community we band together.

"Bradford is my home."

To sign up, visit the Intercultured Festival page here.