The Map Has No Borders

Within each of us lives a map. A breathing record of where we’ve been, where we come from, and where those before us have walked. Held in the body, woven into memory, carried in our ancestors’ stories, it quietly guides us: stay here. move on. come home.

For those of us from diaspora communities, with colonised heritage, or whose families have known forced migration, these maps can be especially layered. The question of where we belong rarely has a simple answer. Home can mean several places at once, or none quite completely. And the stories that shape us are often ones we’ve inherited rather than lived, carried across borders and down through generations.

This workshop is an invitation to bring those maps into the world and explore what they hold, together.

We’ll work through storytelling, making, drawing and conversation, uncovering the maps we navigate by: maps of belonging to many worlds, maps that can lead us home.

Questions we’ll sit with:

• How far do our maps reach?
• What threads connect the different parts?
• What stories of longing and loss, of dreams and desires, have been carried along the way?

What you’ll take away

You’ll leave with a piece of creative work you’ve made yourself over the course of the morning. Many participants also find that the process of naming these journeys, and hearing others name theirs, brings something unexpected: a new clarity about their own story, and a sense of being understood.

We gather in a space of genuine welcome, with room for up to 12 people.

No prior experience needed.

Inez Aponte is a storyteller and facilitator of Puerto Rican and Surinamese descent, with over 25 years of experience working at the intersection of performance, identity and community. Her one-woman show Un|Earthed — a magical realist exploration of heritage, belonging and colonial history — has been performed across the UK and Europe.

If you’d like to experience the show that inspired this workshop, Inez will be performing Un|Earthed in Bristol on Wed 25 March and in Bath on Thurs 26 March. Tickets at www.unearthedshow.com