The Last of the Dictionary Men
Feature Documentary & Touring Museum Exhibition
Tour Dates: 2008-2010 Various Locations, May 2008- BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Yemen, 2013 Mosaic Rooms London and Exeter.
Last of the Dictionary Men: Stories from the South Shields Yemeni Sailors is an exceptional hybrid exhibition consisting of exciting major and large-scale visual arts installations by internationally renowned artists, Tina Gharavi and Youssef Nabil.
Bridge + Tunnel Voices engaged members of the 1st generation South Shields Yemeni community to create a project recording the history of their community, including their unique stories of migration, their working lives and their integration into the North East. The work has captured their remarkable and unknown heritage – one that has thrived in South Tyneside for over a century. Some of the older members of the community (having mainly worked as seamen in the Merchant Navy) have lived in the area for over 60 years and are part of a distinct Diaspora that is one of the oldest recorded Middle Eastern communities existing in Britain today.