By Georgia Gill | Administrator
We are delighted to reflect on the hapennings of the first half of 2026 - as we welcome summer with open arms, we want to express gratitude for the generosity of all of those who support out work!
We previously reported on the development of our Forgiveness Café, the new model of communal discussions that we piloted last year. We continue to be blown away by the response to these gatherings, and we are deighted that the Café is ever-expanding into opportunities to connect with different individuals and their communities. In May, we facilitated an online Café alongside guest facilitator Andreea Paduraru (Actor, Dramaturg, Director). This Café informed the research and development of Andreea’s new dance theatre production that explores the theme of forgiveness through a re-telling of the Greek myth of Ariadne. We delivered the last of our regular Café's on the 24th of June, ahead of a break over summer and the return of the Café gatherings in September.
We also delivered a series of Café's in North Kensington, London, serving communities affected by Grenfell Tower Fire. In partnership with Baraka and Beyond the Narrative, we brought together 18 young men into a Café space in April and, in May, we held two further Cafés for parents and for young boys. The Parents' Café gathered over 35 people from a wide section of the community. The group considered the struggles of parenting whilst listening to storytellers Raushia Coles and Jacob Dunne reflecting on their own learnings as parents.
Central to our Forgiveness Café model is the concept of holding space for tension, compassion, and complexity and, indeed, it is a theme that has expanded beyond our in-house work these past couple of months. Early this year, we partnered with The Common Ground Justice Project to deliver the first of our 'Listening Ground' gatherings at the Nottingham Playhouse. The Common Ground Justice Project is a UK-based organisation co-founded by Jacob Dunne, Alice Dawnay, and Sam Boyd. Their mission is to pave the way for a justice system rooted in the common ground, cuts crime and wins broad public support. This open-access gathering brought together people from across the community to reflect on how personal experience shapes public opinion. At a time when debates about crime are polarised, The Listening Ground created a structured and respectful space for listening and sharing stories. Rather than a panel or debate, it was held as a circle conversation where participants were invited to speak, listen and contribute as equals.
Our Founder, Marina Cantacuzino, also took the concept of holding space for difficult conversations in her hosting of a post-film conversation of The Conspiracists – a fascinating documentary that captures an intimate portrait of women drawn into the MAGA world of conspiracy. In London, she interviewed the film’s director Liz Smith and ethnographer Noelle Cook whose academic research into women’s participation in conspiratorial and right-wing movements was the inspiration for the documentary. You can read Marina's reflection on the film and event on our Substack page.
Similarly, in June our Executive Director, Sandra Barefoot, attended a workshop at Cambridge University that explored the practice of holding space. She was invited by longtime colleague of The Forgiveness Project, Stephen Cherry (Emeritus Fellow, King’s College Cambridge) alongside conveners Joanna Kusiak (Kozminski University, Warsaw) and Jina Barrett (Organisation and Leadership Consultant) to this unique 24-hour workshop under the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at King’s College in Cambridge. This gathering offered an opportunity to discuss how the concept of ‘holding space’ – where difference, tension, disagreement, trauma and uncertainty can be held creatively and constructively – applies in reimagining civil life and political practice.
We have also welcomed some new storytellers to our community; we are delighted to be joined by Beth Wright, Magen Inon and Liz Deverill, whose lived testimonies are powerful anecdotes for the resilience of the human spirit and the potential of forgiveness.
We greet summer feeiling truly fufilled by the projects already explored this year. We are very excited to see what the next six months hold, and we are ever grateful for your support of our work!
By Georgia Gill | Administrator
By Georgia Gill | Administrator
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