Zaatari Radio (Tom Critchley) was set up in 2017 to establish an FM radio station in Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan. Zaatari Camp is Jordan’s largest refugee camp hosting 100,000 Syrian Refugees who fled the Civil War primarily from Daraa known as The Cradle of the Revolution. In 2018 Zaatari Radio began broadcasting in the camp on 97.3FM. The radio broadcasts from a school with children and young adults hosting shows. Zaatari Radio work with these people on radio-based workshops in which the participants create radio shows. The workshops and radio shows broadcast music, story telling, art, sport and news. In 2022, Zaatari Radio are working with 7Hills Skatepark to create a pop-up radio station in Amman, Jordan. The project participants will develop stories that portray growing up in the Arab metropole across diverse demographics shaped by unfolding political crisis amongst Jordan’s borders. The radio will broadcast online in Jordan and Berlin. Tom Critchley will be presenting for Zaatari Radio. He has been working for them since 2017. He currently works in the Design Department at Goldsmiths University and studies a PhD exploring how we can best design across people, cultures and knowledges. He also works for Concrete Jungle Foundation having build skateparks and implemented youth development programming in Angola, Jamaica and Jordan.”

Blue Maignien (they/them) of Cherche Encore performs using TidalCycles as Hortense. Their poetic work explores the unique possibilities of the medium of live coding to engage with issues around mental health. In the future, Blue would like to keep making radio and contribute to building caring sonic environment. They also co-run Cherche Encore, a record label and series of events.