No Direction Home: Refugee Stand Up Comedy

An event in association with Salusbury World

Following their uproarious 2019 debut at the Queen’s Park Community Tent, stand-up comedians from the ‘No Direction Home’ comedy collective will delight you with their wit and wisdom. With Edin Suljic and Krishna Vytelingum, Charly Monreal, hosted by performer and comedian Krzysia Balinska. In association with Salusbury World.

No Direction Home

No Direction Home is a comedy collective produced by Counterpoints Arts featuring new stand-ups from refugee and migrant backgrounds. With sell-out gigs at venues including London’s Southbank Centre, they have also featured this year as part of the Coventry UK City of Culture 2021

Krzysia Balinska

Krzysia is a Polish drama facilitator, performer, activist and an aspiring stand-up comedian based in London. Her practice stems from the belief that everyone is an artist and everyone can inspire a lasting, positive change. In the past she has collaborated closely with Polish Migrants Organise for Change (POMOC), Foreign Affairs theatre, Moving Theatre, Good Wolf People, PSYCHEdelight theatre, Out of the Wings Festival and Women for Refugee Women amongst others. She is the co-founder of the Polish feminist collective Dziewuchy London and a stand-up comedian in training at Counterpoints Arts.

Edin Suljic

Edin Suljic is a published writer, poet and artist based in London. He has worked on several collaborative projects at the Tate Modern, and he performs his work from international literary festivals to venues such as the Southbank Centre in London.  His poetry collection, Personal Things and the Rest, was published by Haffan Books in 2018. 

Edin spent his formative years in the multicultural, multinational society of former Yugoslavia, moving to the UK at the onset of the tragic Yugoslavian war in 1991.

He likes a good story; telling and making stories about people in all their diversities is the best way of bringing people closer together. He has been working with No Direction Home stand-up comedy project run by Counterpoints Arts since 2019, performing live in London, York and most recently in Coventry, UK City of Culture 2021.

Krishna Vytelingum

Krishna likes puppies.

Charly Monreal

Charly Monreal is a London-based Latinx physical performer and multidisciplinary artist. Born in Chile he moved to Europe in 2008 where started an artistic and life journey that has taken him to live in several countries and exploring diverse disciplines. He is deeply interested in experimental work and collaborative approaches. Aiming, as a creative, to push boundaries and create challenging, contemporary and radical work that can become a space for thought, provocation and reflection about the current social climate. Charly became part of No Direction Home in 2019 performing live and online in different venues, including his house and his partner´s house during the pandemic. As reader Charly has read all the classics and more, receiving inspiration from big Authors such as: Ken Follet, Paulo Coelho, George W. Bush, Pope Innocent III and Dan Brown. He expends his free time writing his first novel called: How to train your imaginary friend. A political dark novel that follows the attempts of an aspiring writer to trains his imaginary friend while writing his first novel and dreaming of a 5 stars review from Guardian.

Selam Mengistu

Selam is a passionate Ethiopian, an entrepreneur and founder of Azmari Bet and Selam Le Ethiopia. New to stand-up comedy, Selam quickly created a very funny and charming storytelling persona of her own, sharing experiences of both Ethiopia and England.

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