Talawa Firsts 2024 : First Look

Following the success of last year’s two week festival of new and emerging Black work and artists, Talawa Firsts festival is here and running until 12th July. Talawa Firsts : First Look is an Experimental Performance Night, an exciting offering of spoken word and performance art from five talented artists.

Featuring:

“CATEGORY MISTAKE” by mandla rae
A category mistake is a matter of semantics and mandla is caught up in the issues of (mis)translation. A category mistake is a matter of semantics and mandla is tangled up in the issues of (mis)translation. In this performative lecture, writer and performer mandla hunts for words to talk about queer and transgender existence in the pieces of land known as Zimbabwe and South Africa.

“Hannah Montana” by Amani Cosmo
Who would’ve thought that a girl like me, would double as a superstar…?
Like Hannah Montana, every queer Somali is familiar with the reality of living a double life. This piece follows ’A’ as they navigate how to survive surveillance culture within the diaspora.

“Say When” by Gigi Braithwaite
Rhonda invites you round for a cuppa. Do you take it with milk and sugar? Say when?
It’s only a cup of tea. But can this seemingly harmless staple of British life allow us to interrogate conventions around service and Black women.

“The Void” by Lou Robbin
Trying, failing. Trying and failing, and trying to change your mind. Turn the volume down, turn the volume down, there’s too much noise and not enough sound. Hold it close, little love, little light. The shadows aren’t too scary if you ask them to dance. The Void explores Inner Child Healing in a multidisciplinary performance about how to change your mind.

“to you, from us” by Danni Ebanks-Ingram
An exploration of intergenerational connections. Join us as we celebrate the bond between grandchild and grandparent through rituals, storytelling, and the reclamation of decolonial practices as we weave together the threads of past and present.