Race, Trauma, Identity and the Arts
11 Oct 20:00-21:30

This panel will explore how trauma and racial identity intersect with artistic practice, within institutions, individuals’ identities and in communities.

How can we have nuance in how Global Majority stories are told?

How can artists be cared for and empowered in the process?

Led by Nicole Joseph, we will explore these and other themes that emerged during BPH’s Empowered Black & Global Majority Programme.

Nicole Joseph (she/her) is a Writer, Theatre Maker & Community Artist based in Bradford. She is Creative Instigator at Bradford Producing Hub and has led on their Empowered programmes for Black & Global Majority, LGBTQIA+ and their upcoming Deaf, Disabled & Neurodiverse programme for artists. Nicole has a holistic, spiritual, human centred and community-care focussed practice. She was recently awarded ACE’s Developing Your Creative Practice funding to progress her playwriting practice. She is a director for Graeae’s Crips Without Constraints and has worked with the RSC, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Crucible Theatre, Tamasha Theatre, Royal Exchange Theatre and Leeds Playhouse.

Uzma Kazi (she/her) has always had a natural curiosity about people, things and their stories. She trained in theatre design and created set, costumes, props and puppets for a range of traditional and site specific theatre spaces in the UK. She has also explored her interests of grassroots community work in Bradford, often co-creating social or creative meeting spaces to chat, discover, learn or make. Uzma is a qualified art therapist and has a keen interest in community arts and healing through creativity.

Liz Mytton (she/her) is a Bradford born playwright, lyricist, poet and facilitator.  She was a Bristol Old Vic Open Session writer in 2018, and took part in the Critical Mass writing programme at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. Liz went on to work with their young company on Rise in 2017, and again in 2020, co-creating Like There’s No Tomorrow, a National Theatre Connections commission. Liz’s latest play, An Emperor in the West, is set in 1937 and focuses on the exile of Haile Selassie, in the city of Bath. Liz leads Theatre in Flow, a company committed to the championing of marginalised voices and their main project, Women’s Supper Club, a Forum Theatre group for women runs in locations across Greater Manchester. Liz’s other work current includes drama facilitation for The Lowry & National Theatre’s ‘Speak Up’ project for young people, curating the Northern Black Story Archive and developing two new outdoor performances highlighting the history and resilience of migrant communities. 

Audrey Albert (she/her) is a maker, artist and photographer. Her research-led practice enables her to consider and investigate themes of national identity, collective memory, displacement, tradition, and denial. Born in Mauritius with Chagossian origins, Audrey is currently based in Manchester. Her main body of work Matter Out of Place has been showcased in several exhibitions in Manchester (at The Holden Gallery and HOME respectively), Arles in France, Pingyao in China and in Port-Louis in Mauritius. Audrey is currently working on Chagossians of Manchester (CoM) after having been selected to be part of the Future Fires 2020 programme at Contact. CoM is a socially-engaged art project by and for the forcefully displaced Chagossian community currently living in Wythenshawe. Chagossians of Manchester consists of 4 intergenerational creative workshops which will culminate in a celebratory Chagos Day.