CERTAIN BLACKS PRESENT ‘SHIPBUILDING’ AT RICH MIX LONDON FEBRUARY 18–27, 2022

By Rishma • On Events

Photo by Lidia Crisafulli

Rich Mix, 35 — 47 Beth­nal Green Road, Lon­don, E1 6LA

https://richmix.org.uk/

Cre­ated in response to the UK’s soci­et­al cli­mate, per­form­ance fest­iv­al Ship­build­ing from Cer­tain Blacks takes place in Feb­ru­ary 2022. Named after Elvis Costello’s sym­bol­ic anti-war song and reflect­ing upon the cli­mate of C19, Brexit and Black Lives Mat­ter, each of the four shows has been cre­ated from true stor­ies, wheth­er auto­bi­o­graph­ic­al or observed. As well, Ship­build­ing seeks to explore what it is to be Brit­ish and diverse in these chal­len­ging times.

Staged at Rich Mix, Ship­build­ing fea­tures A Night’s Game from Alleyne Dance from twins Kristina and Sadé Alleyne inspired by stor­ies of impris­on­ment and con­fine­ment. DICK - One Man in 1000 is Richard Stamp’s frank solo drawn from his exper­i­ences of Penile Can­cer. Brix­ton word­smith Abstract Benna show­cases his com­pel­ling body of work as he launches new EP Out Of Dark­ness then finally, Cer­tain Blacks presents Black Sheep from Livia Kojo Alour AKA MisSa. Livia per­forms inter­na­tion­ally as a dazzling bur­lesque artist and sword swal­low­er. Black Sheep is both a can­did auto­bi­o­graph­ic­al show and a euphor­ic reclam­a­tion of her core iden­tity and ongo­ing fortitude.

Pro­gramme:

Fri­day 18th, 7.30pm — Alleyne Dance — A Night’s Game — How does it feel to have your free­dom taken from you? Would you spend every wak­ing hour long­ing to be free again? Or would you fight against it? Inspired by stor­ies of impris­on­ment, escape and fight­ing for free­dom, A Night’s Game reflects the tur­moil and strife when faced with the pro­spect of incarceration. 

Identic­al twins Kristina and Sadé Alleyne, former ath­letes and dynam­ic dance artists per­form this start­ling piece with intens­ity, grace and strength. Draw­ing from dance styles of West Afric­an and Carib­bean ori­gin plus ele­ments of Kath­ak and Hip Hop, Alleyne Dance deliv­er a high-octane duet with a power­ful and dra­mat­ic edge. £12 (£8 cons)

Sat­urday 19th Feb­ru­ary, 7.30pm — DICK — One Man in 100,000 – Per­former, act­or and clown Richard Stamp presents this frank theatre show doc­u­ment­ing his exper­i­ence of penile can­cer. DICK tells of his whirl­wind jour­ney from dia­gnos­is to par­tial pen­ec­tomy which left him, in his own words, “A clown with a mis­sion: to pro­mote under­stand­ing of the dis­ease and its effects, to both doc­tors and civilians”.

Penile can­cer is unchartered ter­rit­ory, not just in theatre but in polite con­ver­sa­tion. As DICK unflinch­ingly recounts events, dis­pos­ing of taboos as the nar­rat­ive evolves, pre­con­cep­tions of mas­culin­ity and potency are openly explored. Hav­ing per­formed pro­fes­sion­ally since child­hood, in his own words “As man, boy and fool”, Richard’s open­ness and vul­ner­ab­il­ity are matched by his enga­ging humour and resi­li­ence. As well as offer­ing heart­felt and inform­at­ive theatre, Richard hopes that DICK will accel­er­ate dia­gnos­is, sup­port oth­ers and fur­ther the aware­ness of Penile Can­cer. £10 (£6 cons).

Fri­day 25 Feb­ru­ary, 8pm — Abstract Benna — Out Of Dark­ness — Born and raised in South Lon­don, Abstract Benna has been writ­ing and per­form­ing since child­hood. A social com­ment­at­or and spoken word artist, Benna is also a storyteller and an instinct­ive music­al col­lab­or­at­or. Intric­ate rhyme schemes and layered nar­rat­ives meet son­ic and visu­al land­scapes while Hip-Hop beats and cine­mat­ic sounds form music­al back­drops. This per­form­ance launches Benna’s EP Out Of Darkness

Set on a South Lon­don estate, Benna’s bru­tally hon­est audio film will accom­pany live per­form­ance. A fly-on-the-wall inner city jour­ney delving deeply into the mind of a young Lon­don­er, Benna’s obser­va­tion­al lyr­ics and sense of drama evoke this tense envir­on­ment. The story unfolds as a set of choices young Lon­don­ers have to make, their life les­sons learned as they trans­ition to adult­hood, fig­ur­ing out who they are and who they want to become.

Benna has worked extens­ively with young people facil­it­at­ing edu­ca­tion­al work­shops. His many com­mis­sions include pro­jects for the Round­house and the NHS. On Feb­ru­ary 25, he’ll be joined by musi­cians and col­lab­or­at­ors. The Out of Dark­ness EP is Pro­duced by: Farda Jay­mez. £10 (£6 cons) 

Sunday 27 Feb­ru­ary, 7pm — Livia Kojo Alour (form­ally MisSa Blue) — Black Sheep — After mov­ing from Ger­many to Lon­don ten years ago to live and work in a more diverse com­munity, Livia learned that life-long feel­ings of self-hatred and oth­er­ness are part inter­n­al­ised racism and part sur­viv­al tech­niques. With an ongo­ing and suc­cess­ful career in cir­cus under her stage name MisSa, Livia has tired of play­ing someone else full time and has cre­ated her first full length show. Using this auto­bi­o­graph­ic­al per­form­ance to speak out about chal­lenges and reper­cus­sions facing Black women who dare to ditch ste­reo­types, Livia reclaims her power.

Black Sheep is a test­a­ment of per­son­al strength, developed through tran­scend­ing the white gaze and over­com­ing insti­tu­tion­al racism. Secur­ing her place as a pivotal UK Black voice while telling the story of one of the world’s most renowned sword swal­low­ers, Black Sheep is timely, unset­tling and deeply per­son­al. Artist­ic ment­or: Mar­isa Carnesky £12 (£8 cons)

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Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.