Heather Saunders – Serendipity

Leicester Artist Works with Globally Acclaimed Dr L’Antoinette Stines Jamaican Innovator

Heather Saunders — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 11:56:04 +0000

Throughout August 2023, Dr L’Anoinette Stines, internationally acclaimed iconic Jamaican innovator choreographer, and educator, in a relationship brokered by Pawlet Brookes, Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage will be working with Carol Leeming MBE FRSA a cutting edge, writer/director, composer, lead artist of Jamaican parentage, from Dare to Diva company based in Leicester.

This work will form part of Carol’s Arts Council England Developing your Creative Practice Award, supported by partners Curve Theatre, Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage and Writing East Midlands. Carol will undertake further research and development, to learn specifically about Jamaican Traditional Folk Music and Dance, Dancehall and their cultural context.

Importantly, this is to inform Carol’s music composition, choreography for Chorus, in the development of her forthcoming choreopoem play. To complete her trilogy of compelling choreopoem productions. Carol’s successful choreopoem productions are:The Loneliness of the Long,(2012) Distance Diva, Love the Life You Live …Live the Life You Love (2018) Leeming. Both productions premiered successfully to great acclaim, from audiences and artists alike at Curve Theatre. The current choreopoem Chamber Opera project is titled: Go Where the Songs Are and is set in 90’s Leicester Jamaica for a planned production in 2024.

During September 2023 at Curve Theatre supported by Curve Theatre, Cara Nolan Artist Development & New Producer. Carol will be incorporating, what she has learnt with Dr. L’Antoinette Stines. To lead Workshops to try out, creative initial ideas for the Chorus. Along with London choreographer, performance poet and teacher, Sheba Montserrat (Irie Dance Theatre Company) with a group of De Montfort University Students & Alumni and Community Artists.

Later this year Carol will be a Panel Speaker, for the All Borders Blur 2023 Conference: Mapping Intersections and Genre Crossing in UK Spoken-Word Poetries Since 1965 in November Queen Mary University. With her presentation titled: Choreopoelectics: my choreopoetry, multi-disciplinary, interdisciplinary praxis, of embodied orality, intersectionality and magic realism. Outlining her unique practice and teaching, as a transliterate Black British artist from, and based in Leicester East Midlands.

Black Manifesto! Anita Gonzalez

Heather Saunders — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 15:00:00 +0000

READ! Will ya! Educate your damn self. That’s the tenth and final commandment of Black Manifesto. In this episode, Pawlet is joined by Anita Gonzalez, PhD, a professor of performing arts and African American studies at Georgetown University and a co-Founder of their Racial Justice Institute. Anita offers her reflections on international collaboration, racial justice, and the many forms of self-education.

Black Manifesto, the 10 Commandments: Black Women Speak Out, is a 10-part podcast series hosted by nora chipaumire and Pawlet Brookes. Black Manifesto brings together voices of Black women from around the world as a collective conversation, making the invisible visible, and addressing how we work to reshape a new world in which Black women are seen and heard, and a resource for inspiring creativity, learning, and unlearning. Each guest will discuss one commandment from nora’s Black Manifesto, offering their interpretations and insights.

Black Manifesto! Cynthia Oliver

Heather Saunders — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 12:09:34 +0000

We’ll start with an easy question, “Does race matter?” In this episode, Pawlet Brookes and Cynthia Oliver explore the ninth commandment, “Race matters, who created it? Long live James Baldwin.” Cynthia Oliver is a Bronx born, Virgin Island reared, award winning choreographer and performance artist. In her conversation with Pawlet, Cynthia reflects on the shared experience of Blackness around the world, the reality (and construct) of race, identity, activism, and Black womanhood.

Black Manifesto! L’Antoinette Stines

Heather Saunders — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 12:07:19 +0000

Family is all who can think with you, ya feel me? In this episode, Pawlet Brookes is joined by Dr L’Antoinette Stines, the renowned Jamaican director, choreographer, author, actor, dancer and founder of L’Acadco: A United Caribbean Dance Force. Dr Stines reflects on the people whom she considers family, the importance of building connections with people from all walks, and the dance concepts she has developed over her many years of artistic revolution and resistance.

Black Manifesto! Project X

Heather Saunders — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 11:59:29 +0000

“Platform yourself, and know when to de-platform yourself, comrades.” In this episode, Pawlet Brookes explores the 7th commandment with Project X Co-Directors Mele Broomes, Ashanti Harris, and Rhea Lewis. Based in Scotland, Project X is platforming dance of the African and Caribbean Diaspora. Responding to a series of provocations, the discussion covers visibility and invisibility, layered identities, empowerment, collaboration, comradeship, vision, emancipation, and more.

Black Manifesto! S Ama Wray

Heather Saunders — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 11:51:31 +0000

Édouard Glissant said it, I repeat. “Opacity. Own it.” In this episode, Pawlet Brookes and Dr S Ama Wray discuss the sixth commandment of Black Manifesto, the relationship between the mind and the body, Dr Wray’s Embodiology® movement, and the indigenous and African Diasporic influences that led Dr Wray to the create Embodiology®.

Black Manifesto! Gladys Francis

Heather Saunders — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 16:18:40 +0000

Recognise statecraft for the witchcraft it is. This he fifth commandment of nora chipaumire’s Black Manifesto is the spark for a dialogue between Pawlet Brookes and Dr Gladys M Francis. Francis is a scholar and facilitator of academic and artistic collaborations and a native of Guadeloupe who lives and teaches in the United States. In this episode, Francis exposes “statecraft” and discusses the importance of identity, retention, and re-creation against a backdrop of racial oppression and violence.

Black Manifesto! Maya Taylor

Heather Saunders — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 16:17:58 +0000

Refuse to dumb it down! In this episode, highly sought-after choreographer and movement director Maya Taylor takes us on a journey of self-affirmation, explains her practice of overcoming fear, and contextualises the fourth commandment of Black Manifesto, “Refuse to dumb it down.” Maya also shares insights into how she built her career without compromising her artistry or individuality.

Black Manifesto! Yinka Esi Graves

Heather Saunders — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 16:05:37 +0000

Free the feminine in u. In this episode, Pawlet Brookes and Black British flamenco dancer and artist Yinka Esi Graves explore ideas of freedom and individual truths and how they can be expressed through the body and dance. Graves examines the links between her personal background and her work beyond flamenco and how these experiences have shaped her ongoing journey of expansion and self-definition.

Black Manifesto! Annabel Guérédrat

Heather Saunders — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 15:33:28 +0000

SHAPESHIFT. YOU CAN. In this episode Pawlet Brookes explore the second commandment of the Black Manifesto with Annabel Guérédrat, Martiniquan performance artist and co-founder of the Festival International d’Art Performance (FIAP) in Martinique. Guérédrat discusses the role of shapeshifting and metamorphosis in her work, life, and spiritual practices; She also offers insight into the founding motivations of FIAP and it’s anti-colonial philosophy.