We caught up with Thiago Jesus to talk about a new project discovering the Sacred Cave of Kamulkuwaká as part of an ongoing project with the Xingu tribe.
Background info: In September 2018, as part of PPP’s The Challenge of the Xingu project, an expedition to the sacred cave of Kamukuwaká organised with members of the Wauja community, specialists from Factum Foundation and an independent team of Brazilian anthropologists, found its ancient petroglyphs had been systematically destroyed (https://peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk/en/kamukuwaka/). Chisel marks, a chipped surface and scattered fragments on the ground were all that was left.
The sacred cave of Kamukuwaká, an archaeological site sacred to the Wauja and to the 15 other communities living in the Xingu Indigenous Territory (Brazilian Amazon), was listed as a heritage site in 2010 by IPHAN (Brazil’s National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage). The destruction is likely to be a result of the ongoing tensions between indigenous and farming communities in the state of Mato Grosso.
Digitalisation and rematerialisation: In defiance of this tragedy, Factum Foundation’s team (http://www.factumfoundation.org/), employed high-resolution photogrammetry and LiDAR scanning to record the cave. Then, using cutting-edge 3D printing technologies and with reference to previous photographic documentation as well as the collective memory of the Wauja, a forensically accurate digital restoration of the rock carvings was carried out, resulting in a 1:1 facsimile of the entrance to the cave with all the petroglyphs, measuring 8x4x4m (http://www.factumfoundation.org/pag/1289/The-Sacred-Cave-of-Kamukuwak%C3%83)
The event: On the 18-19 October 2019, one year after the vandalism was discovered, Factum hosted a two-day event in their Madrid’s workshop to inaugurate the facsimile of the restored cave. It was unveiled by a leader of the Wauja community, Akari Waurá, oral historian and song carrier, and his son Yanamakakuma Waurá, alongside Takumã Kuikuro, filmmaker from the Kuikuro people, and Shirley Djukuma Krenak, leader of the Krenak people.
During the event, they explained the importance of the cave and its meaning for the preservation of indigenous cultures, and discussed ways in which the facsimile of the cave can best serve the indigenous communities in Brazil. The two-day event was co-produced in partnership with People’s Palace Projects and funded by Factum Foundation, Queen Mary University of London and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Politician David Lammy MP will learn about the Black African soldiers who gave their lives for Britain during the First World War.
To mark Remembrance Day 2019, Lammy will travel to Africa and see the mass burial sites for the untold heroes.
The hard-hitting documentary will also question the war graves commission for their decision to not individually memorialise countless Black African soldiers and porters.
Seeing the mass burials first-hand, Lammy considers the measures needed to be taken to give these soldiers the same dignity as the soldiers who were given gravestones regardless of background, rank or creed.
Politics and Desire in a Decadent Age: 1860 to the Present — a one-day symposium —Call for Proposals
Hosted by the Department of English
and the Sexual Cultures Research Group
Queen Mary University of London
Friday 15 May 2020
Keynote Speaker: Dennis Denisoff
(McFarlin Chair of English, University of Tulsa,
author of Aestheticism and Sexual
Parody and Sexual Visuality from Literature to Film)
The
symposium committee invites papers from a diverse range of disciplinary
backgrounds, including literature, sexuality and gender studies, history,
visual art, film, and environmental studies, that interpret any aspect of the
symposium theme of ‘Politics and Desire in a Decadent Age’.
Topics
may include (but are not limited to):
Urban sexual communities or conflicts
The sexual imagination and colonial decadence
Sexual identity in mass consumerism
Desires and the environmental humanities
Trans politics
Feminist fantasies
Desires and the decadent movement
Science and medicine of decadence
Gendered and erotic ecologies
·ultural rot
Intersections of race, indigeneity, and gender
Ignored, invisible, and secreted desires
Decadent occultures
Proposals of up to 250 words for 15-minutes papers (along with a 100-word biographical note) should be submitted by 1 February 2020 to Catherine Maxwell: c.h.maxwell@qmul.ac.uk.
A Season of Bangla Drama is back in Tower Hamlets for another
month-long festival of British-Bengali theatre. It is now in its 17th
year and firmly established in the area’s cultural calendar and
includes a magnificent performance of East Side Story in our very own
Great Hall in The People’s Palace.
Nisha Ramayya is reading and speaking at New Suns which explores new and continuing debates in feminist approaches to technology. She will also be reading and speaking at: Exploring Poetry as Disruption (Sat 19 Oct – Southbank Centre) States of the Body Produced by Love (Fri 25 Oct – ICA)
In the first paper in our 2019/20 seminar series, Mark Lee from the University of Oxford explores devotional solitude through the lens of ‘religious insanity’ in the nineteenth century.
What role can literature play in combatting hostile environments? In a
new and exciting collaboration between Wasafiri and London’s Free Word
Centre, Roger Robinson, Winsome Pinnock, Inua Ellams and Bridget
Minamore join forces for readings and debate on writing and
resistance.
QUORUM Drama Research Seminar: Molly McPhee Wednesday 16 October 2019, QMUL Be sure to go to the next QUORUM entitled ‘Miasmatic Performance: Carceral Atmospherics in the Theatre of Clean Break’. Photo: Pests by Vivienne Franzmann. Photo by Jonathan Keenan.
How does philosophy contend with the mysterious and the inexplicable? Can it really be logic all the way down, or might rationality stand on something a little spookier? Our very own Nisha Ramayya is on hand to discuss at the Forum for Philosophy.
Decorating Dissidence, run by our very own Jade French and alumni Dr. Lottie Whalen, invite you to ‘WEAVE IT!’ an exhibition celebrating and challenging 100 years of the Bauhaus women’s weaving workshop. This exhibition considers the legacies of crafting and weaving from modernism to the contemporary, exhibiting textile practitioners who respond in different ways to the Bauhaus and beyond.
The launch night on 1st November will see performances by Rasia Kabir and SED’s Julie Rose Bower, with DJs and drinks. ONGOING
Join Read the Room every Wednesday (beginning 9 October) to gather together and fill the room with poetry. Each week we will read aloud work by a different poet or on a different theme, appreciating the culture of contemporary poetry and a collaborative environment.
Meet other poetry enthusiasts or casual readers, stay on top of poetry events, or just enjoy reading something new. Drop in or just come when you can, Read the Room aims to be an accessible space to have fun with poetry.
Daniel is dyspraxic and is too slow. Frauke has ADHD and is too quick. They are married and have kids.
Join the couple in the Meadowdrome, their fantastical escapist world. Together you will encounter awkwardly intimate interactive actions, strange dances, sweet and surreal songs, and other off-kilter “grown-up” activities.
This interactive show invites you to explore, converse and play within the neurodivergent realm Daniel and Frauke have created.
Launching an anthology of writings, Turning the Page, by the SBS Survivors’ Group: A literary conversation between two groups of BAME women – published writers responding creatively to the stories of the SBS support group.
Mojisola Adebayo will be presenting The Interrogation of Sandra Bland at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, in October, culminating in a performance by a huge chorus of black / women-of-colour on stage.
Pragya Dhital joined the English department in September as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, with a project on proscribed political pamphlets in colonial India. During the summer she had two articles published: “From ‘Imam ul-Hind’ to Azizul Hind: The ‘One Man Media House’ in Modern India”, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 42:3, 452-468, DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2019.1596778 “Media satyagraha in the broadcast age: underground literature and populist politics during the Indian internal emergency of 1975–1977”, Interventions: Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 21: 7, 942-958, DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2019.1585908
Michael Hughes (Creative Writing Lecturer)’s book is reviewed by The New York Times: ‘Hughes’s story proceeds at a breakneck cinematic pace, full of booby traps, double agents and arias promising gruesome revenge.’ Read the full review here
Eleni Sophia (aka English student Sophia Hussain) has published her third book ‘This One’s For You’. The poetry collection is about encouraging young women about the importance of self-love and provides words of encouragement for those going through a tough time.
In July, both Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian shared her poem ‘Her Mindset’ from my first poetry book, ‘Good Morning to Goodnight’ on their Snapchat and Instagram stories.
Susheila Nasta (English Professor) is has edited a collection called Brave New Words: The Power of Writing Now (Out 7 November) an anthology of essays by 15 world writers to celebrate 35 years of Wasafiri but also channels the hot political topics of today. It features work from Bernardine Evaristo, Tabish Khair, Blake Morrison, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Marina Warner and many more.
Pathologies of Solitude project has been awarded a ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ grant by the Wellcome Trust (£21,192) for a project addressing solitude and loneliness as aspects of migrant and refugee experience.
The 18-month project is led by Akshi Singh, postdoctoral fellow on the ‘Pathologies of Solitude’ project, and Nisha Ramayya ( Creative Writing Lecturer at QMUL), and is partnered by Akwaaba, an anti-racist migrant befriending centre in East London.
The project will support six creative arts workshops to be held at Akwaaba, facilitated by BME writers and other diverse artists. Its results will be disseminated through zines made with workshop participants, an exhibition and a public story-telling event.
People Palace Projects’Xingu Encounter has been nominated for a Times Higher Education award for ‘International Collaboration of the Year’. The project explores new ways to work with indigenous people in Brazil to preserve & protect their knowledge & culture.
Mahima Tyagi (English with Creative Writing student) has taken over the School of English and Drama Instagram.
Whilst we try our hardest to make sure listings are accurate we recommend contacting the event organiser or registering before attending as mistakes can be made and we apologise for these.
We’ve just published staff profiles for our inspiring English and Drama Teaching Associates and Teaching Fellows who are working with our students this year.
Click the buttons below to get to know them better and find out about their specialisms.
Seen here with one of Boal’s original Theatre Company Barbara Santos (holding Ali’s book). Ali in turn is holding her own which they are launching in parallel: Theatre of the Oppressed: Roots and Wings (Kuringa). The launch took the form of seminars and workshops in Rio de Janeiro at the headquarters of CTO Rio, Boal’s original company, alongside the devising of street theatre pieces and other interventions across the City protesting the draconian measures currently being proposed by the Bolsanaro Administration and impacting heavily on access to State funded Higher Education.
A similar event will happen as part of this year’s Season of Bangla Drama Festival, of which Ali is a co-Director with responsibility for CPD across the Festival’s 17 theatre companies and 6 venues, of which QMUL is one. The Festival begins on Friday 1st November.
On the verge of a natural disaster, a prison guard is called into work and discovers a newcomer to the team – an Artificial Intelligence named Sally. When the city is evacuated, what happens to the prisoners?
The final 24 candidates for The Mars Mission Programme have been observed for a month by the public in a reality TV show designed to choose the final four. The public have voted and the candidates are about to be sent off to Mars with no hope of return… as soon as the final confirmation is granted.
Have you ever loved a show so much that you wished you could kidnap all the actors, keep them in your basement and get them to perform it again for you? No? Just Rupert?
Lola, Eleanor Rigby, Brown Sugar, Roxanne, and Monica – you may know their names, you may even remember singing them in the shower or at a party. What you probably don’t know is their stories. Neither do they, but they’re trying to figure it out.
‘Celebrating their final year as Europeans, island monkeys Becca and Louise got invited to the 2018 European Capital of Culture in Malta. Lads on tour…Sh!t Theatre went to drink rum with Brits abroad but found mystery and murder in the fight to be European. Here it is, another excuse for the multi award-winning Sh!t Theatre to get drunk on stage. ‘
‘From an Essex-based, sad, weird kid to a less sad, trans, lesbian loudmouth. She’s grown up, gotten hurt and she’s still here and ready to share in her debut hour. Winner of the Best Comedy Show Award at the Brewery Fringe Festival.’
Criticism and Insight
Bechdel Theatre: BT talk gender and representation on stage and list shows that pass the Bechdel Test.
Early career researchers seeking support for their
application to the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme are invited
to get in contact with us as soon as possible
Deadline for applications: midday on Wednesday 11
September 2019
The School of English and Drama invites early career
researchers seeking support for their application to the British Academy
Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme to get in touch by submitting:
(1) an explanation of the reason(s) for your choice of Queen
Mary as the host institution (150 words maximum)
(2) an outline of your proposed programme of research (1,500
words maximum)
(3) details of your planned research outputs, e.g. monograph,
journal article(s), book chapter(s), digital resources, other (please specify)
(300 words maximum)
(4) a list of existing publications (1 page maximum)
(5) a CV (2 pages maximum)
Please submit the above documents to Dr Huw Marsh, Research
Manager, sed-research@qmul.ac.uk,
by no later than midday on Wednesday 11 September 2019. Please state
‘British Academy PDRF’ in the subject line.
the publishable research you propose, how you will structure, pursue, and complete it in the time frame, and its importance;
the relevance of QMUL SED to your research and vice versa;
who you would like as a mentor and why.
You are strongly encouraged, before submitting your
application and time permitting, to find a mentor, provisionally agree their support,
and get some feedback from them on a draft application.
All outline proposals will be considered by our Directors of
Research and those that we give institutional support to will have
approximately one month to finalise their online application, due on 16 October
2019
PhD candidate Ben Walters has recently hosted an event called Dr. Duckie at Royal Vauxhall Tavern to explain his work around the legendary performance company and his theory around the power of queer fun.
Queen Mary has just subscribed to online support service Big White Wall. It’s available for students and staff 24/7 and there are trained professionals on the platform who can help.
If you have a mental health condition, it is important that you register with a doctor so you can access the necessary support and medicine you may need. In order to ensure that you access all the support you need during your studies, please also make an appointment (preferably before the start of your studies) with the Mental Health Coordinator to discuss what can be put in place for you. Email dds@qmul.ac.uk or call 020 7882 2756.
If you’re in crisis or just need to know where to go next please come and talk to trained Mental Health First Aiders. In the School of English and Drama there are lots of us including Rupert Dannreuther and Suzi Lewis in the School office.
Pictured above: Our MA Live Art cohort and staff took over the Victoria and Albert Museum on for V&A Friday Late on Friday 26 April. Photo credit: Hydar Dewachi.
We’re launching a programme of 10 unmissable workshops to help you develop your skills to work in the creative and cultural industries. The creative skills project formerly known as DIY HIGH SCHOOL is back for 2019 as DIY LIFE SKILLS.
DIY LIFE SKILLS gives our Queen Mary University of London students and our community vital extra practical skills for working in the creative and cultural industries. These include making videos, photography, tax, CVs, public speaking, social media for work and WordPress/blogging. The workshops are free for our students and our local community.See the programme
May Listings
Identify: A research network for neurodivergent students – second meeting Fri 3 May | Room 2.18, ArtsTwo, QMUL, Mile End
Identify is a postgraduate study group that will meet regularly to build a research cohort within SED. Participants identify as having Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD), including dyslexia, dyspraxia and other neurodivergent ways of being that impact our study patterns, academic activities, and research outputs.
Their second meeting will be held on Friday 3rd May from 4-6pm in room 2.18, Arts Two. All are welcome. If anyone requires directions or wants to get in touch for more information, they’re welcome to email John Dunn on j.l.o.dunn@qmul.ac.uk.
Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature in English Seminar Wed 8 May, 1pm | Room 2.17, ArtsTwo, QMUL – Mile End
Mimi Ensley (University of Notre Dame, London Global Gateway) will speak on ‘Meeting Lydgate’s Ghost’.
Drama Futures Wed 8 May, 4.30pm | Theatre Peckham
If you are considering studying drama make sure to book a spot on this. Email c.palmer@qmul.ac.uk
Dr Duckie Sat 11 May, 6.30pm | Royal Vauxhall Tavern
‘Introducing Dr Duckie – aka our very own Ben Walters (Drama department) – in a public explanation ünt examination of his just completed PhD with Queen Mary University of London on Duckie in the Community
It’s about the neo-liberal wobble, the technology of queer fun, and doing family differently.
Aimed at community theatre workers and grass roots performance activists – and random interested punters – it unpacks methods of performance, cabaret and event culture interventions for so-called ‘marginalised’ communities”.
This free talk will explore the history of tea and the performance of its consumption at the Georgian tea-table. Markman Ellis (English department) will examine tea as a commodity, an event and an idea by looking at poems, essays, satires and paintings from the early 1700s. These highlight the event of tea-drinking, its context in the global trade of the East India Company and its construction among high-status women.
All are welcome to attend this insightful lecture on the connections between
Victorian and Modernist authors and writers and queer/feminist reformulations
of gender.
Queen Mary University of London presents Show and Tell a podcast recording of
10 inspiring mini talks from current students and special guests on studying
and working in the creative industries. Discover the insider secrets to working
in the arts, humanities and social sciences and hear young people with
something to say from one of London’s most inclusive universities.
Show and Tell has been running for 2 years at Queen Mary with over 35 speakers
from TV producers, award-winning writers, researchers and journalists inspiring
over 300 people to enter these industries.
At this event, Amy De’Ath and Nisha Ramayya will discuss their current research, sharing a combination of critical writing and poetry. They will consider the overlaps in their work via the concept of reproduction in feminist poetics. Book tickets
The Live Art Development Agency and the Drama Department at Queen Mary University of London present a day of discussions around kickstarting and maintaining a Live Art practice and an opportunity to find out more about the exciting new MA Live Art programme.
In a special addition to its regular programme, the London-Paris Romanticism Seminar has partnered with the Fordham Romanticism Group (New York) and the Royal Institution of Great Britain to hold a half-day symposium on the theme Romanticism at the Royal Institution.
Shahidha Bari (English department) hosted the launch of Queen Mary University of London’s Strategy 2030 at Victoria and Albert Museum on 3 May 2019. See the strategy
Jen Harvie (Drama department) appeared on two BBC broadcast discussions at BBC Free Thinking Festival which you can listen to on iPlayer:
‘The
Emotions of Now’, Sage Gateshead, 29 March 2019, BBC Radio 3, 8 April
2019, 22:00 Listen here
‘The
Actors’ Guide to the Emotions’, St Mary’s Church, Gateshead, 31 March
2019. BBC Radio 3, 7 April 2019, 18:45 Listen here
Gabriel Krauze (English graduate) has got a book deal with
Fourth Estate for a “breath-taking” debut work of autofiction about London
gang-life. Read more
Gem Stokes (English student) is our very first student of the month.
Read our interview with her here.
The next Victoria and Albert Museum free Friday Late event is around the idea of the art school and raises the question: ‘Do they still have the space to break rules and challenge the status quo? ‘
Our staff will join the Live Art Development Agency to host an event talking about what it is to teach radical art practice.
Taking our MA Live Art Martin O’Brien, Dominic Johnson and guests will discuss the way in which the programme runs and provides an alternative arts education.
Plus our very own Shahidha Bari will be part of a panel discussing decolonising art schools and education led by AZEEMA.
In this conversation, Martin O’Brien, Dominic Johnsonand the Live Art Development Agencydiscuss Live Art within academic institutions and what it means to teach a radical arts practice. They focus on the way in which the MA Live Art at Queen Mary UniversityofLondon and the Live Art Development Agencyteach Live Art, opening up wider questions around educationand experimental arts practices.
AZEEMA: Anti-Art School: on decolonisation and identity
The Raphael Cartoons
20.15
Discuss decolonising art schools and education in this panel talk led by AZEEMA. Joining them to explore themes of identity, inclusivity and personal experiences are Shahidha Bari, Danah Abdulla, Jannat Hussein and Shades of Noir. @azeemamagazeemamag.com
Action Lab
Learning Centre, Seminar Room 5
From 20.30
Please note, these performances contain nudity and sensitive material
Join the QMUL/LADA MA Live Art students as they perform actions in response to the spaces and collections at the V&A. Experience an exhibition of separate durational performances, sharing a space with one anothe
On Wednesday the 27th of March I was part of a
team of nine London-based drama practitioners and students armed with silent
disco headphones, laminated sheets of paper, paper plates, colouring pens and
some ipods who found themselves in an office conference room in Bristol with an
audience of around thirty office workers.
The team represented The Verbatim Formula (TVF), a collaborative participatory arts project founded by Maggie Inchley (Queen Mary University’s Senior Lecturer in Performance) and Sylvan Baker (lecturer at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama). Aiming to ‘make listening visible’, TVF specialises in sharing the stories of young people in (social) care and care leavers, including those in Higher Education.
TVF utilise the method of Headphone Verbatim in which to carry the life experiences and testimonies of young care-experienced people to a variety of audiences, most notably to the authorities that have the power to shape the care and education systems.
On this occasion, TVF were visiting the Office for Students (OfS), a newly formed body responsible for the regulation of Education across England. To put it simply, they are the Ofsted of Universities.
Headphone Verbatim requires a performer to listen to an audio recording of a testimony through headphones while saying what they hear out loud as accurately as possible. It’s a technique that requires focused attention but for those listening to the performer, the experience is very impactful; the performer becomes a vessel through which the idiosyncrasies of the original speaker add an authenticity to the speech.
The technique allows the voice of the care experienced to retain its potency and personality without their physical presence making them a fetish-ised object for the audience. When utilised in business and corporate contexts, this technique can serve to transform young people from numbers into people, hopefully reigniting the urgency and intensity of TVF’s ultimate aim; to improve the lives of the care-experienced.
The event took place during the office workers’ lunch break.
In the space of one hour the TVF team introduced themselves by explaining what
belonging means to them (an important theme from university related
testimonies), encouraged the workers to reflect on their own experiences of
belonging and not belonging (which they wrote down on paper plates) , explained
the aims of TVF, performed over ten testimonies using Headphone Verbatim, and
then allowed the office participants to join the facilitators in a Verbatim
Chorus in which they too got to attempt Headphone Verbatim.
As a third year student it’s great to have been part of this process. Getting to be part of the testimony collection process and to perform with TVF’s amazing team has taught me so much. I’ve wanted to experience the powerful potential of participatory theatre since I started my degree but when I first informed Maggie that I was interested in getting involved with her project I didn’t imagine getting stuck in to something so deeply important so quickly. If this project has taught me anything it’s that: a) Great experiences are only a chat with your lecturer away and b) well intentioned projects like TVF really do have the power to affect change. The expressions of concentration and empathy on the faces of our audience proved just how powerful listening can be.
An interactive performance for 5 people at a time.
Audience-participants are invited to join Daniel and Frauke in a series of
awkwardly intimate and strange actions, rituals, dances, games, and other
dysfunctional activities brought back in time from a post-neurodivergent
revolution family fun-time future.
Daniel is dyspraxic and is too slow. Frauke has ADHD
and is too quick. They are married and have kids. This interactive performance
is rooted in their experiences of their bodies as neurodivergent lovers,
parents, and weirdo performance makers. It is a space in which clunky
experiences of bodies and actions can be discussed, explored and ultimately
celebrated through ritualisation and play.
Frauke Requardt and Daniel Oliver The Rong Table –6 Apr
Discussion
Frauke and Daniel invite audiences to explore these themes
through conversation events that use Daniel’s ‘Rong Table‘ set-up. ‘Rong Tables’ are events
for exploring and discussing the key themes of the performance. They are a
development of Lois Weaver’s ‘Long Tables’, in which
the audiences are invited to take part in a discussion by leaving their
audience seats, and sitting at a large table. Daniel has been regularly using
this format to discuss neurodiversity and art over the past three years. .
Recently he has been experimenting with adding different elements and bending
the rules in order to create a space that is more accessible, diverse and
engaging for a broad range of neurodivergent audiences. This means the table is
no longer the only place to talk, getting rid of the audience/participant
divide, allowing for smaller, more discreet conversations to happen around the
space, and for more ways of expressing thoughts to be offered.
For Dadderrs, the Rong Table is something modelled on a chaotic family dinner time rather than a more formal grown-up dinner party. Alongside den-building, and playing with dressing-up, there would also be the opportunity to make objects out of Lego – a prop used in Dadderrs – to explore and express ideas related to the themes of the performance.
Lois Weaver The Situation Room – 6 Apr
Performance
The Situation Room is a format for public
discussion created by Lois Weaver that combines theatricality and informal
conversation and encourages us to think about the interdependencies of anxiety
and desire. It’s inspired by the War Room in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964
film, Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learnt To Stop Worrying And
Love The Bomb where a group of people
sit around a circle of tables and hold a discussion that is moderated by a ‘President’ and monitored by ‘General’ who reminds us we are ‘running
out of time.’
In The Situation Room, members of the audience will be invited to form a Council determined by loosely held affinities: a Council of Elders, an Intergenerational Council, a Council of Queers or Intersectional Feminists; a Council of Agnostics or A-politicals. They are invited to the table to share what is worrying them, from the personal to the geopolitical; to discuss, listen, and then reach a consensus on a single topic of conversation- the ‘Situation’, and finally to consider their desires, ambitions and fantasies as playful and creative solutions to the issue at hand.
Martin O’Brien – Who Cries Wins
Discussion
This discussion event questions if there is an increase in artists
identifying closely, and leading with, their own histories of trauma and/or
painful autobiography. To what extent is this true, and if true, what may have
instigated this?
As festivals, live platforms and opportunities begin to focus on the
support of these current questions and seeking out artists’ trauma, we pose the
question now: what is the tense line between raising visibility and
exploitation. Additionally, another consideration: Is there such a thing as
competitive trauma?
This is a public discussion hosted and facilitated by performance artist and scholar Martin O’Brien, with contributions from artists in the Care & Destruction programme.
Queen Mary Theatre Company are looking for new actors and backstage crew for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe trip! The four pieces of new writing cover a wide expanse of contemporary topics, from the first humans on Mars and Artificial Intelligence, to girls in rock songs and … kidnapping? To find out more and how you can audition/get involved, head to our website.
unDisturbed 5-6 April | Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington
BA (Hons) Drama student and Royal Albert Hall Young Producer Francesca Kamil is helping to present new unDISTURBED events series.
Francesca says: ‘Saturday is a celebration of resisting with a collective of fierce Drag Queens with down syndrome, female drum and bass beatbox power from Kimmy Beatbox, Steamdown who jump off the sonic springboard of Afrofuturism, grime and future soul, all fused together with the fearless spontaneity of jazz AMONG OTHER SURPRISES AND DELIGHTS.’
Join our very own performance provocateurs Daniel Oliver, Lois Weaver and Martin O’Brien for a festival of performances and conversations around health, care and social justice.
Catch a preview of Emily’s new show described as: ‘Part stand-up, part music performance and part emotional unraveling, ‘Dumped’ is about surviving through song.’
Queer-feminist Ecocriticism in Live Art & Visual Cultures is a one-day international conference that brings together artists, theorists and activists to cover topics ranging from non-human ethics to ecosexuality.
Image credit: Nadja Verena Marcin, Ophelia (Still 3), 2017. Photo: Marque DeWinter. Courtesy the artist & 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel.
If you’re interested in making theatre, social activism and exploring radical new ideas then this taster is for you. You’ll experience both practical and theoretical workshops, led by our academics and hear about the career prospects of Queen Mary Drama graduates.
Identify is a postgraduate study group that will meet regularly to build a research cohort within English and Drama. The group identify as having Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD), including dyslexia, dyspraxia and other neurodivergent ways of being that impact our study patterns, academic activities, and research outputs.
Their second meeting will be held on Friday 3rd May from 4-6pm in room 2.18, Arts Two. All are welcome. If anyone requires directions or wants to get in touch for more information, they’re welcome to email John Dunn on j.l.o.dunn@qmul.ac.uk.
News
Nadia Atia (English) and Ruby Tuke (English) both won Education Awards for Postgraduate Teaching Champion and Assessment and Feedback Champion respectively. Many other staff members were nominated and shortlisted across multiple categories. Find out more about some of the shortlisted candidates here. Read Nadia’s latest published piece Death and Mourning in Contemporary Iraqi Texts.
Jerry Brotton (English) takes to BBC Radio 3 to go in search of the ancient and very beautiful idea that places music at the centre of our universe: the Harmony of the Spheres. Listen here
Maggie Inchley and the Verbatim Formula team including Clarice Montero (Drama student) have presented to government twice recently on real experiences of the care system to the Minister for Children and the testimonies of current students to the Office for Students.
Network: The QMUL Centre for the Creative and Cultural Economy Get a spring update from the creative industries hub here.
Martin O’Brien (Drama) is featured on a BBC Sounds special called Ouch: Disability Talk: The Artist Who Believes He’s A Zombie Listen here
Nadia Valman (English)’s Brick Lane Traces event projected the history of the East London hotspot at key sites. Pictured above: Roshanara, thought to be the first Bengali woman in Brick Lane in the 1950s, projected on the now derelict Seven Stars pub in Brick Lane, where she liked to hang out. Photograph by Raju Vaidyanathan. From the collaboration with projection artist Karen Crosby.
Lois Weaver (Drama) wins Lois wins The Hawking Award for Developed Understanding of Public Engagement.