Brief:
KINGS is an interdisciplinary choreographic research and development project co-created with and performed by a group of young men from Manchester, outside after dark in the City Centre. Through a research process involving conversation, workshops and NIGHT WALKS to explore the socio-political visibility of the black male body alongside performed blackness and ownership of space. KINGS involved a series of NIGHTWALKS with the KINGS team to generate performative material outside at night across various Manchester locations, alongside devising workshops and two research residencies to meet black-led community youth projects and artists via LADA (London) and Dance4 (Nottingham) alongside public workshops with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Men and Non-Binary people in Manchester to book-end the project (KINGS:BEGINS and MIDDLE:KING Workshops) at The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester (supported by the RET and Contact Theatre) to create space to share experiences. The KINGS development period culminated in a ‘work-in-progress’ sharing in October 2019 at Depot. Mayfield as a work-in-development performance, at night.
Solution:
Amy is currently creating the final 2 creative projects for KINGS: a new video work to be exhibited in 2020 featuring a solo performance by Michael Appouh on Pamona Island and a new Radio work with Reform Radio using audio work and documentation collected during the KINGS devising process and public workshops, both documenting a reclamation of space for blackness, in darkness.