Accompanying Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance – Act 3 for Arnolfini’s relaunch programme, I curated and produced a public programme of talks, screenings, performances, and interventions – extending the exhibition’s focus on the his/her story of resistance movements and alternative forms of living from a gendered perspective.
Across the 3 months of the programme (14 September – 15 December 2019), Arnolfini presented an array of work that examined intersectional experiences and thinking, different approaches to feminisms, and placed activism and community organisation in conversation with contemporary arts practice, dismantling the boundaries between where possible.
The public programme began with DAYLIFE/NIGHTLIFE – a day and night of activity foregrounding the experiences of trans WoC/PoC – with a film screening of Troy James Aidoo‘s 1500 & Counting; a workshop for Bristol community organisers led by Kayza Rose & Campbell X; a performance of My Last American Dollar, by Keijaun Thomas (nominated for the ANTI Live Art Prize 2019); and DJs Devolicious & Ngaio from Bristol’s WoC-led Booty Bass party.
Over the three following months of Still I Rise, we presented:
- A weekly screening programme, with work by Ayo Akingbade, Cigdem Aydemir, Club Ate (Justin Shoulder & Bhenji Ra), Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, Bryony Gillard, Sophie Hoyle, Carlos Motta, Laura Phillips, Lis Rhodes, Victoria Sin & Sophia Al-Maria, Tanya Syed, Tourmaline & Sasha Wortzel, Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca
- Young In Hong’s Let Us Dance; a pop-up performance occupation of the gallery spaces by young female street dancers (featuring performers from local collectives HYPE, Rise Youth Dance, and BS13/Storm – project managed by Trinity Arts Centre)
- Performance work by Erin Markey, Cigdem Aydemir (co-presented with In Between Time); Laura Murphy (co-presented by Circus City Festival); S. Bear Bergman, Angela Goh, and Split Britches
- Albert Potrony’s A 24 Hour Truce – a conversation and performance incorporating contribution by the public, reflecting on the history of feminist men’s collectives in Bristol
- A spoken word & poetry workshop with Mojdeh Stoakley, followed by an evening of spoken word (Travis Alabanza, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan and Birdspeed, hosted by Bristol’s inimitable City Poet Vanessa Kisuule) presented by Raise The Bar
- Family workshops and performance by Feminist Archive South & Drag Queen Story Time
- Workshop/conversations led by UWE Design students; local collective Labour Behind the Label; and Bristol’s Order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
- New writing and exhibition tours by Writer in Residence Melissa Chemam, highly regarded journalist and author.
Public programme curated by Kieran Swann, with Letty Clarke, Ayan Cilmi, Phil Owen, and Michael Tew.
KIERAN SWANN 