Headfirst Editor's Pick
"Poetry in motion: a profound meditation on ancestry, selfhood, and the limits of language from multi-award-winning writer and artist Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa. Her transcendental debut collection ‘Cane, Corn and Gully’ comes to life on the Arnolfini stage, tracing the unwritten histories of Black Barbadian women through movement and spoken word."
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A event held at Arnolfini on Saturday 3rd May. The event starts at 16:00.
Cane, Corn & Gully (Choreography 121)
by Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa
Date: May 3rd 2025
Venue: Arnolfini
Time: 16:00 - 17:15
Tickets: £8 (£10 solidarity, £5 concessions)
In this live-literature solo performance, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa brings Cane, Corn & Gully to the stage weaving the dances and stories of Black Barbadian women. Haunted by her ancestral memory, the author accidentally discovers a way to speak to the women erased from history through dance, but now they won’t stop talking. Determined to learn the story of one brave girl who was forbidden to speak, the author dares to dance the sacred, the forbidden, and the ghost train.
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa:
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa is a pioneering choreopoet and ethnochoreologist. Her interdisciplinary artistry braids dance, poetry, social commentary and visual art on the page and stage. In the early stages of her career Safiya’s vibrant performance style and exploration of Black British/ Caribbean history led to her winning multiple spoken word awards. Safiya then elevated her practice by developing dance notation to document Afro-diasporic dance and bridge poetry and dance form. Her debut poetry collection Cane, Corn & Gully, which explores the lives of enslaved Black Barbadian women and their descendants, became the first book to feature dance notation of the enslaved and her style of notation. Cane, Corn & Gully was shortlisted for the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize and Felix Dennis Forward Prize for best first collection. A copy of the collection resides at the National Museum of Barbados, it also won the 2023 Barbados’ People’s Choice Awards for best book. Safiya is a member of the Obsidian Foundation and is currently a PhD student in cultural studies.
Part of Lyra – Bristol Poetry Festival 2025
#LyraFest
Entry requirements: 14+, any under 18s accompanied by 21+ adult 1:1 ratio
by Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa
Date: May 3rd 2025
Venue: Arnolfini
Time: 16:00 - 17:15
Tickets: £8 (£10 solidarity, £5 concessions)
In this live-literature solo performance, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa brings Cane, Corn & Gully to the stage weaving the dances and stories of Black Barbadian women. Haunted by her ancestral memory, the author accidentally discovers a way to speak to the women erased from history through dance, but now they won’t stop talking. Determined to learn the story of one brave girl who was forbidden to speak, the author dares to dance the sacred, the forbidden, and the ghost train.
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa:
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa is a pioneering choreopoet and ethnochoreologist. Her interdisciplinary artistry braids dance, poetry, social commentary and visual art on the page and stage. In the early stages of her career Safiya’s vibrant performance style and exploration of Black British/ Caribbean history led to her winning multiple spoken word awards. Safiya then elevated her practice by developing dance notation to document Afro-diasporic dance and bridge poetry and dance form. Her debut poetry collection Cane, Corn & Gully, which explores the lives of enslaved Black Barbadian women and their descendants, became the first book to feature dance notation of the enslaved and her style of notation. Cane, Corn & Gully was shortlisted for the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize and Felix Dennis Forward Prize for best first collection. A copy of the collection resides at the National Museum of Barbados, it also won the 2023 Barbados’ People’s Choice Awards for best book. Safiya is a member of the Obsidian Foundation and is currently a PhD student in cultural studies.
Part of Lyra – Bristol Poetry Festival 2025
#LyraFest
Entry requirements: 14+, any under 18s accompanied by 21+ adult 1:1 ratio
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