DIG 21: Heather Agyepong | The Body Remembers (SOLD OUT)
PLEASE NOTE this event is now sold out
Presented by Fuel
Created and Performed by Heather Agyepong
Friday 15 October, 7.30pm
“To give love to our inner selves we must first give attention, recognition and acceptance. Having let ourselves know that we will not be punished for acknowledging who we are or what we feel, we can name the problems we see.”
Bell Hooks, author of Sisters of the Yam: Black Women & Self Recovery
The body is an archive. It remembers everything – even the things that the head forgets.
Heather Agyepong’s powerful new solo performance The Body Remembers explores how trauma lives in the body, particularly for Black British women across different generations. Through a unique and compelling relationship between the audience and artist, it creates a collective cathartic experience.
Created & performed by multidisciplinary artist & actor Heather Agyepong, The Body Remembers features interviews of Black British women in trauma recovery. The performance is inspired by the therapeutic practice of Authentic Movement with Agyepong as The Mover and the audience as The Witness. Featuring dynamic projections and an immersive soundscape which help the audience to re-discover the power of self-reflection as the start of recovery and healing. Co-created by Imogen Knight (movement) and Gail Babb (dramaturgy), The Body Remembers creates a space for audience and artist to attend to themselves and each other.
After the performance, Fuel will host two online Theatre Clubs and would like to invite all audience members to attend these as an opportunity to discuss the show and its themes. These events are free and audience members will need a zoom account to join in.
Theatre Club 1 will take place on 29 October 2021 at 9 PM and it will be for Black women only. Please use this Link to book. There's a capacity of 40 people.
Theatre Club 2 will take place on 4 November 2021 at 7.45 PM and it will be open to all audience members. Please this Link to book. There's a capacity of 40 people.
For more information and enquiries please contact belisa@fueltheatre.com
Access
Wheelchair spaces are available to book for this show.
The show is captioned.
All performances will be Relaxed: We invite you to make yourself comfortable and if you need to leave the performance at any point you will be allowed to return to the space when you feel ready.
Audience Notes
During the performance there will be:
- discussion of trauma/PTSD in relation to Black women’s experiences
- physical exploration of trauma (and release)
- video projections on three screens, but no strobe lighting.
Recommended for ages 16+
Photo by Myah Jeffers
About Fuel
Fuel leads the field in independent producing in the UK’s live performance sector.
'Since our story began in 2004, we have produced over 143 shows, 7 festivals, 4 films, 36 podcasts, an app, and three books. We have achieved this with the support of more than 107 artists and companies and our work has been experienced by more than 700,000 live audience members, 660,000 online audiences, and 8,750 participants.
We work with brilliant artists to enable them to share their artistic vision. We develop and present an adventurous, playful, and significant programme of live, digital, and multi-disciplinary work for a representative audience across the UK and beyond. Our mission is to produce art that exposes our fears, reveals our hopes, and empowers us to change what needs to be changed.'
About Heather Agyepong
Heather Agyepong is a visual artist, performer/actor and maker who lives and works in London. Her art practice is concerned with mental health and wellbeing, invisibility, the diaspora and the archive. She uses both lens-based practices and performance with an aim to culminate a cathartic experience for both myself and the viewer. She adopts the technique of re-imagination to engage with communities of interest and the self as a central focus within the image.
She has worked within photographic & performance arts since 2009 with a range of works that have been published, performed and exhibited around the UK and internationally.
She has been nominated for Prix Pictet & Paul Huf Award in both 2016, 2018 & 2021. Her work exists in a number of collections including Autograph ABP, Hyman Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art and Mead Art Museum.
She has been commissioned by a number of organisations including the Mayor of London, Photoworks, Artichoke & Tate Exchange.
In her television/film and theatre work, she is drawn to challenging and compelling writing with an intrigue for unique voices. She has previously been an associate artist of black led theatre company Talawa and continue to perform both nationally & internationally.
Heather was nominated for the South Bank Sky Arts Breakthrough Award 2018, awarded the Firecracker Photographic Grant 2020 and was recently selected as part of Foam Talent 2021.
Credits
Created and performed by Heather Agyepong
Dramaturg and Co-Creator Gail Babb
Movement Director and Co-Creator Imogen Knight
Video Designer Gillian Tan
Sound Designer Donato Wharton
Associate Sound Designer Raffaela Pancucci
Stage Managers Tanya Stephenson and Stella Kailides
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist Dawn Estefan