A Discussion Panel live on Zoom
In 2018 60.9% of school-aged children in Manchester were Black, Brown, or Chinese. Considering the future of Manchester is Minority/Majority, how is that reflected in the way the city is run? Where is the representation in leadership roles?
Join Cheryl Martin and special guests in an open discussion about the importance of claiming Black spaces and exploring Black organisations and spaces in Manchester. Contribute to change-making conversations around the future of Manchester as we explore representation, Black history and identity in Manchester.
Participants are welcome to submit their questions in advance using #BlackSpaceMcr via direct message on Twitter @HOME_mcr or Instagram @homemcr.
About the host:
Cheryl Martin, Co-Artistic Director of Manchester’s Black Gold Arts Festival, has worked as a poet, playwright and director, and was a former Associate Director, New Writing/New Work at Contact and Director-in-Residence at Edinburgh’s Traverse. She was also lucky enough be part of the 2019-2020 British Council Australia INTERSECT programme.
A Manchester Evening News Theatre Award winner as both writer (musical Heart and Soul, Oldham Coliseum Theatre) and director (Iron by Rona Munro, Contact), Cheryl co-produced and directed an Edinburgh Fringe First winner for the Traverse (The World Is Too Much).
Cheryl’s first solo stage show Alaska featured at 2016’s A Nation’s Theatre, and 2019’s Summerhall Edinburgh Fringe and Wellcome Festival of Minds and Bodies in London.
Her new solo show One Woman won an Unlimited Wellcome Collection Partnership Award, premiering in 2021 at Manchester’s HOME, going on to a national tour including the Unlimited Festival at the Southbank Centre.
The panel guests:
Dr Priscilla Nkwenti is the Chief Executive Officer for BHA for Equality – a leading third sector organisation tackling inequalities in health and social care and promoting equality for Black Minority and other disadvantaged/ marginalised population groups across Greater Manchester, Yorkshire and Humber. She works closely with public sector bodies and continuously lobbies them to change the inequitable and inaccessible ways in which services are being commissioned and provided.
Lisa Davenport, Head of Moss side Millennium Powerhouse Charity for Young People, has worked as a connector of services for young people across Manchester. She’s previously worked in Wythenshawe in Community Investment Managing Centres, Events, Catering, Volunteers, Youth and Play, and Business Enterprise. Lisa has a passion for people and inspiring their futures.
Toni-Dee is an independent artist based in Manchester. Her current body of work explores otherness around race, disability and queerness. She has been commissioned by Fuel Theatre for The New Theatre In Your Neighbourhood project, been a contributing story group writer for climate justice project Hello X, created performance as public intervention, and presented works in SICK Festival, Queer Migrant Takeover, Queerly Departed and Works Ahead. Currently, she’s working on ‘Doze’ a project exploring rest as resistance.