Musical, joyful, live performance
A HOME Commission
Don’t Touch My Hair is a five-minute flashback to one of the finest moments from Hot Brown Honey, the extraordinary stageshow created by director Lisa Fa’alafi and musical director Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers, blending together clips from performances across the world to create a defiant musical blast that’s equal parts social activism and earworm and entirely what the world needs right now.
In pre-Covid times, Hot Brown Honey took the world by storm. Coming straight out of stolen land Australia, this extraordinary production spun tradition on its head going above and beyond to challenge boundaries and embrace resilience. The show smashed stereotypes in an unapologetic celebration of our similarities and differences.
Written by Lisa Fa’alafi and Busty Beatz
Performed by Hot Brown Honey
Hot Brown Honey have a message for you:
‘Here we are in the new normal. It comes with great sadness that we are unable to make noise with all of you at our shows around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Artists from Global First Nations, as Black and Brown Women, as Women of Colour it is clear that we are in vulnerable positions.
This has been a time of uncertainty.
A time of great change.
A time of process.
A time of Action.
A time for Justice.
A time to Mobilise.
A time where Radical Fierce Love is the core of every decision we make, no matter how big or small.
We have a responsibility to keep on keeping on. So we don’t stop! We keep creating and keep connecting. This is our world Mother Lovers. This is how we do it.
Don’t touch our hair. Don’t pay us less. Don’t steal our land. We said it. You’ll regret it.’
“This is both a call to arms and a declaration of a new era of activism. Hot Brown Honey sounds, looks and feels like the revolution we so urgently need” Gayatri Gopinath – Associate Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis – New York City
Credits
Filmed by
Optikal Bloc at Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts Brisbane AUS
Unceded territories of the Turrbal & Jagera Peoples
Leo Flander at Southbank Centre London UK
Phoenix Eye at Home of the Arts, Gold Coast AUS
Unceded territories of the Yugambeh People
Live Audio Recording by Kyra Soko at The Cultch, Vancouver Canada
Unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples – Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations
Edited by Optikal Bloc
Pricing
Tickets are available as ‘Pay What You Can’ – the suggested price for this event is £5 but there are a range of ticket prices so you can choose what you can afford from the options, including £0, as we want as many people as possible to access our Homemakers commissions.
We’ve also included a higher option for anyone who wants to take the opportunity to make a larger donation to our artists and organisations. How much you choose to pay is completely up to you, and every audience member will receive exactly the same content and experience.
All the money raised from ticket sales for this event will be split evenly with 50% going directly to the artist and 50% to HOME’s response fund to allow HOME to continue to support future artists and commissions.
Homemakers Project Overview
Homemakers is a series of new commissions, where we invite our favourite artists and artistic partners to combine to create work at home, for an audience who are also at home.
We’re not pretending that all art can be experienced online just as satisfactorily as in person; but we want to demonstrate the innovation of artists who work all kinds of forms, by inviting them to respond to this very specific context. We want to bring contemporary new performance to audiences all over the world, in all its form-flexing, mind-expanding, surprising subversive brilliance.
About Hot Brown Honey
Hot Brown Honey is a stereotype-crushing alt-cabaret concoction starring First Nation femmes from all variety of backgrounds.
Equal parts theatrical masterpiece and social activism, a stellar posse of phenomenal women smash stereotypes in an unapologetic celebration of our similarities and difference. Delivering lashings of sass and a hot pinch of empowerment, packing a potent punch with hip hop politics, the Honeys will make you laugh until you cry, clap until your hands bleed and shake every part of what your mama gave you!
HOT BROWN HONEY
Fighting The Power Never Tasted So Sweet
Created & Written by Lisa Fa’alafi & Busty Beatz
Directed by Lisa Fa’alafi Music Direction by Busty Beatz Technical Direction by Paul Lim
Produced by Quiet RIOT Executive Linda Catalano Associate Lucy Day in partnership with Kim Bowers & Lisa Fa’alafi
STARRING
Lisa Fa’alafi aka the Game Changer
Kalala Sione aka The Love Liberator
Hope Haami aka Hope One The Beatboxer
Juanita Duncan aka The Truthsayer
Ofa Fotu aka The Mythslayer
Elena Wangurra aka The Soul Soother
Crystal Stacey aka The Peace Maker
Yami Löfvenberg aka The Trailblazer
Ghenoa Gela aka The Ground Breaker
Cody Raymond aka The Shape Shifter
Busty Beatz aka The Queen Bee
Featuring the Voices of Aunty Nancy Bamaga as The Mother
and Rhianna Patrick in The Privilege Test
Production Design Lisa Fa’alafi Lighting Design Paul Lim
Original Composition Busty Beatz, Ofa Fotu, Hope Haami & Lisa Fa’alafi
Costume Design Lisa Fa’alafi & Colleen Sutherland
Choreography Lisa Fa’alafi. Additional Choreography Samantha Williams
Sound Design Busty Beatz Set Design Tristan Shelly
Technical Management ADDITIVE Production Manager Jake Jobling Company Manager Colleen Sutherland
Based on the original concept & script ‘Hot Brown Honey Burlesque’ by Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers, Lisa Fa’alafi & Candy Bowers