iniva, Short Supply & Proforma are pleased to announce the debut public performance of ‘Rehearsal Methods’ by Jade Montserrat, originally performed on Zoom in 2021. The original performance score was created for Manchester Art Gallery as part of Jade’s Future Collect Commission Constellations: Care & Resistance (5 November 2020 – 29 January 2023)
The performance incorporates synchronised breathing, charcoal drawing installation, and a chorus, in an attempt to access mind and body in union.
In St Peter’s Square, a historical Mancunian site of decision making, political activism and protest, we invite you to share space, time and generosity with artists, performers and thinkers. Please come and enjoy this moment with us as we collectively interpret the performance score ‘Rehearsal Methods’, and become part of an ever evolving constellation of care and resistance.
Jade Montserrat was the recipient of the Stuart Hall Foundation Scholarship supporting her PhD (via MPhil) at IBAR, UCLan, and the development of her work from her Black diasporic perspective in the North of England. Jade works through performance, drawing, painting, film, installation, sculpture, print and text.
Ella Otomewo (she/her) is a poet and performer based in Manchester. She writes for both page and stage, facilitates creative workshops, and has performed all over the UK and in Europe. Her most recent collaborations have been with Lancaster Arts, Quarantine, Young Identity, the Portico Library, The World Reimagined, and Contact Theatre. In her latest live art project, Ella is exploring the human relationship to water through storytelling. The process is multidisciplinary and collaborative; using puppetry, poetry, task-based performance, and sensory theatre.
mandla rae (name in place of English pronouns) is a writer and performer from Zimbabwe, raised in London and now based in Manchester. mandla’s first solo show, as british as a watermelon, premiered at Contact Theatre in October 2021 and is currently touring the UK. In May 2022, the show was at Bristol Old Vic with Mayfest and it had its Scottish premier at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2022.
mandla’s writing has been published in Gay Times, Nov 2020 issue and New Landscapes Anthology 2019 from Ohio based Lungs Project.
Princess Arinola Adegbite or “P. A. Bitez” (she/her) is a Jamaican-born Nigerian poet, songwriter, filmmaker, and student based in Manchester. Born in 2000 Bitez has appeared in the Young Writers Anthologies and has received multiple Young Writers Awards. In 2017 she won Slambassadors, a national poetry competition and published her debut poetry collection ‘Soft Tortures’ which deals with heartbreak, loss, existence and mental illness from an adolescent point of view. In 2020, she was one of six finalists of BBC Words First 2020, a talent scheme searching for the Best Spoken Word Poets in the UK. She is a member of Young Identity.
This event is free to attend and unticketed. All are welcome to gather.
We encourage photography and filming, so please bring your cameras, mobile phones or any other means of documenting your experience. As an audience member, you will be invited to share your documentation as part of a film which will be exhibited at Manchester Art Gallery in 2023. Additionally, we will be gathering live documentation from social media, so please tag this at #WhereWeGather2023 if you’d like your content to be included in the film.