Everyman Connects

Everyman

Sat 30 Apr 2022

This is a past production

A day of art, food and conversation about how our cultural spaces can DO MORE and BE MORE for the Global Majority.

The day will be centred around a Panel Discussion asking the central question, “how can our cultural spaces be more and do more for us?”

Panel Guests include Kim Johnson MP, Chantelle Lunt, Paislie Reid, Keith Saha, Naomi Sumner Chan and will be hosted by Dominique Walker from the Anthony Walker Foundation.

The panel discussion will be followed with a prompt to Global Majority audiences to spend some time writing a letter to the theatres expressing how the Everyman can be “the space you need it to be”.

Our Street Café will be transformed into a Market Place for Global Majority led arts organisations and businesses, with food and performances throughout the day.

There will be performances by Felix Mufti, Ni Maxine, DJ Hannah Lynch, and an open mic jam lead by 20 Stories High.

With organisations including Pagoda Arts, Milapfest, Falling Doors Theatre, Anthony Walker Foundation, Sumayya, Ray Rayz, Deserts by Dre and Little Green Juice Box.

The event is free but booking required

Approximate timings:
12-2pm // Market stalls, lunch and DJ
2pm // Performances
3pm // Break
3.15pm // Panel Talk
4.30pm // Letter writing
5-6pm // Post show Jam hosted by 20 Stories High

The day has been created in response to My White Best Friend North, which took place at the Everyman in October 2021. Based on the original concept by Rachel De-Lahay, a series of personal letters by writers of colour from Liverpool explored the personal and political of the things we don’t dare say. The letters were written and sealed, opened and read by actors live for the first time on the night. One of the letters, written by Keith Saha and read by Maxine Peake will be shared again on the day.

Everyman Connects continues the theatres’ journey of ongoing change as part of their Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

With thanks to Sumuyya Khader for the illustration, part of an original commission in 2020.

Panel Talk, guests include Kim Johnson MP, Chantelle Lunt, Paislie Reid, Keith Saha, Naomi Sumner Chan and will be hosted by Dominique Walker from the Anthony Walker Foundation.

BIOGRAPHIES

Kim Johnson, born, brought up in and still living in the constituency, Kim Johnson was elected as MP for Liverpool Riverside in the 2019 election, the first Black MP for the city with the oldest Black community in Europe. With a background in trade union activism, Kim was a shop steward and had served as Vice-Chair of UNISON's National Black Members Committee and also the Regional Black Members Committee. Now in Parliament she sits on the Education Select Committee and the Women & Equalities Committee, where she seeks to raise and address issues of institutional racism across our society, including in regards to employment, training and educational equality. She is also a member of a number of APPGs, including Race & Education, Vice-Chair of Palestine & Middle East, Apprenticeships, Chair of Liverpool City Region.

Kim Johnson

Paislie Reid is a multi-disciplinary artist, starting her career as an actress in "I'm a juvenile delinquent jail me" she went on to feature in 2 seasons of CITV series The New Worst Witch as a main character. Paislie has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Frantic Assembly, Open Clasp, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, 20 stories high, Action transport and Contact theatre. A Black mixed, neurodiverse artist, making the arts more accessible is her activism. Paislie was a youth worker for 6 years with Liverpool city council, engaging young people in politics and art and continues this work through her art. Her mission is to empower, inspire and create more opportunities for marginalised young people.

Paislie Reid

Chantelle Lunt is a writer, presenter, public speaker, educator, entrepreneur, and activist. Chantelle is an advocate of racial equality and is the founder of Merseyside BLM Alliance and the Chair of Merseyside Alliance for Racial Equality CIC (MARE).

Chantelle Lunt

Keith Saha is Co-CEO/Artistic Director of 20 Stories High Theatre Company based in Liverpool. He is passionate about making theatre with and for culturally diverse and working-class young people. At weekends he can be found geeking out on vintage video games, seeking out Vietnamese food and hugging trees.

Keith Saha

Naomi Summer Chan is a Manchester based playwright and dramaturg fuelled by salt and vinegar crisps and mugs of tea. Naomi’s work has been performed at theatres across the North of England and in London including Liverpool Playhouse, York Theatre Royal, Oldham Coliseum, Arcola Theatre and Theatre 503. She leads new writing company Brush Stroke Order, working with artists to develop text based work for live performance. Her play DOLLARS AND SENSE was shortlisted for The Womens Playwriting Prize 2021. Recent projects include 10,00 Heartbeats a dramatized audio tour of Liverpool Chinatown working with Tamasha and Coney, MY WHITE BEST FRIEND NORTH and writing a short play about her hometown of Barnard Castle, made infamous by Dominic Cummings for Radio 4's United Kingdoms series. She is currently under commission with the Bush Theatre.

Naomi Sumner Chan

Performances

Felix Mufti is a scouse activist, performer and writer. His work focuses on telling real life stories unapologetically, truthfully and queerly. They are signed with The Queerhouse London and he co-founded Transcend Theatre company, an all queer stage and outreach CIC focusing on education and community empowerment - through methods of satire mixed with brutal reality. He is also a co-founder of Liverpool’s Reclaim Pride and organizer of Liverpool’s Transgender Day of Remembrance. They are also involved in the nightlife scene, being a regular performer at Eat Me and The Royal Vauxhall Tavern’s Bar Wotever.’

Felix Mufti

Ni Maxine is a Neo-Jazz Singer-Songwriter; a black woman navigating the modern world and exploring themes of home, identity, self-esteem and belonging. Born in North London and raised in Bristol, Ni Maxine moved to Liverpool in 2019, but her connection to the city runs deep with both of her parents raised in the Merseyside area; “I belong here,” she says. “My family came here from Nigeria, and the Caribbean and now I’m here and everything is falling into place.” Maxine’s childhood was steeped in the deep cultural reference points of black history. She recalls her father’s love of jazz, her mother’s love of funk and rare groove, as well as her Sunday mornings in a gospel church, where she first learned to sing. Her message is clear; “I want to inspire young people who are having (or had) a similar experience to what I had, growing up, and culCvate community. The algorithm divides us, but we are more powerful when we are united.” With sold-out shows at The Athenaeum and The Music Room at The Philharmonic this year, Ni Maxine is one to watch!

Ni Maxine

Hannah Lynch is a founding member of Girls Don’t Sync, a female only DJ collective.