In partnership with Dundee University Students Association (DUSA), we’re excited to bring you this series of live readings at venues across Dundee!
Across the month of October, four writers – Nichelle Santagata, Clementine E. Burnley, May Sumbwanyambe, and T. L. Huchu – will be sharing their work and leading workshops as part of DUSA’s Black History Month: Connecting Communities. These events are presented as a reflection of DUSA’s effort to build a kinder, greener and more diverse global student community that creates a lasting impact for generations to come.
Each event will be free, and will take place in person at a different venue in the city of Dundee.
Tickets
Where to book: Tickets are available from Eventbrite.
Cost: Free.
Other info: Covid safety protocols will be in effect at all venues.
Speakers
Nichelle Santagata is a non-fiction and fiction prose and poetry writer, hip hop and contemporary dancer, movement artist, photographer, sound artist, filmmaker, and illustrator from so-called Arizona, United States. Nichelle is currently based in Scotland attending University of Glasgow where she is pursuing her PhD in Sociology focusing on Black women’s mental health and healing using arts-based methods and autoethnography.
Nichelle graduated Arizona State University with her Master of Liberal Studies and Bachelor of Arts in English Literature with a minor in Film & Media Studies while also studying dance and music. She also earned her Postgraduate Certificate in Comparative Literatures and Cultures from University of Bristol.
Nichelle continues to encourage herself and more people to delve into different worlds. She works to help share powerful knowledge and voices from around the World to celebrate our differences and similarities. Nichelle tries to live an unfettered life while taking pride in understanding a range of social, political, and economic issues amongst an abundance of cultures while living and visiting various places around the world.
Clementine E Burnley is a feminist migrant mother, writer and community organiser who lives in Edinburgh. Her work has appeared in Parabola Magazine, the National Flash Fiction Anthology and The Centifictionist. She’s an alumnus of Obsidian Foundation and a 2021 Edwin Morgan Second Life Grantee. She has recently won the Sky Arts RSL Writers award for non-fiction.
May Sumbwanyambe is a librettist, radio dramatist, academic and award winning playwright from Edinburgh.
Previous productions include;
Ghost Light, (Edinburgh International Festival and National Theatre of Scotland), Joseph Knight, (BBC Scotland, National Theatre of Scotland) After Independence (Arcola Theatre, Papatango Theatre) The Parrot House (Guildhall School of Music and Drama) ‘After Independence’ and ‘The Trial of Joseph Knight (BBC Radio 4).
He is currently writing new stage plays for The National Theatre of Scotland and the Citizens theatre, both about the historical visibility of Black peoples in Scotland. He is also developing a new TV Series for Two Rivers Media and the BBC. His last stage play, which the Evening standard called “A notable debut play” and the times called “A debut of astonishing maturity” also saw him described by The Times as “a rare discovery” and The Telegraph as “a writer of terrific potential.”.
In 2016 May’s debut play was the winner of the Alfred Fagon Audience Award. He was the inaugural Papatango Resident Playwright and winner of the £10k BBC Performing Arts Opera Fellowship. Other award recognition includes being shortlisted for the Channel 4/Oran Mor Comedy Drama Award (2012), the Papatango New Writing Prize (2012), the Alfred Fagon Award (2011, 2012, 2015), the BBC’S Alfred Bradley Award (2011) and OffWestEnd’s Adopt a Playwright Award (2010 and 2009), The Old Vic 12 award (2016) Perfect Pitch £12k musical award (2016), IASH/Traverse Fellowship (2017,2018), Live Theatre/Northumbria University Writer in Residence (2018) and The Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship (2018). He also reached the final round of Soho Theatre’s Verity Bargate Award (2011) and won the BBC’s inaugural Scriptroom competition (2012).
Beyond creative writing, May is a lecturer at Northumbria University and is currently writing his PhD, ‘A Practice-Based Investigation into writing Post-Black History Plays’, at University of York.
T. L. Huchu has been published previously (as Tendai Huchu) in the adult market, but ‘The Library of the Dead’ is his genre fiction debut.
His previous books (‘The Hairdresser of Harare’ and ‘The Maestro, The Magistrate and the Mathematician’) have been translated into multiple languages and his short fiction has won awards.
Tendai grew in up Zimbabwe but he has lived in Edinburgh for most of his adult life.
Chair
Eilidh Akilade is a Glasgow based English Literature student. She has written for publications such as gal-dem, The Skinny, and Bella Caledonia. Her writing covers a range of topics, primarily culture, intersectional feminism, and race.
