Keynote Speakers and Panellists Biographies

Topher Campbell is a director of film, television and theatre. He has directed plays at numerous theatres across the UK including West Yorkshire Playhouse, Young Vic, London, Derby Playhouse, Contact Theatre, Manchester, Talawa Theatre, London and Leicester Haymarket.. As Diversity Director/producer for BBC Radio Drama he established the Norman Beaton Fellowship.

For television he has directed Doctors and EastEnders.

In 2000 alongside artist/photographer Ajamu he set up rukus! Federation Ltd (www.rukus.co.uk).  A company dedicated to presenting the best in work by Black Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual, Transgender (BLGBT) artists. rukus!  Current projects include the Play Mangina Monologues and the UK’s first and only BLGBT Archive now housed at the London Metropolitan Archive. In 2008 rukus! received the Archive Landmark Award by London Metropolitan Archive.

His short films The Homecoming and Mulatto Song have been shown worldwide. IN THIS OUR LIVES Topher’s first documentary feature premiered at the London Lesbian and Gay film Festival in 2009.

As writer Topher has written articles for Sable, AXM Magazine, Gay Times, Attitude Magazine and The Guardian on Black Gay contemporary life and history. He has also been featured in the Guardian, the Stage, Gay Times, Broadcast,  Attitude Magazine and QX Magazine. Also Topher is a recipient of the 2005 Jerwood Directors Award.

He is a regular contributor to The Guardian Newspaper.

Between 2006-08 Topher was a Programmer for the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and is currently artistic director of THE RED ROOM theatre and film company. (www.theredroom.org.uk ) For the Red Room he has directed four productions: Journeys to work; the acclaimed multi-media production UNSTATED written by Fin Kennedy,  Oikos and Protozoa for the Oikos Project.

The Jellyfish Theatre, part of the Oikos project has been nominated by What’s On Stage for the AKA Theatre Event of The Year Award 2010. It was awarded the Small projects Award 2011 by Architecture Journal.

Mojisola Adebayo collaborates with international artists from various disciplines to create accessible, inclusive, interactive, multi-sensory, and physical storytelling theatre performances and workshops. Mojisola’s productions arise from her own new writing and are expressed within a broadly African aesthetic. All of her work is concerned with power, identity, and change.

 

David Tse Ka-shing read Law before turning to the arts. He is committed to developing the British East Asian (BEA) arts sector, to improve greater intercultural understanding.

He studied Beijing Opera movement with Lee Siu Wah and during M. Butterfly with Jamie Guan. Inspired by East Asian physical style, he became Artistic Director of Yellow Earth Theatre (www.yellowearth.org), where for 13 years, he led the company to become the UK’s only revenue-funded British East Asian touring theatre. In 2009, David embarked on a freelance career as a writer, director, actor, arts consultant and filmmaker. He was actor and Casting Advisor to the BBC for a major new BEA children’s TV series, Spirit Warriors. He wrote/directed a new version of the Chinese classic, White Snake, at E15 drama school and co-wrote/directed Piccadilly Revisited at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House (2010), revived for City Hall Theatre, HK Arts Festival (2011) and MOMA in Beijing for the UK NOW festival (2012). David was appointed the first p/t Creative Director of Chinatown Arts Space (CAS) in 2006.

CAS produced the groundbreaking Five Circles Arts Festival in 2008 and supports the development of BEA arts (www.chinatownartsspace.com). He has programmed Mandarin rappers from Beijing; Chinese contemporary dance from Guangdong; new British Chinese music commissions; public artworks for Chinatown; and a multi-media piece using film, music, video, drama and dance exploring the life of Anna May Wong. CAS was awarded one of the New Music 20×12 commissions from PRSF for the Cultural Olympiad in 2012. CAS will also commission a leading East Asian artist for a new contemporary sculpture in the West End, Sustain.

Nadia Davids is a South African writer. She has published and produced work in Southern Africa, Europe and North America; two of her play- texts, ‘At Her Feet’ and ‘Cissie’, are studied at a wide-range of universities including UCT, UWC, Stanford, UCLA and SOAS. Her theatre work was been nominated for five Fleur de Caps, two Naledis and one Noma Award. She was a finalist in the 2007 and 2009 PEN/Studzinski Literary Award.  She held an A.W. Mellon Fellowship between 2000-2005 and was a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley in 2001 and at New York University between 2004-2005. She is currently lecturing at Queen Mary, University of London.

David Tse Ka-shing read Law before turning to the arts. He is committed to developing the British East Asian (BEA) arts sector, to improve greater intercultural understanding.

He studied Beijing Opera movement with Lee Siu Wah and during M. Butterfly with Jamie Guan. Inspired by East Asian physical style, he became Artistic Director of Yellow Earth Theatre (www.yellowearth.org), where for 13 years, he led the company to become the UK’s only revenue-funded British East Asian touring theatre. In 2009, David embarked on a freelance career as a writer, director, actor, arts consultant and filmmaker. He was actor and Casting Advisor to the BBC for a major new BEA children’s TV series, Spirit Warriors. He wrote/directed a new version of the Chinese classic, White Snake, at E15 drama school and co-wrote/directed Piccadilly Revisited at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House (2010), revived for City Hall Theatre, HK Arts Festival (2011) and MOMA in Beijing for the UK NOW festival (2012). David was appointed the first p/t Creative Director of Chinatown Arts Space (CAS) in 2006.

CAS produced the groundbreaking Five Circles Arts Festival in 2008 and supports the development of BEA arts (www.chinatownartsspace.com). He has programmed Mandarin rappers from Beijing; Chinese contemporary dance from Guangdong; new British Chinese music commissions; public artworks for Chinatown; and a multi-media piece using film, music, video, drama and dance exploring the life of Anna May Wong. CAS was awarded one of the New Music 20×12 commissions from PRSF for the Cultural Olympiad in 2012. CAS will also commission a leading East Asian artist for a new contemporary sculpture in the West End, Sustain.

 

Kwame Kwei-Armah is an award-winning British playwright, director, actor, and broadcaster. Kwei-Armah’s plays include Seize the Day, A Bitter Herb, Blues Brother Soul Sister, Big Nose, and his triptych of plays chronicling the struggles of the British African-Caribbean community in London—Elmina’s Kitchen, Fix up, and Statement of Regret—which each premiered at the National Theatre between 2003- 2007. With Elmina’s Kitchen he became the first Black Briton to have a play produced in London’s West End; Elmina’s Kitchen and Let There be Love each had their American debuts at CENTERSTAGE. He wrote the 2010 teleplay, Walter’s War, about the first Black commissioned officer to lead British troops during WW I; has made numerous contributions to The Guardian and other leading papers in London; and has served as presenter in documentaries and culture programs. As an actor, Kwei-Armah appeared in the British TV medical drama Casualty, followed by a recurring role on its sister series, Holby City, as well as appearances on numerous other hit shows in Britain.

He has been named a Writer-in-Residence at the Bristol Old Vic and for BBC Radio drama, an Associate Artist and board member at the National Theatre of Great Britain and London’s Tricycle Theatre, as well as being named an Associate Artist at CENTERSTAGE, where he made his directing debut with Naomi Wallace’s Things of Dry Hours. Since then he has directed the Pulitzer nominated playwright Esa Davis’s 10-minute play Dave Chappelle was Right for the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, and two successful productions of his play Let There Be Love at the Tricycle Theatre London. Kwei-Armah has been named the Goodwill ambassador for Trade for Christian Aid; Chancellor of University of the Arts London; and served as Artistic Director for the World Arts Festival in Senegal, a month-long World Festival of Black Arts and Culture.

Funmi Adewole Kruczkowska is a dance researcher, lecturer, and arts practitioner. She worked in the Nigerian Media before moving to England in 1994. Her performance credits include tours with Adzido Pan-African dance ensemble, Banner theatre and The Chomondeleys. She co-edited Voicing Black Dance: The British Experience (2007) and was chair of the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD) from 2005 to 2007. She holds an M.A in Post-colonial studies from Goldsmiths College, London. She is a PhD candidate in Dance at De Montefort University, Leicester and an associate artist with Numbi.

Funmi Adewole Kruczkowska is a dance researcher, lecturer, and arts practitioner. She worked in the Nigerian Media before moving to England in 1994. Her performance credits include tours with Adzido Pan-African dance ensemble, Banner theatre and The Chomondeleys. She co-edited Voicing Black Dance: The British Experience (2007) and was chair of the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD) from 2005 to 2007. She holds an M.A in Post-colonial studies from Goldsmiths College, London. She is a PhD candidate in Dance at De Montefort University, Leicester and an associate artist with Numbi.

Over the last 30 years, Ekua Bayunu has been quietly accumulating a wealth of experience and skills across the arts after studying for a BA Fine Art ( Sculpture).

She worked with John McGrath at Contact in Manchester for 6 years, from 2001, as Associate Producer and Head of Creative Development, building its reputation for cutting edge participatory theatre with and for Young People and Diverse audiences. Followed by a year as CEO of New Art Exchange in Nottingham.

Now working independently across the UK, and developing a Creative Arts Consultancy, Eb and Flo.

Ekua was recently elected Chair of Sustained Theatre National.