Our inspiring ‘Hidden Stories’ season comes to MK Gallery this month
10th October 2021We are delighted to announce that as part of our ‘Hidden Stories’ season and to celebrate Black History Month, MK Gallery is showing the inspirational documentary, “Sing, Freetown”, on Friday 22nd October at 7pm in its Sky Room Cinema.
Directed by Clive Patterson, “Sing, Freetown” follows the story of two friends - Sorious Samura, Bafta and Emmy award winning journalist, and Charlie Haffner, his friend and Sierra Leone's iconic playwright - on a journey to create the most ambitious play in their nation’s history.
Raised in Sierra Leone and now a Londoner, Samura is one of his nation’s most celebrated investigative journalists. He has made many hard-hitting and thought-provoking documentaries for CNN, Channel 4 and the BBC, on issues in his home region, such as civil war, starvation, AIDs, corruption and more.
Having broadcast many negative stories about Africa, he wanted to change the narrative and restore pride to his nation that has an amazing history and story to tell. This is when he returns to Sierra Leone and calls upon his friend and mentor, Haffner, to help him tell the full story about his continent and reclaim its identity.
United in the love of Africa and both wanting to showcase it in all its glory, after 25 years apart and living very different lives, they have contrasting views of the world and conflicting artistic directions, thoughts and ideas. Will the play ever get to the stage? You will just have to come and find out.
This is a dynamic, yet beautiful and raw documentary, which cannot be missed. Watch the trailer. Book your tickets here.
Daughter of the Waves
Milton Keynes based community practitioner, Lisa Lovell, wrote her playlet, “Daughter of the Waves”, for our new project ‘Hidden Stories’, which looks at stories not told or stories where we have a particular accepted version but there’s more to say.
Based on true events and personal experience, Lisa will tell us of her jaw dropping life story in her compelling monologue on stage at MK Gallery on Saturday 23rd October at 7.30pm.
“Daughter of the Waves” tells Lisa’s story. She is the child of Windrush parents. She has experienced racial discrimination all her life but has fought these barriers throughout her career to become a senior manager. Very recently though Lisa experienced the worse racism and hostility she has ever faced. Everything she believed in was shaken to the core as people she thought were trusted colleagues, allies and friends colluded with the hostile environment policies put in place in the last few years. Lisa was on the verge of losing everything. It was only the support of true friends and the “kindness of strangers”, as she describes them, which pulled her through this terrible period in her life.
Lisa is a community practitioner with over 30 years of working with communities and an advocate for those who feel they don’t have a voice. She is a poet and actor who has been performing for many years with various local groups. She is a versatile artiste who has been fortunate to tour parts of the UK, perform at the National Theatre in Ghana and for the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Lisa is also passionate about theatre as education.
A challenging and captivating story told by the writer herself.
You can see “Daughter of the Waves” along with three other playlets written by local theatre practitioners – Shirley Jones, Carly Halse and Rosemary Hill - at MK Gallery on 23rd October at 7.30pm. Read more about Hidden Stories here and purchase your ticket.