Live Art Writers Network (LAWN)
Take Me Somewhere are thrilled to be collaborating with performingborders on the Live Art Writers Network (LAWN), a network aimed at cultivating experimental writing practices happening in dialogue with performance and Live Art. This project aspires to create a nurturing environment for writers to meet and engage with performance contexts, providing connection, mentorship, and a publishing platform for developing practices.
Responding to a critical need within the sector, this network seeks to provide much-needed space for reflection, critique, and experimental writing on live art, specifically outside of academic contexts. Our mission is to foster creative and critical responses to performance that resonate and respond to conversations happening on a local level whilst linking to transnational critical dialogue on performance, publishing, artwork, labour, and political action.
To do this performingborders will be working with writers whose practice has been shaped by lived experiences of intersectional borders. This includes – but is not exclusively – folks who have experience of migration and also those who have migratory heritage. They work with a definition of border that is open and acknowledges the diversity of experiences at the intersections of cultural, juridical, racial, gendered, class, physical, economic, and everyday borders.
2025 PROGRAMME
We were delighted to collaborate with The Live Art Writers Network (LAWN) to commission a response to 2025’s Take Me Somewhere Festival from Glasgow-based artist HUSS.
You can read HUSS’ commission, the result of a personal exploration of what he experienced, as someone who exists at the intersections of various borders in the city, here or with additional material on LAWN’s website.
HUSS is an Arab multidisciplinary artist, performer, filmmaker, and programmer based in Glasgow. His work tackles queerness, memory, and exile, weaving together personal and political narratives that confront themes of displacement, censorship, and survival. Moving fluidly between film, performance, moving image, installation, sculpture, and sound, his practice creates spaces where fragmented histories and silenced voices can be heard, challenging dominant narratives that often overlook Arab and diasporic experiences.
The Live Art Writers Network x Take Me Somewhere 2025 project was conceived and curated by performingborders, Diana Damian Martin and LJ Findlay-Walsh and Karl Taylor at Take Me Somewhere Festival. Commissioned by Take Me Somewhere Festival with additional funding by Royal Central School of Speech & Drama – University of London, through UKRI Impact Accelerator funding.
2024 PROGRAMME
In this first pilot year, Take Me Somewhere supported two artists to attend Fierce Festival (October 2024) & participate in an a public open gathering. The artists that attended Fierce were Nelly Kelly & Shawn Nayar.
Nelly Kelly (they/them) is a trans-butch and disabled playwright, dramaturg, performance maker and consultant. Their work uses humour, spectacle, and vulnerability to promote intersectional community connection and to invite its cis and abled audiences to more authentically connect with the contemporary lives of trans and disabled humans.
They are currently developing their next show, ‘The TransMission’, a playful piece of queer performance that positions the central character as the leader of the trans cult community, opening its doors to cis people for the first time. ‘The TransMission’ is created and performed by Nelly, produced by Sanctuary Queer Arts, commissioned by the Unlimited UK Open Award 2024, made possible thanks to funding from Creative Scotland and support from the National Theatre of Scotland.
nellykellytheatre.co.uk
Shawn Nayar is a performing artist who traces queer diasporic histories to expose the violence embedded in their colonial fractures. As these histories are tumultuous, his body of work contorts to capture them by facilitating critical discourse across intrinsic movement pieces, multimedia installations, and performance lectures.
By allowing his body to inhabit different facets of a complex lived experience, he creates collective encounters that encourage audiences to engage with historical legacies in the present moment.
He has made work for Riposte raves (London) and Scottish Festivals such as Buzzcut and Edinburgh Art Festival, most recently performing at Actoral Festival (France).
LAWN is commissioned by performingborders, FIERCE Festival, Take Me Somewhere, CITEMOR, and METAL Culture, and it is supported with funds by Arts Council England and Necessity Fund.