Diverse Critics is a talent development programme for disabled and/or Black and people of colour arts writers delivered in partnership between Disability Arts Online and The Skinny and supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland. Over the last eight months, eight aspiring writers based in Scotland have been supported with a bursary, training, mentoring and publishing opportunities. Take Me Somewhere have partnered with Disability Arts Online to offer further bursaries to a selection of the cohort to attend and review works as part of this year’s festival.
Proxy 2.2 by NXSA: holding space for solidarity
Originally intended as a performance that sought to interrogate the ‘invisibilised systems of enduring colonisation’, proxy 2.2 by NXSA at Take Me Somewhere Festival in Glasgow was reimagined as a gathering which invited the audience to come together in solidarity in response to the current atrocities in Gaza.
NXSA began the gathering by communicating their reasons for the change, as those ‘invisibilised systems’ previously described were currently very much visible, a product of settler colonialism, inescapable and unfolding before our eyes. This sparked a bodily reaction from the artist – a need to pause – an expression of the deep sadness and rage that so many of us currently feel, which meant that they were unable to continue with their performance as planned.
Instead, proxy 2.2 brought people together in a time of powerlessness, who were then able to exchange thoughts, reflect or rest. The room was filled with cushions, beanbags, dim blue lighting, and candles – it felt safe, held, yet tense in an atmosphere of uncertainty. Masks were readily available and encouraged, reminding us that COVID is still present, and continues to be dangerous for some of us when gathering together.
We were then given prompts which invited us to form break-out groups where we could make signs for the upcoming protests, share our thoughts and feelings with one another in small groups, or simply be in the space without the pressure to do or say anything, with a reminder that we could leave at any time.
These options were an offering to tune into our own bodies and consider what we might need at the moment, whilst contributing towards small actions in the name of solidarity. I remained on the beanbags with some friends discussing a book one was reading ‘Minor Detail’ (2017) by the Palestinian author Adania Shibli. Solidarity is responsive, it is present in many forms.
The gathering closed with a ‘sonic reflection’ – a 10-minute snippet of the sound work from the original performance of interviews by Palestinians and a particularly powerful poem by Rafeef Ziadah. For me, this was by far the most emotional part of the gathering. As we sat or lay listening to these first-hand experiences of the effects of the war, their voices filled the room, a collective experience of tuning in which brought us fully into the present with one another across time, space and geographies.
As someone who has not attended any protests (I find it challenging to be on my feet for long periods of time, and feel overwhelmed in large crowds), this gathering created a space to come together and show how the different forms of solidarity might be expressed, especially when it can be hard to know what to do. Many artists and art workers have been striking, cancelling events, and donating money from ticket sales to Palestinian charities. Solidarity looks like many things, with each of us navigating our own journeys of how best to show up. proxy 2.2 created space to hold care for ourselves and each other at its forefront.
Reproduced with kind permission of Disability Arts Online
Originally published on 31 October 2023
Main banner image courtesy of the artist
About the writer
Natasha Thembiso Ruwona is a Scottish Zimbabwean moving-image artist, researcher, and curator-programmer-producer based between London and Scotland. She is interested in spatial practice and Afrofuturism as methods of thinking about place across time. Natasha also investigates processes of healing in relation to understanding our environments.
