Blue Pieta is a director, choreographer, dramaturg, performer and writer. Their practice explores ritual, ancient mythology and embodied poetics. They studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, History of Art at Cambridge University, and trained in performance at: Sadlers Wells, Impulstanz Vienna, Siobhan Davies and the National Youth Theatre. Their works have been staged at the Royal Court Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre and Courtauld Insititute of Fine Art. Blue Pieta regularly collaborates with Bhanu Kapil. A recent collaboration HUMANIMAL debuted at Stone Nest, curated by Serpentine Gallery as part of a live programme, Queer Earth and Liquid Matters. Blue Pieta was also the dramaturg for the contemporary Chinese Operetta Nine Songs which debuted in the AlUlah desert Saudi Arabia, directed by Farooq Chaudhry, with musical direction from Jocelyn Pook. Their staged performance of Kapil’s award-winning collection, which premiered at Soho Poly Theater, will feature musical performances from Kath Gifford and Ynys Barnard-Masterson, dance from Samantha Hines and Blue Pieta, and poetry by Bhanu Kapil.
Poetry from dove/Christine Kirubi & a dance-theatre performance of Bhanu Kapil’s How To Wash A Heart directed by Blue Pieta
What: A poetry reading with dove/Christine Kirubi + a dance-theater performance of Bhanu Kapil’s How To Wash A Heart directed by Blue Pieta.
When: Saturday, November 9th at 3 pm. Doors open at 2.45 pm. The event will last an hour, and should be complete by 4.15 pm.
Where: Judith E. Wilson Drama Studio (accessible by lift), basement of Faculty of English, 9 West Road, Cambridge.
Who:
dove / Christine Kirubi is an artist-poet-collaborator based in London. Their debut poetry collection WILDPLASSEN was published by the87press this year. Recent projects and performances include The Archive is a Gathering Place at Tate Britain in collaboration with Rhoda Boateng, The Blue House co-founded with Daniel Baker-Wells, and a collaborative improvisation at Décalé with petals Kalulé. Recent commissioned texts include Fabulous Musics published in response to Shenece Oretha’s UAL 20/20 commission with Hepworth Wakefield and a note on audrey mbugua’s dog published in the Jerwood Survey III catalogue in response to Ebun Sodipo’s work.
Bhanu Kapil writes inter-genre works. She has been awarded a Windham Campbell Prize (Yale University), and a Cholmondeley Award (Society of Authors, UK). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she is the author of six full length collections, most recently How To Wash A Heart, the winner of the TS Eliot Prize and a Poetry Book Society Choice. In 2023, two new, non-identical editions of Incubation: a space for monsters were published, by Prototype (UK) and Kelsey Street Press (USA). Based at Churchill College, Cambridge, as a Fellow, Bhanu is writing [with] [near] [alongside] the archive of Enoch Powell. With Blue Pieta, she has developed performances of many kinds.
