past projects
Black Earth: Resistance, Anti-Racism and the Environment
In 2022/23, we embarked on an ambitious project to speak to the Black diasporic experience of conversations around environmental justice and climate change. This was a research project encompassing workshops, nature walks, artist commissions and green care packages for the local communities in Watford and the South East, Bristol, and Bath. The project examined mental health impacts for Black British, African heritage, and Global Majority communities, and how creative resistance can support responses. It began with a Town Hall meeting, facilitated by Samia Dumbaya and Selina Nwulu with live illustration by Jasmine Thompson. Discussions shaped workshops led by Zakiya McKenzie and Kaysha Provost in Bristol, focusing on: • What climate justice means to us • Guilt and mental health • Creative resistance These insights informed the Green Care Packages, created with Community Apothecary and Afrofuturists Apothecary, also available in PDF. We hope this resource helps communities and arts organisations create space and joy for Global Majority people in climate justice conversations.
Match/Play
For our 25th birthday, we supported six artists from different disciplines to collaborate on new work: Raphael Dada (multidisciplinary) and Karis Beaumont (photography) created Black British Yearbook, an intergenerational exploration of the immigrant experience through portraiture, music, and food. Alexander Williams (singer/writer/actor) and Lexie Dufficy (singer-songwriter) produced original music exploring race, identity, and the Black/mixed-race experience in Britain. Stephanie Stevens (actor/writer/singer) and Jasmine Kahlia (multidisciplinary) created FINESSE, a two-hander musical using live looping to explore loneliness, scams, insecurity, and belonging.
Museum Lates
Museum Lates was our series of 5 readings and conversations held at Watford Museum exploring the Black British Canon from 1970 - 2010. In each, a cast of emerging actors performed a play from a different decade by a Black writer who has made a notable contribution to Black Stories. These plays were: Rum and Coca Cola by Mustapha Matura (1970s), Leave Taking by Winsome Pinnock (1980s), Boy with Beer by Paul Boakye (1990s), Random by debbie tucker green (2000s), Chewing Gum Dreams by Michaela Coel (2010s). The series helped to introduce the local community and beyond to an important element of Black British theatre.
brilliant
tiata fahodzi are fearless risk-takers, cultivating unseen spaces of theatre and making work in surprising spaces, building a home where both artists and audiences can belong, where we can collaborate, celebrate, partner and co-produce to ask big questions and find solutions to forge a radical future.
brilliant
tiata fahodzi are fearless risk-takers, cultivating unseen spaces of theatre and making work in surprising spaces, building a home where both artists and audiences can belong, where we can collaborate, celebrate, partner and co-produce to ask big questions and find solutions to forge a radical future.
current projects
To remain committed to learning from the artists we work with, we successfully applied to Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. Their funding has enabled us to re-imagine and re-develop PlayLab as a core artist development programme for the company.
This ongoing investment will allow us to create a new structure that gives British African heritage / Black British artists what they need to develop their work and their careers, whilst also continuing to embed that all important care and consideration for them as artists and people.
This work is being led by director and producer Ben Quashie, and supported by our Developing Talent Assistant Muneerah Yate. We will be welcoming a new cohort in 2026.
We have previously supported several cohorts of artists as Artists Associates and Creative Associates including Yomi Sode, Esther Kehinde Ajayi, Monique Touko, Zodwa Nyoni, Steve Otieno-Mangero (aka Magero), Sapphire Joy, Ewa Dina, Dipo Agboluaje, Gillian Burke, Tonderai Munyevu and Sherrie Eugene-Hart.
Contact playlab@tiatafahodzi.com for more information.