It’s on your streets. It’s on your screens. It’s a group of women, femmes and gender diverse artists of colour speaking back to the racist patriarchal nonsense they experience with fire, wit and imagination.

This is TAKEBACK!, a new multi-platform arts project examining and dismantling the racialised gaze.

Presented by MAV in collaboration with Darebin FUSE Festival, TAKEBACK! brings performers, visual artists, writers, theatre-makers, cabaret stars, poets, lyricists, videographers and filmmakers together to create a fierce, full-bodied response to the everyday aggression of patriarchy and white supremacy.

It comes to you in March 2021 with both live performances and digital content.

KEY INFORMATION

Sat 27 March 2021 | 6pm - 7pm

Main Hall, Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre

Free Event

Accessibility: Auslan Interpreted, Wheelchair Access

THE BACKSTORY

We know that women, femmes and gender-diverse people of colour often experience harassment, verbal abuse and intimidation in public spaces, both digital and physical.

Racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia and other ideologies of hate entwine to target our bodies, our lives, and our agency. It could be comments on our clothing or appearance, people getting up in our space, or online trolling and doxing. All of these are acts of aggression that aim to take away our right to be part of public discourse – to live out loud and in full colour. TAKEBACK! is a collective intervention taking it back.

TAKEBACK! is about reclaiming space, voice, visibility, and truth-telling.

THE PROCESSMAV put out an open call for expressions of interest in TAKEBACK! in October 2020. We invited women, femmes and gender-diverse artists – young and old, trans and cis, with and without disability – to imagine what they would say or do if they could talk back at a perpetrator.

From 1 February 2021 the group will take workshops and build the show with a swag of accomplished WOC designers and directors. The artists will work together to produce a live and digital performance outcome in March 2021.

THE ARTISTS + CREATIVES

The group of artists in the program don’t share a single perspective. They have diverse identities, experiences, and outlooks; they work in various art forms.

We can’t wait for you to see what they’ll do.

TAKEBACK! Artists:

Angelita BiscottiAshleigh ShongweAshleyrose GilhamBexx DjentuhChichi Nwokocha

Gracieuse AmahJessica D’cruzeJoshinder ChaggarLoz SoronoMiss Cairo

Muma DoesaNel Mama BohoShantel WetherallSkye StewartTaga Barri

TAKEBACK! Visual Identity designed by Clitories (Rukaya Springle).

TAKEBACK! Creative Team:

Direction: Candy BowersStage Manager: Senuri ChandraniVideo Design, Direction and Choreography: Claudia Sangiorgi DallimoreLighting and AV Design: Emma ValenteCostume Design: Suzan Dlouhy (SZN The Label)Music and Sound Design: DJ MzRizkSet Design: Bianca PardoMovement Workshop Facilitator: Yumi UmiumarePerformance Workshop Facilitator: Sapidah KianRunway/ Catwalk Workshop Facilitator: Kiki DevineDocumentary Filmmaker: Maylei HuntCopywriter: Jinghua Qian

TAKEBACK! Advisory Support Group:

Mama Alto, Neda Rahmani, Yumi Umiumare and Hyra Usman.