Ashanti Harris - Walking with the Ancestors in Joy and Healing

Part of Take Me Somewhere Festival 

Two performances:
3pm to 4pm (This show is reserved for Black People and People of colour only)*
5pm to 6pm  (open to all)

Walking with the Ancestors is an interactive, reparative reading, guiding the audience on an imagined procession in joy and healing. Shifting between collaged narratives centred in Black histories, descriptions of real and imagined spaces, movement provocations and guided body awareness exercises, this performance ritual invites the audience to consider the many layers of narratives which intersect and overlap with their own experiences and to move with them,  inviting joyful possibilities for collective healing.

*Note on POC Only Booking: The first performance (3-4pm) is for people who are Black and People of Colour (BPOC) only. This is to provide a safe space for BPOC to explore their ancestral heritage without the presence of the white gaze and its associations with white supremacy. The intention behind a closed performance is to ensure that the invited group feel comfortable and supported to attend. By booking this performance you are confirming that you have heritage within the Global Majority (who are from the Caribbean, African, South Asian, South East Asian, North Africa and Middle East, Latinx, First Nation and Indigenous people diasporas). If this does not apply to you you can book into the second performance (5-6pm) which is open to all.  

ACCESS: Sound led 
A visual description introduction to the space is available, please arrive 15 minutes prior to your performance to access this at the Tramway box office. Seats are available for those who need them and you will be invited to let us know any access requirements on booking.

Audience notes
What to Expect: This work is a sound based guided meditation. Audiences will be invited to close their eyes for the majority of the piece and participate in gentle breathing and movement.

About Ashanti Harris 
Ashanti Harris is a multi-disciplinary artist and researcher. Working with dance, performance, facilitation, sound, installation and writing, Ashanti’s work disrupts historical narratives and reimagines them from a Caribbean diasporic perspective. Recent commissions and exhibitions include: Jerwood Staging Series 2022, Jerwood Arts, London (2022); Dancing a Peripheral Quadrille, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Edinburgh (2022), An Exercise in Exorcism, GoMA, Glasgow (2021) Opening Night, Timehri Film Festival, Georgetown (2021), JUMBIES, Glasgow International, Glasgow (2021); This Woman’s Work, Third Horizon Film Festival, Miami (2021)

Show Credits:
Lead Artist and Performer: Ashanti Harris
Soundscape Composition: Andrei Van Wyk
Performers: Hamshya Rajkumar, KJ Clarke-Davis
Lighting Design and Lighting Operator: Michaella Fee
Creative Producer: Rhea Lewis
Production Stage Manager and Fabrication Assistant: Zephyr Liddell

Development credits: A Tramway Performance Now Commission with support from Creative Scotland & The Work Room.

Photo: An Exercise in Exorcism, performed by Ashanti Harris, Jessica Paris & KJ Clarke Davis, 2021. Image by Gavin McCourt