Live Programme - Maud Sulter – You are my kindred spirit

A live programme of events curated by Pelumi Odubanjo to accompany our exhibition Maud Sulter - You are my kindred spirit (at Tramway until 30 March 2025). All events are free, with tickets available in the New Year. The programme includes:

18 January
maud. (Film screening and conversation)
Filmmaker, programmer and executive producer of the film Tomiwa Folorunso, and the film's director Natasha Thembiso Ruwona, will be in conversation with the artists featured in the film. 
 
7 February
Poetry in Motion
Live Reading event featuring Glasgow-based poets, artists and writers including Tako Taal, Titilayo Farukuoye and Cass Ezeji, who will be performing and reading from their own writing, as well as revisiting some of Maud Sulter's poetry.
 
13 March 
Hysteria: A collective reading
A workshop exploring Maud Sulter’s screenplay Hysteria (1990), facilitated by writer and poet Jj Fadaka. 
 
22 March
Service to Empire, a play by Maud Sulter (Film Screening and conversation)
A screening of the filmed rehearsed reading of Service to Empire directed and abridged by Onashile and co-curated with Mother Tongue. Followed by a conversation with the acclaimed actor, playwright and director Adura Onashile.

29 March - 'Call and Response'
An afternoon of presentations and conversations from artists, curators, performers and academics responding to Maud Sulter: You are my kindred spirit, and Maud Sulter's legacy.

This live programme will be a series of responses that will consider Maud Sulter’s artistic and social practice as a framework and conduit for re-animation, re-action, and sharing. Building from the idea of a ‘living archive of diaspora’ which reflects on the different forms of multiplicity, lineage and voices of memory - the live programme considers live encounters between art practitioners, the public and communities as a form of fostering spaces for imagination, futurity, critical fabulations and extended dialogues to take place.

Over the show's run, Sulter’s legacy will also be highlighted in two screening events. In January, the live programme will begin with the first, a screening of the short film maud (2023), A meditation on the work of the trailblazing artist, it will be followed by an in conversation between the filmmakers - programmer and producer Tomiwa Folorunso, and director Natasha Thembiso Ruwona, with the artists featured in the film. The conversation will highlight the growing legacy of the film while reflecting on the dialogue between the artists and their diverse artistic practices.

The second screening of the programme, taking place in March, will be of Service to Empire - a filmed rehearsed reading directed and abridged by Onashile and co-curated with Mother Tongue. The film and screening were produced by the National Galleries of Scotland with external funding from Art Fund and Creative Scotland, with input from the Estate of Maud Sulter. Following this screening will be a conversation with the acclaimed actor, playwright, and director Adura Onashile.

Taking place in February will be a Live Reading event featuring Glasgow-based poets, artists and writers including artist Tako Taal, poet Titilayo Farukuoye, and performer Cass Ezeji. The invited artists will read from their bodies of work which embody themes of heritage, language, diaspora and community amongst others, as well as Maud’s extensive collection of poetry and text. The performers will also each draw on their personal relationships to Maud’s practice, and celebrate her life's work and legacy.

Organised in collaboration with the Maud Sulter Estate, there will be a collective, recorded reading of Maud Sulter’s screenplay Hysteria, written in 1990. Activating one of Maud Sulter’s many texts, Hysteria is a story of a blackwoman artist who travelled from America to seek fame and fortune as a sculptor in Rome in the 19th century. It is a fictional tale based on fragments of the true-life story of Edmonia Lewis, a successful artist who lived and worked around this period. Facilitated by Jj Fadaka, a writer, facilitator and radical based in Edinburgh, the closed workshop will take place in March.

On the final weekend of the exhibition, the live programme will culminate in ‘Call and Response’, directly inspired by Maud's groundbreaking 1988 essay. The event will be an afternoon of presentations and conversations responding to Maud Sulter: You Are My Kindred Spirit and will bring together artists, writers, performers and scholars to contribute a reflection on Maud’s work and legacy through presentations relating to both their own and Maud’s practice.

Also contributing to the programme will be the artist Camara Taylor and writer Eilidh Akilade, who will be responding to the exhibition and Maud Sulter's expanded practice through commissioned texts to be published online and made available in the exhibition space.