Bedlam Festival
The BEDLAM Arts & Mental Health Festival aims to reduce stigma, and encourages honest discussions around mental health – all with some fantastic performances. Whatever your age or background, there’s something for everyone.
We’re pleased to be joining as a partner to this year’s festival, alongside Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Midlands Arts Centre and Sampad South Asian Arts. The festival brings you a diverse programme of world premieres, visual art and film as well as powerful live performance through theatre, spoken word, dance and music. The Red Earth Collective commission will explore and celebrate the mental health and wellbeing of African and Caribbean people across Birmingham through a programme of events.
The Red Earth Collective Presents:
StereoHype
· Friday 12 November 7pm at Cherry Reds Café Bar, 88-92 John Bright Street, B1 1BN. Tickets £5
· Saturday 20 November 7pm Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Road, B6 6AH
Tickets £5
This Autumn, The Red Earth Collective in partnership with poet, author and TV presenter Sue Brown and Vocal Performer Dr Judith Bruce-Golding, Founders of Nakuona Arts, worked with a group of emerging Black artists all with lived experience of mental health, to create new work exploring their diverse experiences through music, performance poetry, story-telling and song. The results of their collaboration are one of the many highlights of the Bedlam Festival, with one performance for service users, carers and staff at the Tamarind Centre, a medium-secure mental health service and two public performances in the City Centre and Birchfield.
Menologues and Femologues
· Thursday 18 November 6.15pm-7.45pm at MAC Cinema, Cannon Hill Park, B12 9QH
Tickets from £5
At the height of the pandemic, The Red Earth Collective collaborated with Film Makers Daniel Anderson from Rites of Passage Productions and Daina Anderson at Open Lens Productions to make a series of short films. The films that they created are all about the impact of Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement on the mental health of Black women and men in Birmingham. The films will premiere at Bedlam and will be followed by a Q and A with both film makers hosted by Sandra Griffiths, the founder of The Red Earth Collective.
Rose Ward
· Friday 19 November 7.30pm MAC, Cannon Hill Park, B12 9QH
Tickets from £6
Meet the women of Rose Ward, a female psychiatric ward in Birmingham, in a powerful new play based on the real life experiences of writer and actor A diary from No one.
Rose Ward is currently in development and this performance. featuring extracts from the play, provides a special opportunity for the audience to give feedback to the cast and production team. The play will be followed by an audience Q and A with A diary from No one
Contains sensitive content not suitable for audiences aged under 16.
You can view the full programme of events at https://bit.ly/BedlamFestival21. Follow the conversation online @redearthconnect and using #BEDLAM2021 and we look forward to seeing you there!
