Volatile Space

inua Ellams in conversation with Erik Ehn

October 30, 2020 | 10:00 MST | 17:00 GMT

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. To register, click here.

All donations will go to the UNM Theatre Program fund to support underrepresented students. Click here to donate.

Volatile Space | Inua Ellams in Coversation with Erik Ehn

Join playwrights Inua Ellams and Erik Ehn for a conversation about (im)migration, the search for empathy, and connections across generational spaces. The two will explore such varied topics as risk-taking in writing and performance; analogue vs. digital worlds as spaces for art; and the state of theatre now. 

Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a poet, playwright & performer, graphic artist & designer. He is a Complete Works poet alumni and facilitates workshops in creative writing where he explores reoccurring themes in his work - Identity, Displacement and Destiny - in accessible, enjoyable ways for participants of all ages and backgrounds. 

His awards include: Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2009, the Liberty Human Rights Award, The Live Canon International Poetry Prize, The Kent & Sussex Poetry Competition, Magma Poetry Competition, Winchester Poetry Prize, an Arts Council of England Award, a Wellcome Trust Award, A Black British Theatre Award and The Hay Festival Medal for Poetry.

He has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Tate Modern, Louis Vuitton, Chris Ofili, BBC Radio & Television. His poetry books include ‘Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales’ and ‘Candy Coated Unicorn and Converse’ published Flipped Eye, 'The Wire-Headed Heathen' by Akashic Books. His plays include ‘Black T-shirt Collection’, ‘The 14th Tale’, ‘Barber Shop Chronicles’ and ‘Three Sisters’ published by Oberon. He founded The Midnight Run (an arts-filled, night-time, urban walking experience.) The Rhythm and Poetry Party (The R.A.P Party) which celebrates poetry & hip hop, and Poetry + Film / Hack (P+F/H) which celebrates Poetry & Film.

Erik Ehn is a playwright, director, educator, and theorist of contemporary theatre. He is known for proposing the Regional Alternative Theatre movement. A recent graduate of the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley California, with a Master of Theological Studies degree and the former dean of theater at CalArts, the California Institute of Arts, he is the former head of playwriting and professor of theatre and performance studies at Brown University. His published works include The Saint Plays, Beginner, and 13 Christs.

Ehn is co-founder and co-artistic director, alongside Lisa Bielawa, of the Tenderloin Opera Company in San Francisco and also an artistic associate of San Francisco’s Theatre of Yugen. He is a visiting professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of New Mexico.

Volatile Space is a collaborative project of Performance in the Peripheries and Revolutions International Theatre Festival. The program is made possible with the generous support of the UNM Department of Theatre and Dance.