20 awesome photos from Brum’s inaugural Festival of Audacity

The Festival of Audacity, a free three-day extravaganza from Free Radical, has seen a myriad of creatives and artists occupy unusual spaces across Birmingham these last few days.

Described by organisers as a “multidisciplinary festival of activist art making all of Birmingham its stage”,  the showcase aims to take art out of its comfort zone, and boy, has it been doing that. 

Free Radical is a youth organisation working with young art activists aged 16-30, offering various development and performance opportunities for creators and producer; while promoting inclusivity issues within institutions.

Celebrating the best of national and international talent with various politically charged arts experiences taking over the city, The Festival of Audacity has been curated in collaboration with guest artistic directors BBZ London, who’ve joined Free Radical to swarm the city with socially engaged, political art from spoken word to theatre, music to dance, film to art installations.

With locations like the Midland Metro trams, New Street Station, COW vintage store and the city’s Rag Market becoming temporary performance platforms; this “audacious” festival has been hard to miss.

Having represented Birmingham on stage at the Commonwealth Games 2018 closing ceremony, festival producer Amerah Saleh highlighted the importance of art in making people take notice of local talent.

“Festival of Audacity is a pioneering home for young artists who make brave choices about what they say, how they say it, where they say it, and who they address,” she explained.

“We want to make space for young creators to take risks and reach people beyond traditional arts venues. For art to have a real impact it needs to be bold, authentic, and audacious.”

Artists programmed as part of this year’s festival have included award-winning performance artist Sarah Maple, neurodiverse community artists DYSPLA; and SHADE – a group of South-African artists who tackle the intersections of blackness, masculinity, queer identity, and religion.

Event co-curators BBZ London – a ‘tun up’ prioritising the experiences of queer womxn, trans, and non-binary people of colour – mentored and supported the artists involved, working alongside partners including Arts Council England, BBC Asian Network, Caroline Davis, DanceXchange, MAC Birmingham, and Free Radical’s Southside Producers.

Check out these 10 awesome photos from Festival of Audacity 2018:

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The Festival of Audacity was on from Thurs 27th – Sat 29th Sept, 2018.