Makambe

Makambe is a Zambian theatre artist and nationally recognized playwright. Her work creates space for both grief and celebration centred around the black experience. She was one of the first voices that I remember highlighting that the conversation should have never had to be about the ‘why’ of black lives mattering in the first place, and since that conversation most other narratives, particularly televised ones, have rang empty. Her work encourages abject honesty in the face of adversity, something everyone needs more of right now. The last time we spoke she was on her way to Ferguson,MI to research Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers, which premiered at b current Performing Arts to wide acclaim and which has never been more timely than today. 

I had the immense fortune of meeting Makambe during major growth periods for both of us as artists. Speaking and creating with her created much of the connective tissue between the Virago Series at Handsome Alice Theatre, a celebration of female-identifying theatre artists, and the portraiture work that I’m releasing on now. 

She has been one of the most resonant influences on me in recent years, allowing herself to be photographed in states of extreme vulnerability, both joyous and distressed. Her solo performance, The Chitenge Story, taught me how to authentically approach documenting traumatic subject matter - lessons which I still hold onto today working in theatre and in studio. Using a visual palette as bright and dynamic as her person, the piece also lead to a revolution in the way that I post-produce colours for my Lumination look - so much so that I named it after, and still call the process, chitenge. 

I wouldn’t be the artist I am today without Black Art and Black Artists.