L U D A L A R&D
love • blackness • joy
LUDALA's initial stages came as a conceptual idea
celebrating, exploring and exuding
“Black love” and “Black joy”
through text/poetry, fabrics, music and physical theatre
Form. Mind. Spirit. Energy.
Elements colliding through living art.
INSPIRED BY:
Healing
Sunday's Best
Ancestors
A ṣọ ebi
The cookout
Laughter
"Black love is celebrating history, heritage and being proud of
who you are in a world where we're constantly told
we aren't worthy or are less than"
- Bola Agbaje
Supported by Albany & Tamasha Theatre
"ludala" means "joy"/"happiness" in the Yakurr dialect of Cross River State, Nigeria
R&D WEEKEND 2020
Following many postponements due to COVID restrictions, in the middle of December we embarked upon the first stages of our research and development following a zoom discussion on Black Joy & Black Love that gave us some of the pillars within those two overarching themes.
PERFORMERS
Pàje Campbell • Shinice Davidson • Jasmeen James • Kel Matsena • Jeremiah Olusola • Luke Wilson
The Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes
THE JOY WE FOUND
As you'll see in the videos talking to our performers, this weekend amplified for us all how joy is an integral part of Black culture - a culture in of itself.
Something there's so much of, and so many different forms of, that we often forget we have access to due to the everyday and long withstanding
traumas we battle.
Not just laughter, but how we laugh; full body rolling and fleeing from the scene as we proclaim we're "done", "finished" or "dead"
Secret shading conversations that require only dexterity in our eyes and eye brows
From FOOD to CHURCH, #BlackJoy is always just a nostalgic track away
THE LOVE WE SHARE
Largely framed by a history of systematic and continued division, our journey into #BlackLove and its lack of representation brought us to the need for healing in our culture: generationally, romantically
and what may be the most important - a love of self
The comfortability, understanding, the regal kinship; loving yourself first, you embrace the same parts of you shared with your kin - from crowns of coils, kinks and curls atop every shade of melanin; to honouring and empathising the sacrifices of those that came before us
Brotherhood, Sisterhood, Family; our love is joy. LUDALA explores joy tumbling over through the commemoration of blackness
CREATIVE OUTPUT
During the process our performers took part in free flow writing exercises using some of the specific ideas of blackness and what shapes it, that came up during the initial discussion/forum we had regarding Black Joy & Black Love, including:
Black Male Intimacy • Spirituality • Restoration & Healing • Gender roles & balance • Positive vs toxic brotherhood • "Willie Lynch" • How we express love • passion/erotics
Some of these pieces are shared adjacent