EXCITING OPPORTUNITY FOR A CREATIVE INDIVIDUAL!

Sought: Curator for interactive activist performance

A curator is sought to develop an interactive performance inspired by women’s rights as part of an international NGO activity. The curator’s role would be to develop and to creatively weave chosen pieces of art work into an original tableau of African multicultural/multilingual activist participatory edutainment.

The objectives of the performance include:

o Translating the issues pertaining to African women’s and girls sexual and reproductive health and rights and the ICPD Programme of Action into a high-impact and interactive creative performance
o Actively engaging the audience in a participatory manner, so as to enable them to focus directly on, and make a contribution to, the discussion of issues raised in the performance
o Creating a sustainable and re-usable performance tool, that can be performed in different places, and to difference audiences
o Representing a diversity of performers from the African continent; a diversity of issues affecting the realisation of sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls on the African continent; and a diversity of achievements and triumphs in the face of seeming insurmountable barriers
o Strengthening existing links between the African continent, and entities (such as the AMANITARE Partnership) that are uniquely positioned, and working from myriad perspectives towards Africa’s development

JOB SUMMARY

Duties of the Curator include:

o Identifying appropriate existing work that fulfils at least one of the objectives listed above, and deals specifically with issues pertaining to African women’s and girls sexual and reproductive health and rights (such as female circumcision/female genital mutilation, gender-based violence and related issues).
o Creatively link these works together and create an holistic and interactive performance, framed by the overarching theme of African women’s and girls’ struggles, negotiations and triumphs in protesting, demanding and celebrating sexual and reproductive health and rights in the context of the ICPD.

QUALIFICATIONS

The ideal candidate will have a demonstrated commitment to the issues of African women and girls’ rights.

S/he will have experience of curating/artistically directing/ producing, gender-focused performances pertaining, for example, to female circumcision/female genital mutilation and related issues.

The candidate will have a collaborative approach to their work: both in relation to working closely with the commissioning organisation (AMANITARE) and in relation to the performance itself being one that actively engages the audience.

S/he will have demonstrable experience of doing African multilingual/multicultural activist participatory edutainment.

S/he will have demonstrable experience of working with African performers.

The candidate will have a demonstrated ability to meet strict deadlines and to work within a budget.

The preferred candidate will be London-based or be able to reach London easily with minimal cost implications; and will have permission to work in the UK.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Applicants must send their curriculum vitae, a portfolio of their work, including at least one visual sample and a covering letter by 23rd JANUARY 2004 to:

Rainbo
RE: Roundtable Performance Applications
Studio 5a, Queens Studios
121 Salusbury Road
London NW6 6RG

Interviews will take place February 9th-12th 2004.

Applicants can visit the AMANITARE website at: www.amanitare.org
Please address all queries to: [email][email protected]

PROJECT BACKGROUND

In 2004 it will be 10 years since the adoption of the Programme of Action developed at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in 1994, and reaffirmed globally in 1999, was adopted. The Programme of Action established international commitment to women’s rights and women’s empowerment as central components for the attainment of sexual and reproductive health and rights and for development. The ‘ICPD Roundtable’ is an international NGO-led event to be held in London between August 30th and September 2nd 2004.The Roundtable is an event that will bring together 500 stakeholders representing interests, diversities and experiences from all global regions, to dialogue about the potential challenges facing the ICPD and ICPD +5 visions in the current global socio-economic and political climate.

The ICPD Roundtable is being coordinated by the International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF), Population Action International (PAI), Family Care International (FCI), and their regional partners: AMANITARE - the African Partnership for the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women and Girls; the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network (LACWHN) and the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW).

PROPOSED EVENT

As one of the partner Networks representing the Africa region, AMANITARE is proposing to contribute an interactive performance inspired by women’s rights as part of the Roundtable events. The proposed event will consist of an artistic performance dealing explicitly with ICPD-related issues affecting the realisation of African Women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights. Provisionally entitled: We women are not like maize caterpillars who do not listen advice to get out before the maize is roasted, we want to survive - African Women & Girls’ Experiences of ICPD 10 Years On , the event will demonstrate some of the struggles and difficulties faced by African women and girls’ in negotiating, asserting and protecting their sexual and reproductive health and rights; and celebrate their triumphs and achievements in translating the ICPD Programme of Action into the reality of their own lives. The event will also actively engage the audience in considering the issues raised, in a forum where international stakeholders are not commonly called upon to unequivocally consider critically and creatively presented evidence of the difficult terrains that shape particular aspects of the lives of African women and girls.

Through the performance of poetry, music and drama, the performance is envisioned to be a piece of ‘edutainment’ in the long tradition of African ‘activist performing art’ which uses the performance medium to entertain as well as educate those with whom it engages.

The performance will consist of an amalgamation of excerpts of existing dramatisations/choreographies, newly developed songs/poetry, dealing specifically with issues pertaining to the sexual and reproductive rights of African women and girls (such as female circumcision/female genital mutilation, gender-based violence etc). The central theme of the performance, and cross-cutting each component of it, will be African women and girls’ struggles, negotiations and triumphs in celebrating, protesting and demanding sexual and reproductive health and rights in the context of the ICPD.