“We have come to realise the power of partnership with HE in the creation of our work.”

We are Tribe Arts, a philosophically inspired, radical-political theatre company based in Leeds/Bradford. We amplify the stories and voices of the current Black and Asian generation and believe theatre needs to be rejuvenated into the 21st century. We want to cultivate an environment for a renaissance in theatre-making and produce unexpected performance theatre that reaches towards transcendental experiences.

We currently have a slate of work that is development, but one of our principles shows is Tribe Talks, a radical new format of participatory theatre where a panel of esteemed speakers motivate the audience to talk, chat, discuss, deliberate and fathom the topics of discussion – think the BBC’s Question Time interspersed with live performance, music and film.

The work aims to be a strategic, 4-year programme of work that seeks to re-frame Black & Asian history as part of human history, from the first migration out of Africa 100,000 years ago to present day Britain.

As part of the development process, we have come to realise the power of partnership with HE institutions in the creation of this work, and how both parties can benefit and explore exciting new collaborations from it. Not only are we linking in with a range of HE to help research and curate the work, but we have also been able to identify other routes of partnership and collaboration, such as how Tribe Talks can help to offer insight into new iterations of Black history in universities, how curricula can be decolonised, how the creation process can open up opportunities for internships and work experience in the arts and more.