Off Script: Health, Research, Community

This interactive workshop brings together insights from creative youth engagement via the Heart Project and Safe Haven and the Sickle Cell Theatre Collective to explore how creative practice can open up new ways of thinking about research, care, and community.

We’ll begin with a series of hands-on, participatory exercises, alongside examples of creative approaches to research in youth work. You’ll then experience a full performance of Crescent Cell, Sickle Moon during its three-week UK tour (see below for details).

We’ll close with an open panel conversation — a space to reflect together on what creative collaboration makes possible: from co-production and interdisciplinary working to building connections between universities and communities, and the ethical and practical questions that come with this work.

Whether you’re a creative practitioner, researcher, community organiser, or simply curious, you’re very welcome to join us. Come to take part, share perspectives, and connect with others interested in creative, community-rooted approaches to health and research.

The event is free and will last two hours.

Crescent Cell, Sickle Moon

An exploration of care for people in sickle cell crises — imagined in a parallel universe.

Written by Mojisola Adebayo. Directed by Gail Babb Produced by the Sickle Cell Theatre Collective, in association with Tamasha

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Bro sits on a metal hospital chair, in a windowless A&E. It feels as though a thousand tiny hammers are banging inside his bones.

Above, Sis pilots the Starship Wellness. She's on a rescue mission but she can't find her brother, can't see him anywhere.

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Crescent Cell, Sickle Moon is a powerful and imaginative invitation to healthcare professionals, people living with sickle cell, and the wider public to reflect on what compassionate, effective hospital care could look like for people experiencing sickle cell crises.

Drawing on research from the Exploring Practices of Care (EPOC4) study and co-created with people living with sickle cell, a haematologist, and theatre makers, the play explores urgent questions about pain, trust, and care in our health systems.

Generously supported by funding from Arts Council England, the Wellcome Trust, Queen Mary University of London, the Curriers Millenium Healthcare Bursary and HaemSTAR.

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Content warning: References to racism, sickle cell crises, and challenging hospital experiences.

Recommended age: 14+

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Queen Mary University of London - Wolfson Institute of Population Health