Samra Mayanja – THE CALL CENTRE

Doors open at 6.30pm

THE CALL CENTRE is a monthly performance programme dedicated to the unspeakable (the voice). It is for those of us who freeze in crisis and a gentle reminder to get unstuck.

Curated and hosted by Samra Mayanja, THE CALL CENTRE has become a monthly must-see in London’s Live Art calendar. Initiated in and usually taking place in her studio, Samra has created a framework not only about, but in service to, that difficult task that we engage with every day, which is to speak. To say ourselves and to speak ourselves, and to make the decision with every word and every breath not to hide.

For each CALL CENTRE, Samra invites cross-disciplinary artists and writers to share live work with and alongside her. This framework comes from her impulse to contextualise her own work through the artists whose work she loves.

In this special edition of THE CALL CENTRE Samra will step out of her 21 seater studio and join the long-line of dissenting voices that have spoken out in the chapel at Newington Green Meeting House.

Joining her will be guest artist Riot who will present maybe riot presents ‘the impossible big’.

PLUS: On Saturday 31 January, the accompanying public workshop SCREAM CHOIR III will take place at the Meeting House, led by Samra and LADA’s Director Mary Osborn. Workshop booking link to follow.

About SCREAM CHOIR: Samra has initiated two impromptu SCREAM CHOIR events in the past. For this edition, she will be joined by LADA Director Mary Osborn and they will focus on vocal improvisations, speaking, soothing, screaming and listening, for people who have ever had words stuck in their throat, have struggled to speak and/or police their thoughts. The aim is to listen to each other, make soothing sounds and improvise together. If that’s new for you we’ll learn together.

THE CALL CENTRE and SCREAM CHOIR III are curated and hosted by Samra Mayanja; co-presented by Newington Green Meeting House, LADA and Samra Mayanja; and supported by the Grand Camp Maisie Fund.

The Grand Camp Maisie Fund was created by the will of the late LGBTQIA+ leading gay rights campaigner activist and journalist Andrew Lumsden. New Unity at Newington Green Meeting House is grateful to be awarded support for this event as part of a wider programme curated by independent producer Nikki Tomlinson and New Unity’s General Manager Nick Toner. Content produced and published as part of the programme does not necessarily reflect the position of the Grand Camp Maisie Fund.

Samra Bio: Samra Mayanja is an artist working across performance, installation, film and writing. Her practice considers the illegibility of the body and the absurdist impulse to seek what is irretrievably lost. A continuously hopeful but seemingly futile act of searching runs through her work and manifests in performances that blend improvisation, slapstick, poetic monologues and tender vocalisations. Samra has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and theatres, including Cambridge Junction, The Oval, Centre for Live Art in Yorkshire, Somerset House, Tetley (Leeds), MAMA (Rotterdam), Kampnagel (Hamburg), Transmediale (Berlin) and LIVE Biennale (Vancouver). Her solo exhibition The Living and the Stale explored what it means to lose and be lost and took place at The Tetley in 2023. Samra writes weekly about performance, audiences and the loose choreography that is humanity on her Substack P3RFORMANC3 PRINC3SS.

Riot Bio: Riot’s practice explores the unreliable nature of memory and the whimsical worlds emerging in its gaps—what the artist calls “the Ditz.” Working in the self-coined genre ‘ditsy gloom’, Riot creates near skit-like narratives, immersing audiences in meta-magical realism. Riot and the Ether is a project that follows her and omnipresent companion, The Observer, into the Impossible Big Planet, where she navigates self-discovery and the human condition in strange and often satirical ways.

About the venue:The Newington Green Meeting House is the home of New Unity, a radically inclusive community of love and justice. This event is a partnership event, with space offered by New Unity's arts programme Arts on the Green, existing to provide flexible space to arts practitioners bringing high quality culture to the community.

For accessibility info, please visit this page. For any specific accessibility requirements or for any venue queries, please email: [email protected].

Content notes: Please email [email protected] if you would like more information on what to expect.

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Host or Publisher Newington Green Meeting House