Introducing our What’s In Store artists…
What’s In Store is bringing two days of exciting live poetry, music and theatre performances to independent shops and cafes on Bearwood Road, Smethwick, on 17th and 18th June 2022. Performances will include pop-up poetry, live music, street performances and children’s shows by our incredible local artists. Meet them below!
Bohdan Piasecki
Bohdan Piasecki is a poet from Poland based in Birmingham. A committed performer, he has taken his poems from the upstairs room in an Eastbourne pub to the main stage of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from underground Tokyo clubs to tramways in Paris, from a bookshop in Beijing to an airfield in Germany, from niche podcasts to BBC Radio. In the UK, he regularly features at the country’s most exciting spoken word nights, festivals, and readings. He enjoys the creative chaos of big field festivals just as much as the composed concentration of literary events.
Rupinder Kaur
Rupinder Kaur Waraich is a writer, performer and workshop facilitator based in West Bromwich. Her work often focuses on womanhood, language and history. Rupinder is further developing her one-woman show Imperfect, Perfect Woman which debuted at Wolverhampton Literature festival. She has also been a BBC New Creative and developed audio piece The Girls that Hide and Seek (2021). Her debut poetry book Rooh (2018) was published with Verve Poetry Press. In 2020 Rupinder was awarded DYCP in 2020 from Arts Council England to work on her next poetry collection.
Dreadlockalien
Former Birmingham Poet Laureate 2005, Mr Grant aka Dreadlockalien has worked in the realm of spoken word, performance poetry and live literature for over 20 years. He specialises in impromptu and interactive poetry, and in engaging students through workshops in schools. Dreadlockalien is currently exploring animated poetry and digital media, making films to accompany poems.
Vimal Korpal
Vimal Korpal is a performer, theatre maker, radio producer and presenter. He has worked extensively in theatre and radio for over fifteen years, including at the Birmingham REP and for BBC Birmingham. Vimal has appeared in a number of short films, corporate pieces, and BBC One’s Doctors.
Fox & Rocha
Singer and harpist Sam Frankie Fox and multi-instrumentalist Ricardo Santos Rocha are warm hosts, skilful musicians and Early Years specialists. Originally from Wales and Portugal, they are based in the Midlands and work locally, nationally and internationally. They love to perform music from across the globe, so every performance includes a rich variety of songs from different cultures and unusual and exciting instruments. Performances feature harp, diatonic accordion, a range of stringed instruments and percussion, songs in different languages and lots lots more. They have a broad portfolio of live performance and recorded work, with projects having been presented at / with Cheltenham Jazz Festival, The British Council Showcase, The Royal Shakespeare Company. They are members of Kiriki Club and artistic directors of BAM: Babies’ Adventures in Music.
Auden Allen
Auden Allen is a sound artist and producer. He contributes his eccentric style to many genres including Grime, Hip Hop and soulful hybrids. He has been instrumental in establishing a successful Grime industry within the West Midlands, and has performed and produced work for BBC 1xtra, Echo Eternal, The Birmingham Music Conservatoire, Symphony Hall, and Tinker Tailor, among others. Auden also teaches music production and performance, and aims to contribute to the protection, evolution and growth of young people. His awards and recognition include Birmingham’s number one Dub-Step host for 2010.
Where Are You? Creative Team
Where Are You? is our brand new digital theatre production for families, featuring a mix of live performance, animation and music. It is an international collaboration with Accra Theatre Workshop (Ghana), commissioned by Birmingham 2022 Festival with funding from the British Council. The creative team crosses both locations and includes Emelia Pinamang Asiedu, a theatremaker, performer and the Director of ATW; Rochi Rampal, a Birmingham-based theatremaker, writer and performer; Sabrina Nabi, a Birmingham-based performer; David Addo Gyan, an Accra-based music composer and sound designer; Michael Ellis, a Birmingham-based filmmaker; Andrew Dartey, an Accra-based illustrator and digital animator; Abigail King, a Sandwell based theatre designer; and Lena Korsah, a Ghanian illustrator.
Jake Oldershaw
Jake Oldershaw is a theatre maker based in Birmingham. Since leaving Dartington College of Arts in 1995 he has devised and performed with some of the Midlands most highly regarded independent companies. Under the banner of his company, Untied Artists, Jake has created a diverse portfolio of performances. His solo work has toured internationally, and Untied Artists has won several R&D awards and an Edinburgh Fringe First 2013. Jake will present “Coffee & Tea” – a warm-hearted performance inspired by true stories that finds the extraordinary in the everyday and delves deep into the little things we take for granted.
Jack Trow
Jack Trow is a Birmingham-based actor, storyteller and theatre-maker. Jack will present “Is That A Yeti, Hetty?” – a live-illustrated storytelling show for families about a little girl called Hetty who goes on a quest across the Himalayas to prove that Yetis exist. An avalanche makes her new yeti friend homeless and so Hetty takes Yeti home to live with her. At first Hetty’s friends and family are scared of this strange new visitor, but they soon come to realise that Yeti is just like them.
Produced by Black Country Touring and presented as a part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival.
