PRATO, 15 December 2016. We’ll wait for you at the Ex Chiesa di San Giovanni – place that more than any other ties us to this city! – to spend an evening with Inua Ellams and other #CCTravellers2016 and this way celebrate the end of this intense travel through the “City of Art Contemporary in Italy” started with the reopening of the Centro Pecci and dealt with 50 Creative Curious Travellers from all over Italy, Europe and beyond, we have decided to host in exchange of a story, inviting them to explore, live and tell this territory with a new and curious look, attentive to details that make the difference. Because – as we always say – DIFFERENT is BEAUTIFUL!

And during the evening – free entry, 21.30 – in addition to the performance by Inua Ellams (you can read about and see the trailer below), there will be some small surprises!!!

NOTE: The stories by the #CCTravellers2016 will be published (both in Italian and English) in the course of these and next months and, once shared on the web, we are sure they will never stop travelling around the world! 😉

CCT-SeeCity & Fuel present
An Evening With An Immigrant
written and performed by Inua Ellams

21.30 – 15 Dec.’16 @ Ex Chiesa di San Giovanni – Prato, Italy
Performance in English + short introduction written in Italian (given at the entrance)
FREE ENTRY

Event organized by CCT-SeeCity, at the conclusion of the #CCTravellers2016 project and inside the Prato Festival 2016 programme, thanks to: Assessorato alla Cultura di Prato [sponsor] + Fonderia Cultart [main partner] + La Bottega delle Lingue [partner].

[ Facebook Event ]

AN EVENING WITH AN IMMIGRANT

Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother in what is now considered by many to be Boko Haram territory, in 1996 award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams left Nigeria for England aged 12, moved to Ireland for three years, before returning to London and starting work as a writer and graphic designer.

Part of this story was documented in his hilarious autobiographical Edinburgh Fringe First Award-winning play The 14th Tale, but much of it is untold. Littered with poems and anecdotes, Inua will tell his ridiculous, fantastic, poignant immigrant-story of escaping fundamentalist Islam, directing an arts festival at his college in Dublin, performing solo shows at the National Theatre, and drinking wine with the Queen of England, all the while without a country to belong to or place to call home.

• “His words are incredible… The poems are just stunning.” – Everything Theatre
• “His writing is aromatic. He can capture the smell of a place, the sense of a moment, as well as anyone.” – Whatsonstage
• “Ellams’ poetry gleams with a dusty, worn, deeply original beauty and he remains such wonderfully generous company to keep on stage.” – Metro

INUA ELLAMS 

Born in Nigeria in 1984, Inua Ellams is an internationally touring poet, playwright, performer, graphic artist & designer. He has published three pamphlets of poetry: ‘Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars’, ‘Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales’ and ‘The Wire-Headed Heathen’. His first play ‘The 14th Tale’ (a one-man show which he performed) was awarded a Fringe First at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival and his third, ‘Black T-Shirt Collection’ ran at England’s National Theatre. He is currently working on ‘Barber Shop Chronicles’ – a new play, and a poetry pamphlet called #Afterhours. Identity, displacement and destiny are recurring themes in his words. While in graphic art & design, online and in print, he tries to mix the old with the new, juxtaposing texture and pigment with flat shades of colour and vector images. He lives and works from London, where in 2005 he founded The Midnight Run, a nocturnal urban movement. – [ inuaellams.com | Facebook | Twitter ]

In 2014 we have told the story of Inua Ellams & The Midnight Run [urban movement that since 2011 we promote in Europe] on the Italian TV, Channel RAI 5! If you are curious, you can find it here:

CCT-SeeCity for “UBIQ Literature” on Rai 5! METROPOLIS: Inua Ellams (& The Midnight Run)