ABOUT
Project X is a black and PoC led, community interest company (CIC) which champions and platforms dance of the African and Caribbean diaspora in Scotland.
Since our conception in 2017, Project X has developed and flourished as a high quality, artistic, engagement programme which seeks to redress the racial inequality in Scotland’s current performing arts sector. Our programme is centred in our work with and for artists who identify as black, people of colour (BPOC) and with heritage from Africa and/or the Caribbean, offering residency programmes, choreographic and performance platforms, access to training and professional development opportunities, and a community hub offering support, advice, advocacy, and amplifying artists work within the creative sector.
Project X co-founders are Ashanti Harris, Mele Broomes and Rhea Lewis. Carine Barinia joined in 2021 as Company Administrator
Ashanti Harris www.ashantiharris.com
Ashanti Harris is a multi-disciplinary artist and researcher working with dance, performance, film, facilitation and installation. With a focus on recontextualusing historical narratives, Ashanti’s work explores themes of mobilities - the movement of people, ideas and things and the wider social implications of these movements, specifically in relation to the Caribbean diaspora. Her recent research projects have included The Dances of the African and Caribbean Diaspora in Scotland; and The Presence and Legacies of Guyanese Women in Scotland in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Alongside Project X, Ashanti is also a co-founder of Glasgow Open Dance School (G.O.D.S) - facilitating experimental movement workshops, research groups and collaborative performances.
Carine Barinia
Carine is an arts administrator and production assistant.
Having worked in the corporate sector for 10 years, she recently decided to reconcile her professional path with her interests and values and dedicate her time to the arts.
Carine does work as a performer, vocalist and makeup artist. She is now in the process of exploring various mediums such as film, performance and writing centering themes of spirituality and healing.
Mele Broomes www.melebroomes.com
Mele is a movement director and movement coach for various theatre, visual art and video productions. Her work has been presented at venues and festivals such as Battersea Art Centre London, Theatre Centre Canada, Cultura Inglesa Festival Brazil, The Place London, Take Me Somewhere, White Chapel Gallery, Daughter of Cups, Festival del Silenzio Milan, Edinburgh Fringe, Art Night, Dance International Glasgow, Re:Generations, Fest en Fest, CONTACT Manchester, Dundee Rep Theatre.
Mele is co founding-director of Body Remedy. For more information visit www.melebroomes.com
Rhea Lewis
Rhea Lewis is a creative producer working interdisciplinary across dance, theatre & performance, collaborating with artists & communities to create ambitious productions, & space(s) for their voices to be amplified on their own terms. Working in consultation & advocacy, Rhea contributes to decolonial & intersectional feminist change in the arts.
Previously, She has worked for a range of performance companies, venues and festivals including arts programmes at international championships in Glasgow.
Alongside Project X, Rhea is Artist Development Producer at National Theatre of Scotland and an independent producer.
Our work is guided by four core values:
Knowledge & Creativity – We recognise artists as the voice of our culture. We platform artists to move, to make, to innovate, to create. We see creativity as a gateway to knowledge and we encourage all those who participate in Project X activity, to be empowered with historical knowledge and its contemporary impact in every context they move in.
Care – We work with care for the artists, for the art forms, for the participants, for the culture, and for the community. We kindly recognise and acknowledge the multiplicity of trauma that people of the African and Caribbean diaspora carry with them each day, particularly in the context of Scotland, and we approach this trauma as witnesses, allies and friends. We draw from our own lived experiences to offer recognition, responsiveness, and genuine care.
Collaboration – Recognising the multidisciplinary nature of African and Caribbean diasporic performance and that many unique voices represent the African and Caribbean diasporic experience, we aim to work collaboratively and across art forms. Our work is delivered in collaboration with a wider team of over 50 freelance artists and practitioners who identify as BPOC, from choreographers, performers, dance artists and musicians, to producers, designers, filmmakers and photographers. We work together through equitable exchange and conversation, co-piloting towards our shared destination.
Celebration - Creating joyful and welcoming community anchor points that centre and celebrate African and Caribbean diasporic culture and heritage. We believe that working for racial justice must include time for celebration and moments of joy or this vital antiracist work will not be possible. The work of Project X is centred in decolonising the arts in Scotland. Through our work platforming dance of the African and Caribbean diaspora, we aim to improve the diversity and strength of Scotland’s cultural ecology and contribute to a more holistic, equitable and inclusive society.
Power of X
We are inspired to use X in acknowledgement to our elders in the civil rights activist emancipation movement, who used X in place of their slave surname as an act of refusal and empowerment. In Algebra X can symbolise any number and we use this as inspiration for infinite possibility. X marks the spot - the point in which our diasporic identities, movement, historical and contemporary contexts all meet. X is the space for us to imagine and build our future.
Advisory Group - information coming soon
“It’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times in which we live”
