50 Hours of Freedom at Contact

Celebrate International Non-Binary People’s Day with a creative lock-in at Contact

In celebration of International Non-Binary People’s Day on 14 July, Contact and Manchester International Festival are bringing together three local, non-binary artists to create a new piece of work – and you’re invited to the sharing!

This year, Contact celebrates its 50-year anniversary. So, the artists will have 50 hours to make their new piece. During the 50-hour lock-in in the Contact building, our local non-binary trio will be given a brief from the award-winning international artist, Danez Smith. They’ll then share this new work with a live audience.

THE ARTISTS

Heidi Rose (they/she) is a queer, working-class, Mancunian performer and creative producer.

Their voice-based practice evolves from Western-classical choral singing, and currently focuses on exploring folksong as a personal inquiry into where spirit is found, within both the body and community. Heidi enjoys contemporary music, noise, and collaboratively experimenting with the myriad of sounds the voice can make to explore soundscapes, harmony, and creating other worlds through voice.

Politics, playfulness, and care are central to her artistry and she’s looking forward to developing a deeper physical and clowning practice at circus school in September 2023.

Jay Mitra (they/he) is a non-binary punk poet, multi slam champion, and music journalist currently based in Manchester. Their poetry has been published in Acumen Poetry, Drawn To The Light Press, Streetcake Magazine and Broken Sleep Books’ Queer Icons anthology. Jay has been featured on BBC Radio 6 and has also performed in BBC’s Contains Strong Language, Hit The Ode, Leeds LGBT Lit Fest, Manchester Pride and Manchester Punk Festival. Currently, they work as a freelance writer and facilitator. You can find out more about them on Instagram and Twitter @punkofcolour.

Yeguachita is a queer, neurodivergent musician from Abya Yala, bringing you tunes of all kinds – from hip hop to cumbia to vaporwave to psychedelia to andino to house to ∞ – for the queers, the mentally ill, the global majority, and their friends. they make music to fall in love to/ to riot to/ to heal to: punk spirit and soundtrack for the revolution ♡

Following the performance of their new piece, audiences will experience a live reading from Danez and a post-show discussion with Contact’s Artistic Director and CEO, Keisha Thompson, to spill all those juicy secrets from their time in the Contact castle.