‘Umudugudu’, a joint storytelling project by Mashirika Performing Arts and Media Company partnered with Beatfreeks, a British creative agency, is one of the creative projects that will feature at next year’s Birmingham 2022 Arts Festival. The six-month festival, which runs from March until September next year, will explore the spirit of the Commonwealth Games slated for July 28 to August 8, 2022. The festival will harness a once in a lifetime opportunity to positively disrupt the region’s cultural sector and inspire lasting change. Mashirika and Beatfreeks have been working on the project throughout the month of June and are launching it on Monday, July 5. Produced and developed by renowned artist, Kivumbi King, the project is commissioned as part of the Birmingham 2022 Cultural programme in collaboration with the British Council. Known for his stellar spoken word performances, Kivumbi King is now a big-time rapper, poet, and producer, and will soon be launching the ‘Umudugudu’ music video and poem as artistic tools to explore different elements such as mental health, community, family, and the importance of personal space, among many others. “Umudugudu to me means more than just a place I go to at the end of every day, a place that feels like home. It is the people I meet and talk to, my neighbours, friends, family, and most importantly, myself,” says Kivumbi. Prior to the launch, Kivumbi and Mashirika have over the past month been developing the creative practice and producing of the project, an experience that Hope Azeda, Founder of Mashirika Arts and Media Company, calls ‘important’. “As a theatre and arts company that thrives best with its community through different outreach programmes we organise, bringing this project to life with the amazing storyteller, Kivumbi King was very important to us. ‘Umudugudu’ was an artistic tool to use to learn more about the different neighbourhoods, the cultural backgrounds of ‘imidugudu’, and the importance of communal support and love,” Azeda says. While hailing Beatreeks’ collaboration and British Council’s support to bring the visionary project to light, Azeda explains that the concept of ‘Umudugudu’ targets to explore both the community’s physical and mental state of life. “We want to show the importance of taking care of the conscious mind, just as much as we take care of those we are in the community with. This project was meant for Rwandans and beyond, in different communities to stay connected,” she says. The project was recorded by producer KennyProBeats while the video was directed by Eazy Cuts. The Birmingham 2022 arts festival will be a region-wide celebration of the power of art and culture to bring people together and make connections across the UK and Commonwealth.
