A new hip-hop theatre show about police, racism and white allyship is touring North West schools and community centres.
LOOPS, by Toxteth youth theatre 20 Stories High (20SH) is co-produced with Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse in association with Unity Theatre. Producers say the show aims to be empowering, with practical strategies on how to deal with ongoing police encounters.
It will tour from February 2 until March 2 with performances and after-show workshops. They will perform at a sold out Unity Theatre and over a dozen schools and community centres in Liverpool, Blackpool and Manchester.
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Writer and director Keith Saha told the ECHO: "We’ve been having ongoing conversations with young black people and people of colour about racism within the police and the traumatising effects of stop and search. 20SH also learned, while leading creative empowerment workshops for young people at the Liverpool Against Racism Conference in 2021, that not one of the four secondary schools involved had ever explored racism in the classroom”.
Keith teamed up with black ex police officer Chantelle Lunt who wrote a piece for My White Best Friend North at the Liverpool Everyman about her time in the police force. Keith said: "We knew we needed to do something together to respond to what was happening.
"As an activist theatre company, making a show to tour into community spaces for young people was the perfect response. Having had conversations with peers and young people around institutional racism in the police for as long as I can remember, there is a feeling on the street and from statistics that things are getting worse".
Stop and search has a disproportionate effect, as Gov.uk ethnicity facts and figures show that nationally, between April 2020 and March 2021 there were 7.5 stop and searches for every 1,000 white people compared to 52.6 for black people.
Keith added: "It’s hard and emotive, but there was a determination to make this a piece that shared experiences and offered hope and solutions. The hope for this play is that it can open up a conversation in those spaces where conversations aren’t happening".
Chantelle said: "When you see a good performance, you really experience what is happening, and theatre allows moments of levity. It humanises the experiences of marginalised people and, when it comes to racialised people, it can resonate deeply".
Chantelle will lead workshops with young people around black empowerment and resistance. 20SH have been working in partnership with Y-STOP, an organisation equipping young people with knowledge they need if they get stopped and StopWatch, an organisation which turns a spotlight on stop & search and campaigns against the over policing of marginalised communities.
Winston Branch, who plays Djibi in LOOPS, said: "For those who aren’t exposed to things like stop and search and don’t know the realities of it, by being in close contact with it, through the show they can feel like it’s palpable. I hope if I do a good job and tell my story they’ll feel like they're on this journey with me".
LOOPS rapper and musician, Mal Lidgett added: "I hope people won’t just be moved by the message but they’ll enjoy the artform as a whole".
For information on the work of 20 Stories High visit HERE
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