KINGS is a choreographic and performance research and development project co-created with and performed by Michael Appouh, Khagen Douglas and Samuel Remi Akinwale, outside after dark in Manchester City Centre with a team of local artist collaborators. The work uses movement, gesture, new writing and collaborative costume design with Ruby Kirby to reimagine the city and ownership of space for blackness, created through a research process involving sharing lived experiences. KINGS involved a series of NIGHTWALKS to explore experiences of visibility, masculinity, blackness in city space. The nighttime walks to outdoor Manchester locations involved using this as space to generate ideas, alongside team workshops, residencies and public workshops with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Men and Non-Binary people at The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester (supported by Contact Theatre) to create space to share experiences. Manchester (KINGS:BEGINS and MIDDLE:KINGS Workshops) and outside, creating space to share experiences. KINGS was documented through a photographic series by Chan-Yang Kim, sound recordings and video documentation of the NIGHTWALKS and workshops.
