As part of this year’s city-wide Transform festival, Talking Back is an interdisciplinary conference uncovering the power of shared testimony as an act of political resistance.
Inspired by bell hooks’ (1989) discussion of ‘talking back’ and speech as a radical force against the systemic silencing of marginalised voices, this one-day conference will present critical and creative work by creatives, writers, researchers, poets, and activists who challenge disciplinary and cultural barriers.
“Moving from silence into speech is for the oppressed, the colonized, the exploited, and those who stand and struggle side by side, a gesture of defiance that heals, that makes new life, and new growth possible. It is that act of speech, of “talking back” that is no mere gesture of empty words, that is the expression of moving from object to subject, that is the liberated voice.”
bell hooks, “Talking Back.” Discourse (1986), p. 128.
hooks’ ideas have inspired many movements towards the liberation of oppressed voices and groups, as well encouraging cross-cultural dialogue between voices from marginalised backgrounds and perspectives. Reflecting on hooks, we suggest that the action and impact of speaking out is achieved only when we are willing to hear the narratives of others. This one-day conference aims to contribute to the formation of collaborative networks of resistance with the potential for profound societal change.
This conference aims to bring together and amplify voices of marginalised individuals. It also aims to create a safe space that fosters collaborative thinking and discussions on representation and resistance.
Consisting of critical and creative approaches to decolonial activism, reclamations of culture and identity, and the transformative power of voice, this will include academic papers, creative workshops, and poetry readings.
We want to encourage cooperative discourse, centred narratives of representation and resistance. Speaking out together against their hegemonic constraints, scholars and artists alike will transcend both disciplinary and identity barriers to take part in an open and inclusive dialogue.
For further information please visit the dedicated Talking Back conference website.
Co-organisers
Rahiela Seef (she/her) is an M4C funded PhD candidate at Nottingham Trent University. Her doctoral thesis, entitled “‘Like Surah, Like Song’: The Poetics of Faith, Femininity and Orality across the East African Diaspora,” analyses representations of faith, Black womanhood and female defiance in diaspora Sudanese and Somali poetry.
Drawing connections between the collections in theme, rhythm and form, Rahiela will explore the blend of African, Islamic and contemporary Black oral traditions expressed within the poems, making a case for a shared literary canon in which diasporic East African women’s writing resides. Her research interests include Black feminist literature, intersectional theory, and contemporary spoken word poetry.
Ramisha Rafique (she/her) is a Vice Chancellor Bursary funded PhD researcher at Nottingham Trent University. Her creative-critical doctoral thesis explores the ontology of the postcolonial flâneuse and decolonisation in British Muslim women’s writing. For the creative component of her doctoral thesis, Ramisha will produce a pamphlet length collection of poetry.
Her research interests include Flânerie, British Muslim women’s writing, and Islamophobia. Ramisha has been published by The Journal of Postcolonial Writing (2023), Literary Encyclopaedia (2023), and NTU Research Blog (2023). Her poetry has featured in Bystander (Laundrette Books, 2017), the NTU Postcolonial Studied Centre website (2021), and The Journal of Postcolonial Writing (2023). Ramisha’s forthcoming publications include: ‘#HandsOffMyHijab: Muslim women writers challenge contemporary Islamophobia’. Rafique, R. and Ramone, J. In: Irene Zempi and Amina Easat-Daas, The Handbook of Gendered Islamophobia. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Keynote speakers
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is an critically acclaimed poet, writer and public educator focused on disrupting narratives about history, race and violence. She speaks and performs her work nationally and internationally and is the author of Seeing for Ourselves; and even stranger possibilities (2023); Tangled in Terror: Uprooting Islamophobia (2022) and the poetry collection Postcolonial Banter. Suhaiymah is also a co-author of A FLY Girl’s Guide to University; and a contributor to the anthologies Cut from the Same Cloth? and I Refuse to Condemn. Her writing has featured on BBC Radio 4, in The Guardian and Al Jazeera, and her poetry has been viewed millions of times online. She is a co-founder of the Nejma Collective, a group of Muslims working in solidarity with people in prison. She is based in Leeds and is currently writing for theatre.
Muneera Pilgrim is a Poet, Cultural Producer, Writer, Broadcaster on BBC and Ujima, TEDx Speaker, and WOW Festival Speaker with international acclaim. She conducts workshops, shares art, guest lectures, hosts, and finds alternative ways to educate and exchange ideas while focusing on methodologies of empowerment for non-centered people. At heart, Muneera is a storyteller, concerned with telling stories to disrupt mainstream narratives of non-centered people globally and to beautify truths that are rarely told.
Muneera regularly contributes to Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2, she is an Alumni Associate Artist with The English Touring Theatre, and she is an in-house poet and thinker, with In Between Time where she developed The Joy Project.
Muneera has written for The Guardian, Amaliah, Huffington Post, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Black Ballard and various other digital and print platforms. She has been featured across the BBC network including BBC News, as well as Sky News, Sky Arts, Al Jazeera, and various other television channels. In 2015 a documentary was commissioned and screened about her former group Poetic Pilgrimage called Hip Hop Hijabis.
Muneera holds an MA in Islamic studies where she focused on Black British pathways to spirituality, migration, gender, and race. She holds a second MA in Women’s Studies, where she focused on the intersection of faith and spirituality, race, gender, autoethnography and methodologies of empowerment for non-centered people. Her innovation in her work and the use of poetry won her The Ann Kaloski-Naylor Award for Adventurous Academic Writing.
She etches a poetic space of dialogue which is accessible to all regardless of religious and cultural boundaries. Rooted in spirituality she uses communication and art for edification, enrichment and change.
Her debut poetry collection ‘That Day She’ll Proclaim Her Chronicles’ was released in November 2021 through Burning Eye Books.
About Transform
Transform, a City Takeover – a ground breaking festival co-curated by 14 major cultural organisations across Nottingham in Spring/Summer 2024. Together, we’re celebrating the leadership, creativity, and stewardship of the Global Ethnic Majority in Nottingham.
Following the success of our London’s Calling exhibition, we invited 80s club host and fashion icon, Scarlett Cannon, to join us for an in-conversation event with fashion designer and Nottingham Trent University (NTU) lecturer, Juliana Sissons.
On Wednesday 18 October 2017, Juliana and Scarlett share their experiences of what it was like to be part of the vibrant, transitional youth culture and clubbing scene in London during the 1980s. London was experiencing a social, cultural and political revolution, paving the way for self-expression and rebellion. The club scene in London was explosive and challenged boundaries; and the fashion that came with it was flamboyant, hedonistic and designed to shock.
Chaired by Bonington Gallery curator Tom Godfrey, this in-conversation event posed questions around the importance of fashion, gender and self-expression in the 1980s and what impact it has had on their lives since…
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is delighted to host, in collaboration with New Art Exchange and Nottingham Contemporary, this guest lecture by Keith Piper, BA (Hons) Fine Art alumnus and founding member of the BLK Art Group.
This event coincides with an exhibition of Keith’s work at New Art Exchange, Unearthing the Banker’s Bones, which opens from Friday 31 March to Sunday 2 July 2017. It also coincides with the current group exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary, The Place is Here, which is open until Sunday 30 April.
Keith Piper (born in Malta, 1960) is a leading contemporary British artist, curator, critic and academic. Piper was a founder member of the ground breaking BLK Art Group, an association of black British art students who exhibited together throughout the country between 1982-83. Their work was noted for its boldly political stance and critique on the state of intercommunal, class and gender relations the UK.
Adopting a research-driven approach and using a variety of media, Piper’s work over the past 30 years has ranged from painting, photography and installation through to use of digital media, video and computer based interactivity.
Image: Keith Piper, Unearthing the Banker’s Bones, 2016, film still. A 70th anniversary commission for the Arts Council with Bluecoat and Iniva. © the artist