A Brief Pause

Itch The Scratch Collective

A Brief Pause is a day-long celebration of joy and togetherness. A community space that encourages rejuvenation and the act of play!

Ugly Duck

Dear guest, Itch The Scratch collective invites you to join us as we soften the boundaries, doors and walls between you and me between us and them between these and those between some and others A Brief Pause is a day-long festival, celebrating joy and togetherness. Through performances, music and workshops we will create an entangled space. A shared response-ability that will help us alter (and inspire) each other as hosts and guests. So, the offering of a cushion, a poem, or the touch of a blanket will carefully unravel an ongoing dialogue of change and mutual adaptation. Let’s rehearse radical hospitality in our hub, designed to stimulate the seeding of connections, companionship and kinship. Or share solace, joy and pleasure as one multifaceted being through workshops that help us embody ourselves/our-selves/our selves. And let’s expand, contort and feed our curiosities through a selection of performances, talks and screenings. We are looking forward to meeting you, Itch The Scratch All peoples are welcome. We support the free expression and bodily autonomy of trans and gender non-conforming individuals and access and sovereignty for all bodies and minds. We also pursue the withering of colonialism and white supremacism and reject all forms of sexual violence. Access and Festival Event Information Event Date:    10th June 2023     Venue Address:     Ugly Duck, 49 Tanner St, London SE1 3PL    Ticket Price:     Free    Festival social media:  Instagram:    @ItchTheScratch    LOCAL TRANSPORT INFORMATION   Train   The closest national rail station to Ugly Duck is London Bridge.  The closest tube stations are: London Bridge on the Northern Line (Bank branch) and the Jubilee Line (London Bridge London SE1 2SW), Bermondsey station on the Jubilee Line (Bermondsey, London SE16 4RT), and Borough station on the Northern Line (Bank branch) (Borough Station, London, SE1 1JX).   London Bridge and Bermondsey stations are both step free from train to street. There is roughly a 14-minute walk to Ugly Duck from all three of the stations.  Bus   Going southbound the nearest bus stop is Druid Steet (Stop C) on rotes 42(towards East Dulwich), 78 (towards Nunhead) and 188 (towards Russell Square).   Going northbound  the nearest bust stop is Abbey Street (Stop M) on routes 42 (towards Liverpool Street),  78 (towards Shoreditch) and 188 (towards North Greenwich)  There is a bus from Borough tube station (Northern line) to Ugly Duck. C11 from bus stop Borough Station (Stop D) to Bermondsey Street (Stop A). From Bermondsey Street bus stop there is a 6 minute walk to the venue.   All TFL buses are wheelchair accessible.   Boat  London Bridge City Pier is a 17 minuet walk away and receives regular Uber Boat Thames Clipper services.   The pier is served by the route RB1 running every half hour from Barking Riverside Pier to Waterloo Pier and the route RB2 running every half hour from North Greenwich Pier to Battersea Power Station Pier.  All Uber Boat Thames Clipper services and Pier are step free and wheelchair accessible.   Cycle  The nearest Santander Cycles docking station is the &#x27;Tanner Street&#x27; docking station on Tower Bridge Road SE1 3JB. This is a 1 minute walk away from the Ugly Duck.    Parking  There 3 closest parking areas are:  ParkBee Borough - Cole Street, 10-8 Cole St, London SE1 4YH (18 min walk)   Tower Hill Car and Coach Park, 50 Lower Thames St, London EC3R 6DT (17 min walk)   Minories Car Park, 1 Shorter St, London E1 8LP (18 min walk)   Facilities:  The festival has been working with access at its centre. We view accommodating access needs as an ongoing conversation and will always endeavour to fulfil them up until the latest possible moment. Ugly Duck is wheelchair accessible. The entrance is via the car park. Ugly Duck has one fully accessible toilet, and all toilets are gender neutral. Benches, chairs, and cushions will be made available in the space to sit or lie down. If you need us to help facilitate your visit, please reach out to: itchthescratchcollective@gmail.com There is step free access to the event.   Social hub:  For those who would like to relax, play, meet, or take a break from the day, we have created ‘the social hub’, a large space engaging in different forms of care. There will be a reading corner, games, children’s activities and creative activities.If you have any other requirements, please don’t hesitate to reach out to a member of the team and we will try our best to make them happen.   We will have members of the collective available to support any needs or answer any questions.   Drinks:  We aim to provide some beverages for all audience, free of charge. Please note we are not providing any food, however there are many local shops/café’s close to the Ugly Duck. This is a sober event.   We would ask everyone to respect and to avoid engaging in any of the following:        •	Anti-social behaviour.    •	Illegal or criminal activity   •	Incivility and/or misuse of authority.    •	Permitting unauthorised access to the site.    •	Conduct likely to discredit the festival    •	Failure to comply with policies and instructions of team.      We look forward to hosting you, and can’t wait for you to see the incredible works from our artists!

Programme of Events

This piece aims to express the fragility of self-perception. Growing up as a dark-skinned black girl in the UK, the artist internalised a lot of negative ideas about her appearance. Getting viewers to arrange the portrait is symbolic of how outside influences (media, other people etc.) can impact how a person views themself, while also freeing the artist of the burden of having to do a self-portrait. In a world where aesthetics are so highly valued, the artist wanted this 'self' portrait to be used as a way to let the audience access their inner-child, and rebel against the adultification of black people by allowing adults especially to reclaim playful innocence by having fun with the work. Please tag the artist in any of your portrait creations on instagram @sharloolart ! Please note this is an all day event

Who Am I?  by Shar Oola

When we hear the distant call of life beyond the human voice we don't think about whether it's 'in tune' or 'pleasant', it simply is. Sounding is an ancient part of interconnected communication and healing. It allows us to free our body of energy and emotions, it allows us to be heard and seen beyond the languages we have built. In this 2 hour workshop, we invite you to practice the art of making noise in community, to free ourselves collectively of shame and fear, and to make space for one another in fully expressing the sound in our being. Please bring a pen, notepad and water with you. Wear clothes you feel the comfiest in.

Deep Resonance: A Collective Workshop on Vocal Healing

Serafine1369 presents their durational film 'It is impossible to say everything here so I leave you with this'

Film by Serafine1369

Join us for a 90 minute session were anyone is welcome to join in!

Open Mic

FREDDIE WULF makes visceral & visual performance. This often involves movement, video, sound, fragments of drag, and something sticky like fake blood or bright blue goo. Freddie studied Scenography before working in drag & cabaret. In 2015 s/he won The Glory London’s MAN UP Drag King Competition. In 2021 he received a Fierce Further Commission (UK) and in 2022 the Jerwood New Work Fund (UK). Positionality: Freddie is trans masculine, white, British and neurodivergent.

Performance by Freddie Wulf 

Gisou Golshani is a London-based, multidisciplinary Iranian artist. Gisou’s ritualistic performances use sound as a medium for multilayered storytelling, and weave together themes around ecology, Persian mythology, sexuality and mental health. They blend fictional tales with real events to reflect on socio-political issues, and seek to offer spaces for introspection and collective emancipation.

Performance by Gisou Golshani

Cris Lyra presents their short film 'Quebramar '

Screening of Quebramar directed by Cris Lyra

Season Butler is a writer, artist and dramaturg. She thinks a lot about youth and old age; solitude and community; negotiations with hope and what it means to look forward to an increasingly wily future. Her debut novel, Cygnet, was published in 2019 and won the 2020 Writers’ Guild Award for Best First Novel. She lives in Berlin and is currently a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme, Berliner Förderprogramm Künstlerische Forschung.

Talk by Season Butler

Live poetry readings by poet Verity Spott

Poetry by Verity Spott

Akış Ka is a character, perhaps a monster, who wanders between the walls of binary genders and even breaks those walls. She is an out of place, and thanks to you, a timeless player. She is a multi-disciplinary queer performance artist. Her practice spans from performance to songwriting to creating youtube videos and hosting talk shows. She approach her practice and her life as an anamorphic Gesamtkunstwerk, an ongoing state of transformation. What motivates her practice is to leave queer marks on art history. Between 2016 and 2019 She was part of the İstanbul LGBTİ+ Pride Week committee. Her art gets its strength from activism. She started performing as a drag queen as a hobby in 2017. Over time, she transcended her drag persona and started her professional productions in 2020, which shaped her entire life. The themes of her works include but are not limited to; trans rights /of existence, body politics, food sociology, commensality, the bodies relationship to space around it in

Performance by Akis Ka

Istanbul-based singer, songwriter, performance artist and DJ, Kübra Uzun is an LGBTQIA+ rights activist, working in Turkey and also on an international basis on various platforms. Kübra wrote, sang and produced the song titled ‘ALAN2020’ with Mx. Sür and it became an anthem during Istanbul Pride in June 2020. In December 2020, Kübra Uzun performed ‘A Trans History Sung’, a digital monument directed by Onur Karaoğlu, in collaboration with Volksbühne Berlin digital season: Next Waves Theatre. They worked with Simon(e) van Saarloos to create an audio work 'Cruising Gezi Park’ which is shown in the exhibition titled 'Refresh Amsterdam’ at Amsterdam Museum from December 2020 till June 2021. In January 2021, They recorded 'Koli Kanonu’, originally Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s KV 560, and shot the video directed by Efe Durmaz - performing all four of the different voices and characters by themselves. In March 2022, They recorded 'Jülyet’s Habanera’, originally Georges Bizet’s Habanera from Carme

DJ  Kübra Uzun

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A Brief Pause

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A Brief Pause

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