This workshop invites arts and theatre professionals to engage with timely, practice-led research on the challenges and opportunities of platforming politically sensitive work.
The workshop has a particular focus on Palestinian narratives, drawing on interviews conducted with theatre professionals with experience of platforming or producing Palestinian narratives within the current political climate.
Led by Dani Abulhawa and James Harker, this workshop will explore how institutions navigate politically motivated complaints, internal tensions, and public scrutiny in this context.
Participants will reflect on their own roles and organisational cultures, and work collectively to define best practices around three critical areas: articulating institutional values around political activism, building trustful relationships between programmers and artists, and handling complaints with fairness and rigour.
The session will support attendees in developing their own tools for upholding artistic freedom, protecting staff and artists, and ensuring anti-racist commitments can be meaningfully upheld. These issues intersect with wider conversations around ethics, freedom of expression, cultural equity, and the role of the arts in social and political life, both within the context of Palestinian solidarity work and in other politically sensitive contexts.
About Dani Abulhawa
Dani Abulhawa is a British-Palestinian artist and academic whose work sits at the intersection of dance, performance, theatre and live art. Most recently, Dani was the director and co-producer of Voices of Resilience (2024), a theatre production made in collaboration with Comma Press, which was based on new writing by people surviving the genocide in Gaza. The show was presented at HOME Manchester, the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Barbican Centre, London.
About James Harker
James Harker is a British playwright and activist who has supported numerous projects with the goal of amplifying Palestinian lived experience and working toward a future of Palestinian liberation. James worked with Dani on the productions of Voices of Resilience in Edinburgh and London.
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Dani and James have been conducting research interviews with professionals in the theatre and performance sector throughout 2025, which have informed and led to the development of this workshop. They are excited to share their findings widely in the hope that they will be a useful foundation for producers and programmers looking to work with Palestinian content and Palestinian artists.
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Please note that we may get in touch ahead of the event, so please do check your emails from us.
