Intersect with: Madinah Farhannah Thompson

On Tuesday 19th of April, join us for the first of LADA’s newest series: Intersect. This communal gathering will feature artist Madinah Farhannah Thompson. It will occur between 18:00 – 19:15 and is hosted on Zoom.

Madinah’s current project Call When You Reach is made up of performance, collage and film and investigates the impact of trauma and how this leads to a disconnection from the physical body. As part of her evolving research and practice on these themes, Madinah will share new creative writing and collage work that speaks to the notion of surrender and what it means for Black people. 

Madinah Farhannah Thompson is a visual artist and writer exploring Black British experiences through work that is research and text led and incorporates poetry, memory and film. She is particularly enraged by the (mis)representations of the Black female body and the projections that are placed on individuals – namely the extreme polarities imposed on Black women, expecting them to simultaneously be hyper-visible Jezebels and invisible mammy figures. Madinah’s most recent work has been centring Black people living in rural spaces in the U.K. and examining the alienation and isolation experienced in such environments. Having grown up in Norfolk, she is concerned with how one can feel attached to a land that rejects them. She often places herself as an object within her performances to explore ideas of fetishisation. 

 Madinah has exhibited and performed at The Mall Galleries, Wellcome Collection and Camden People’s Theatre, and her writing has been featured in the publication Social Work?: Open, Shades of Noir and the British Council website. Her film Saliva & Tears/Underneath You won the 2020 Ingram Prize. Madinah co-facilitates Prism Writers, a writers’ group for black women and non-binary people in London.

You can read a Guardian feature by Hibaq Farah about Madinah’s work here.