Dissidences*. Sound, voice, word.
Poetesses and/or poets, singers, performers, gather in a semi circle around a music improviser. Reading, reciting, singing or babbling. Spontaneity and dissidence are the rules. Spontaneity and dissidence will be the basis for the creation of a collective piece.
Dissidents 6:
Joanne Morrison & Serena Bobowski
with voice and movement.
Rafael Peñas with voice.
Zheng Hao with sound.
Joanne Morrison is an experimental vocalist & improvising performer with a penchant for cat toys, costume & masks. She’s part of various New Music ensembles & also creates solo work which is currently based around an interest in glossolalia & medieval mysticism from the Christian tradition. As well as performing at Essex venues such as Hot Box, The Commons & The Fishermen’s Chapel, she has also played at Cafe Oto, Hundred Years Gallery, Colour Out Of Space Festival, The Horse Hospital, Battersea Arts Centre, Iklectik & many other independent spaces. Joanne was part of the 2025 cohort at TOMA (the other MA), an alternative art school based in Southend.
Rafael Peñas Cruz is a writer, translator and retired lecturer of Hispanic Culture and Society. He has a degree in English philology from the University of Barcelona and a master’s degree in Hispanic studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, the city where he has lived since 1992. In 2004 he published his first novel in Spanish, Las dimensiones del teatro, and in 2009 his second novel, Charlie, also in Spanish, won the 5th edition of the Terenci Moix Prize for Gay Literature. In 2020 he set Goat Star Books, an independent publishing project specializing in poetry translations as a bridge between people and cultures. It is a poetic project that is based on the idea that poets are the unrecognized legislators of the world, in the famous words of Percy Bysshe Shelley.
The work of Serena Bobowski traverses the worlds of arts and healing – all of which are manifestations of body mind and spirit through performance and curation. As a founder of the infamous Shunt Collective, Serena played an integral part in the birth of Immersive Theatre as well as creating a supportive space for all artists to collaborate. Her recent projects include: The Crone Interviews – honoring post-menopausal women and the unique stories of their blood cycle, and The Body Evolution Program – empowering women to connect deeply with their bodies to create meaningful alignment.
Zheng Hao. Born in Wuhan; based in UK. Zheng Hao uses electronics for solo and group improvisation, while other times also makes unpleasant computer dance music. Enjoys gritty and gnarly textures as well as delicate, amorphous qualities in different sound and space.
https://atunnel.net/
https://zhenghao.bandcamp.com/
Doors at 4. Performance 4.30 Free / £5 Donations for the artists.
* “Protests against the official policies” — * “Protests against the official policies” —* “Protests against the official policies” —
You can hear all the Dissidences Sessions here:
https://dissidenceshyg.bandcamp.com/
