NU ROOTS

Fried Plantains Collective

NU ROOTS is back again! Now fiercer than ever, Fried Plantains Collective is ready to blow the roof off Live Collision with set the best of Irish and African talent in Dublin right now. An exceptional night including film screenings, conversation, spoken word, live hiphop and DJ. 

Fried Plantains Collective, Winner of Dublin Fringe Festival’s ‘Judges Choice Award’ 2018 for BLACK JAM.

Doors open at 8pm

Film screening at 8.30pm

NU ROOTS will screen the critically acclaimed film ‘Witches of Gambaga’- a 2011 documentary by Ghanian feminist Yaba Badoe, the film showcases the community of elderly Ghanaian women who have been condemned to live as witches until proven innocent.  The documentary has eerie similarities to the way young Irish girls were isolated and condemned growing up in Magdalene Laundries in 1950s Ireland and even today’s Direct Provision. We’re putting on the film to explore why there is such organised abuse of vulnerable women and girls across the world.

Fried Plantains Collective is inviting Yaba Badoe and Rosemary Adaser to have a cozy round table chat with the audience about the themes in the film. Rosemary Adaseer is the founder of ‘The Association of Mixed Race Irish’ who grew up mixed race in Mother & Baby Homes in 1950s Ireland and spent 10 years in Industrial Institutions (more akin to Victorian Houses) and eventually became one of the first women in the 1990s to speak out against the horrific abuse of the Catholic Church, especially the Nuns.  

From 9.15pm

The evening will be followed by NU ROOTS live stages with spoken word and music performances by Raven, Maeve, Damola and DJ Karma. this is looking to be an electric night of deep chats over wine, with music and dancing afterwards.

Biography:
Amanda Azams of Fried Plantains Collective is a Nigerian woman who started out living in Ireland as an asylum seeker. Sixteen years later, with a background and passion in Community Development, performance arts and with an Irish Citizenship to boot, she enjoys organising social events through her group ‘Fried Plantains Collective’ as a way to get to know the people in her city.

Amanda has recently produced two sold-out music gigs ‘BLACK JAM’ in collaboration with Dublin Fringe Festival and is singing at Irish Writer Centre’s ‘Soapbox’ on Culture Night 2018.

Previously, she has performed at THIS IS POP BABY’s sold out show ”Mouth Of A Shark”, a play about the similarities between gay foreigners who seek safety in Ireland, and Irish people who leave out of fear.

Credits:
Major thanks and blessings to Lynnette Moran, Yaba Badoe, Rosemary Adaseer, Niamh Beirne, Stephanie Costello, Raven Aflakete, Damola, Maeve Meleady and DJ Karma.

Image selected by Fried Plantains Collective is a still from the film ‘Witches of Gambaga’ which features as part of NU ROOTS screening.