Yarico The Musical

21/12/2015

"Musical theatre is another genre in which boldness in conception and confidence in delivery is key to avoiding its many pitfalls. Amongst the best productions I saw this year were West End smash hit Beautiful - The Carole King Story (and what a joy to be reminded of her immense talent), London Theatre Workshop's Yarico, with an outstanding central performance by Liberty Buckland, and The Stationmaster, an eerie adaptation of a 1930s allegorical warning of the coming of Na**sm."

Broadway World - 2015 Year in Review by Gary Naylor

02/12/2015

Our documentary is in post production - phewwww! We've met some incredible people during this challenging, fascinating and emotional at times, journey.
We can't wait for you to see it in the new year.

27/10/2015

https://vimeo.com/142383225

This is "I&Yintroduction(1)" by John Kidd on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

27/10/2015

A few months back we mentioned making a documentary film about the story of Yarico. We are very close to finishing it with only a few interviews left and would love to share with you a description of what you can expect to see when it's released:

Spirit Eternal is a documentary that explores how a short story from 1657 influenced perception on gender, race, and slavery forever. This is a film about strife, hardship and courage, about the power of art and an unwavering endeavor to abolish slavery.

We begin by looking at the true love story/ tragedy of a British Merchant named Inkle and an Amerindian named Yarico who “for her love, lost her liberty”. The story of Yarico and Inkle, who goes on to betray her and sells her into slavery in Barbados, was a powerful reminder of the dark heritage of slavery. The supposedly true story first appeared in Richard Ligon’s book A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes and was subsequently transformed into a highly successful opera, performed 98 times at the Haymarket Theater, with a total of 164 performances on London stages by 1800.

Using the story of Inkle and Yarico as an example, we take a unique look at the way theatre influenced socio-political landscapes and in particular it’s effect on Britain’s anti slavery movement. At its heart, this is a documentary about the role of art in activism. We speak to academics and explore the historical and socio-economic contexts of that era. We hear about the theatre and its role in influencing public perception in the 17th and 18th centuries and explore the shift in attitudes to how society viewed slavery. As we travel to Barbados and visit the plantation Yarico worked on, we learn about the conditions slaves such as her and those from Africa had to endure. We speak with descendants of the Barbadian slaves and learn of the uprisings and revolutions that took place in the struggle to abolish slavery. As we explore this we shine a spotlight on contemporary issues and the devastating underworld of the slave trade today. We speak to various artist “activists” and take a look at the role of art in education/ activism and draw parallels between the power of art as a human expression and its potential to effect change.

19/10/2015

Congratulations to Liberty Buckland (Yarico) who has been nominated for best leading actress in a new musical !!! To vote for Liberty go to:

http://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/vote2015region.cfm

18/09/2015

A little throwback to 1997 at Holders Season - some of you might remember! The lyrics and tune are from the original 18th century opera, the music is modern day Caribbean

https://vimeo.com/139450134

The Finale of the 18th Century Opera Inkle and Yarico performed in 1997 at the Holders Season Barbados. The lyrics and tune are original the orchestration is modern…

01/09/2015

Freedom Festival Debate Panel

#2 Professor John Oldfield

John Oldfield is Wilberforce Professor of Slavery and Emancipation and Director of the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE) at the University of Hull. A Cambridge graduate, he is the author of Popular Politics and British Anti-Slavery (1995), Chords of Freedom: Commemoration, Ritual and British Transatlantic Slavery (2007) and, most recently, Transatlantic Abolitionism in the Age of Revolution (2013). He has written numerous articles on slavery and abolition in the Atlantic World and is currently writing a book on the mobilisation of public opinion against slavery in Britain and the United States, 1750-1850. His research interests include US history, maritime history and heritage studies. From 2010 to 2012 he was Director of the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Southampton.

31/08/2015

Freedom Festival Debate Panel

#1 Paul Curtis aka Moose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lX-2sP0JFw

Moose is also known as Paul Curtis, hailing from the north of England but now living in Catalonia on an orange farm. He is a street artist with a very different agenda to most, in that his art is made generally through simple acts of cleaning. His pallets are complied of mixtures of biological matter and pollution and his canvases are the massive grimy concrete walls that line our cities, his brush is often just a jet of collected rainwater.
His murals are appearing all over the world, the high contrast of bright clean marks on dark dirty backgrounds make these pieces intriguing both visually and politically as the lines are blurred between rules and common sense, pranksterism and subversion.
One of the questions he asks with his work is who owns this dirt and why would the police be interested in it in the first place? Who is interested in it? By making his marks and his murals into places of beauty the dirt itself becomes a commodity.

Moose has exhibited and spoken all over the globe, appearing in the US as part of 'the Creators Series' that visited New York and LA in 2009, 'Eco Art' in Istanbul, 'Save The World in 10 days' at the Vooruit in Ghent, Belgium, The 'All I Can' film launch symposium in Whistler, Canada and AG Ideas in Melbourne, in most cases holding workshops as part of these visits as well as presenting.
His artwork has also been widely published throughout the world finding its way into the New York Times 'Ideas of the Year' of 2009 and appearing in a long list of books on street art. He first hit the news in an article written in The Face magazine in September on 1999.

He has been commissioned for organisations as diverse as The Metropolitan Police (Anti gun campaign) and the British Government to Greenpeace and Water Aid
He is still carrying on his work in The Broadway Tunnel in San Francisco for a project called 'Plant a tree in the Broadway Tunnel where local residents have been invited to send their drawings of trees which in turn will appear in a forest of trees on the tunnel walls. Most recent commissions include creating a 40 metre long mural outside the Hayward Gallery on the Southbank using only an electric toothbrush.

18/08/2015

Freedom Festival starts in less than 3 weeks - plan your trip to Hull now and don't miss it

http://www.freedomfestival.co.uk/event/YARICO.php

Freedom Festival

03/08/2015

Yesterday was great fun - did really well!! (having an Olimpic gold medalist on our team did the trick)

01/08/2015

For any future reference you can refer to our Wikipedia article

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarico

Yarico is a musical based on a 17th century story of the Amerindian woman – Yarico, who saved the life of, and subsequently fell in love with a British merchant Thomas Inkle, who then sold her into slavery on the island of Barbados - Inkle and Yarico. It was first recorded by Richard Ligon, in his b…

31/07/2015

Join us this Sunday at the Jodie with her niece Amber who is on the British Cycling Olympic Development apprenticeship programme, will give their best!
Www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk