Fund Ubuntu! Decolonial Arts Centre

Hi, my name is d'bi.young anitafrika and I am fundraising to create an international decolonial arts centre in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica. Decolonial performance praxis is the confluence of theory and practice that aims to transform colonial systems of oppression—decolonising personhood, practice, and pedagogy—through reflexive theatre, performance and land-based interventions.  This centre is unique in the world and will be home to the study and practice of decolonial performance frameworks, methods and techniques by Black and other Global Majority peoples, including the Anitafrika Method. 
Ubuntu! International Decolonial Arts Centre is a holistic g

athering place, on the land, aiming to embody the African philosophy from which it takes its name—Ubuntu—a Zulu word meaning “I am because you/we are.” Centring embodied decolonial arts practice from around the world and the relationship between arts practise, land, water and food cultivation, by Black and other Global Majority arts practitioners who are working to rupture colonial matrices of power within themselves and society, the Decolonial Arts Centre highlights reflexive performance and land/food cultivation practices, as well as other creative, intellectual, and socio-political/cultural interventions that aim to decolonise personhood, practice, and pedagogy. The first of its kind, the Decolonial Arts Centre is founded on the Sankofa Principle---an indigenous African philosophy (Twi) which means to return and get the knowledge. Through establishing the centre, we are attempting to cultivate our Black and indigenous roots---that tether us to the earth---to unlearn and relearn through a decolonial framework. We are in need of financial resources to purchase land on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, to establish the centre. 

Why do we make art? Is it to liberate ourselves? Is it to heal? It is to embody the fullness of our capabilities? Is it to challenge ongoing systems of oppression? Is it to deepen our practice of Ubuntu which means 'I am because you are.' I make art for all these reasons and I intend to create a centre where artists from around the world can gather to ponder these very questions. This is a movement towards Ubuntu!  A movement towards saving our planet! Please help me make this next dream of founding an international decolonial arts centre, a reality.

Funds Required $50,000 CAD 
$50,000 - partial downpayment to acquire the Decolonial Arts Centre 


What Will the Decolonial Arts Centre Do
The centre will
a) host year-round individual and group artist residencies in decolonial practice
b) convene international workshops, courses, and in-person/online gatherings 
c) host the annual Ubuntu! Decolonial Arts Festival in  Costa Rica, beginning August 2022

Links
Official Website of d'bi.young anitafrika 
Performance Archive of d'bi.young anitafrika 
The Anitafrika Method Podcast 


Dear global village, it has been a 25-year journey of learning, embodying, and teaching decolonial performance methods in Canada and around the world. As an artist-activist, I have been unapologetically committed to anti-colonial work in my life and art.  It has been challenging to secure funding from mainstream institutions, for critical/creative work that resists societal and institutional colonialities. My work as a Black-queer-feminist artist, activist, and researcher could not have grown to this stage without you, Global Village.  


I have created poetry, theatre, and educational arts programs to challenge the absence of training spaces for Black and other Global Majority artists. As a student of Toronto's Fresh Arts Program, I have truly been raised by entire villages of people. And I have used my talents, skills, accolades, finances and public attention to pour energy directly back into my communities. This is what I was taught to do as a responsible humxn being and I love doing it. Sometimes finding the support for big visions can be difficult especially when you are positioned as ‘different’ and your work challenges regularised systemic oppression.

Global village, it is you who have always picked me up when I was fallen down by these systems, disillusioned by their violence and erasure, by their racism, homophobia, patriarchy, and classism. It is you who provided the energetic support in the form of financial capital to keep me going. It is you global village that has always celebrated m

e and the work that I do. And in return, I honor you with my unwavering commitment to creating, sharing, and facilitating art that prioritises emancipation and liberation.

I came to you ten years ago to save Watah Theatre, and you did. Watah Theatre went on to being an accessible training ground for hundreds of emerging Canadian artists. I came to you again almost five years ago to get your support to pursue Post Graduate studies in London UK. It was your love and support that got me to England. I completed my MA in Performance Making at the University of London in 2019 and then went on to receive a full PhD scholarship from London South Bank University in 2020 to pursue a doctorate in Theatre and Performance. I am now within 18 months of completing my doctoral thesis entitled Ubuntu! Decolonial Performance Methods by Black Womxn in Theatre, Globally. 

You have witnessed my commitment throughout the years, to provide accessible theatre and performance training through community interventions such as fiwi aat space, anitafrika dub theatre, and the Watah Theatre. I am proud to call myself an artist of and for the people. My commitment to building an international Decolonial Arts Centre is unwavering. This dream is decades in the making. And it is for this reason that I am coming to you again to receive your support.

I have found a space for the centre in Puerto Viejo Costa Rica. I have gathered all of my personal savings to make this dream a reality but I don't have enough money to see it through to the finish line. I 

need your support in order to do that. Any and every contribution matters; none too small, none too large.

Throughout the past two decades, I have hosted over 25 international artist residencies in as many countries. I have founded multiple grass-roots educational/creative institutions such as fiwi aat space, anitafrika dub theatre and the Watah Theatre that have provided access and career development to hundreds of artists nationally and internationally. As an artist myself, I have created a significant body of art rooted in love and revolution.  Please help me to create a space of transformation where we can gather in kinship. Thank you Global Village :)