Help Chibueze Get to Goldsmiths!

Hello beloved community,

I am writing to ask for support on a major new chapter in my life and career. I am Chibueze Crouch, a full-time interdisciplinary artist attending a one-year MA in World Theatres at Goldsmiths, University of London this fall. I am raising $10,000 to cover my remaining tuition costs abroad in the UK.

To learn more about me and this journey, keep reading below.

About Me and the Ask:

I am an artist, writer, and curator currently based in Oakland, CA on Huichin, Ohlone land, since 2016. Over the past 10 years, I’ve built a career as an interdisciplinary performance artist, making live, multimedia works that incorporate theater, song, poetry, video, movement, and masquerade ritual. I’ve taught youth as well as adults, sharing my writing practice, theater background, ritual work, and explorations of movement combined with song. I’ve been an artist-in-residence across the Bay Area, and as far off as Johannesburg, South Africa. I’ve created solo work where I’ve danced in a handmade masquerade and built an altar on the streets of the Fillmore in San Francisco.

Through OYSTERKNIFE, the company I co-founded in 2017 with my best friend Gabriele Christian, I’ve created multiple immersive dance-theater pieces in theaters, on the streets of the Haight, and even inside Grace Cathedral. I’ve also danced and sang on buildings while touring with vertical dance company BANDALOOP, going as far as Chile, Hungary, Atlanta, Georgia, and beyond. I’ve supported my fellow artists in community through grant-writing, co-curating, and co-producing numerous shows with collectives like the Performance Primers, Queering Dance Festival, and FRESH Festival. I’ve produced programming out of my own home by co-founding BlaQyard with my roommates in 2020. We’ve hosted rehearsals, performances, raves, a baby shower, a wedding, festivals and more, all for free or sliding-scale costs. We even co-organized an artist residency at BlaQyard for local Black queer artists.

Throughout my career, as I’ve grown, struggled, and bloomed in the Bay, I’ve been deeply grateful to the friends, loved ones, and family who challenged and encouraged me. They have made me the artist that I am, wandering on this meandering creative path. I would not be who I am without the village that claimed me, and the love we’ve shown to each other through action and art-making. It’s this beloved community that pushed me to take the next step to expand my horizons as an artist and masquerade practitioner.

In 2018 I found the work of Prof. Osita Okagbue, an esteemed scholar of African and Caribbean theater, via YouTube lectures and his published writings. I read about Prof. Osita’s research on Igbo masquerade as a longtime scholar, initiate and practitioner of this tradition, and I knew that I wanted to study with him. I was excited to later learn that he taught at the art school Goldsmiths, located in London, UK, as head of the World Theatres, Performances, and Cultures program. In late 2023 I applied, and in early 2024, I was thrilled to find out that I was accepted into Goldsmith’s MA World Theatres program. I’ll be attending their program starting this September 2024.

For the last 6 years, it’s been a dream of mine to attend this Master’s program. I can’t wait to delve into my coursework, where I’ll be focusing on queer gender dynamics and the (traditionally taboo) role of women in Igbo masquerade - both understudied topics in the field. During my studies I’ll have access to the many colonial archives across the UK, home to the displaced cultural artifacts, including many masquerades, of the Igbo peoples. As an artist, I’m very excited to join the innovative theater and arts scene of London, where I’ll make creative connections and start new projects in my practice. The high population of Africans, particularly Igbos, living in the UK is also an invaluable opportunity to build relationships with these deep communities and histories in Diaspora. Plus, I’ll only be 5 hours away by flight from Nigeria, which means I can visit family and conduct in-person research more easily than ever before in my life.

This MA degree feels like a form of reparations, thiefing sacred knowledge from colonial institutions that hold hostage the histories of my people. It’s a chance to form new villages with peers who understand what it’s like to live in the forced or chosen exile of Diaspora, persevering and resisting in the imperial heart of a nation that transformed Igbo culture forever. I know that I will not only strengthen my artistry at Goldsmiths, but also deepen my ancestral connections to my Igbo heritage. Moreover, as someone with British ancestry through my father and great-grandfather, I’m eager to understand other aspects of my identity by tracing their source to the UK. After completing my MA, I will continue to make art, bolstered by the foundation of my degree. I am also interested in furthering my studies with a practice-based MFA or PhD in performance studies, which are more easily funded in the UK.

But I need your support to begin this journey.

I am asking for your help in covering the costs of tuition at Goldsmiths. I have funds left from my late uncle that will cover $15,000 of the $24,511 international student tuition. However, I still have about $9,511 that I am responsible for paying. I want to raise $10,000 to cover these remaining tuition fees, which includes GoFundMe's platform fee. If I receive a scholarship or raise more than $10k, this GoFundMe will go towards my student visa fees of $1500+, as well as living expenses like rent, groceries, books, and transportation, which are not covered by Goldsmiths.

There are very few scholarships for international students studying outside the USA, and even fewer for those in graduate school. I have applied to one grant and one graduate-level scholarship, both extremely competitive, in order to cover most of my tuition and living costs. I won’t hear back from the grant until the end of May, and from the scholarship until June. In the meantime, I’m responsible for paying a £4000 (roughly $5106) deposit towards my tuition by June 2024, so I can receive my letter of acceptance from Goldsmiths and apply for a student visa. I cannot begin the student visa application process until I pay the deposit and receive this letter. But I don’t have the funds to pay for this deposit, or my remaining tuition fees.

As a full-time working artist living in one of the most expensive regions in the USA, and a soon-to-be student living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, my financial prospects are incredibly grim. My current finances are precarious at best, with my monthly income fluctuating according to the amount of commissions or performance work I can take on. I rely heavily on grants, fellowships, creative commissions, and several curatorial or administrative side hustles to barely make ends meet. I have no savings and limited family support. I am very lucky, privileged and grateful for the funds I’ve received from my late uncle to cover most of my tuition fees. However, my family does not have the generational wealth that many international students have to fully support their studies abroad. I need my community’s help to make my dream come true.

Please donate whatever you can towards my tuition fund. If you can’t donate, please share this GoFundMe with your friends, colleagues, and family. Any amount helps, and I am deeply thankful for your support.

I hope to make my community and my loved ones proud in this new stage of my journey.

With deep care and gratitude,

Chibueze

To read my bio, learn more about my work, or to donate via PayPal, Venmo, and Cashapp, please visit:

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