A Jaunt Through The Kingdom was successfully staged in shops, cafes, a local church and through the streets of Hay-On-Wye in the Summer of 2018 and marked the official launch of the Kingdom Project. The event included performances by Don Letts, Sheema Mukherjee, Tom Ravenscroft, Rita Ray, Max Reinhardt and Opposable Thumb theatre. A presentation to the whole town was made during the event which included the last public speech by the late King Richard Booth, Hay’s eccentric and much loved anarchist book King who created Hay Home Rule and made Hay into the World’s First Book Town.
Don Letts
I found the Kingdom Project launch vital and stimulating full of great music and events performed by outstanding musicians, artists and DJs with something to say.
The range and mix of music was inspiring and covered so many genres and cultures including the UK, India, Africa Caribbean and the Middle East.
It was a great mix of roots music and contemporary dance floor crackers. I really enjoyed ancient and classical instruments like the sitar and Uilleann pipe riding cutting edge rhythms. The use of unusual spaces – even clothes shops – to host the eclectic program was inspired and added even more depth and texture to the Kingdom Project. The artists programmed told great stories through their performances. The Kingdom Project is set in Hay, which is renowned for the written word. I am looking forward to introducing the instruments from African oral traditions to this literary town, which is twinned with Timbuktu, Mali’s ancient seat of learning to create a space for new musical stories”
Don Letts – Musician, Film maker, Writer, BBCR6 presenter
Kingdom curator of Film & Music Projects
Rita RayI found the Kingdom Project launch vital and stimulating full of great music and events performed by outstanding musicians, artists and DJs with something to say. The range and mix of music was inspiring and covered so many genres and cultures including the UK, India, Africa Caribbean and the Middle East. It was a great mix of roots music and contemporary dance floor crackers. The use of unusual spaces – even clothes shops – to host the eclectic program was inspired and added even more depth and texture to the Kingdom Project.
Rita Ray – Musician, Film maker, Afrobeat specialist, BBC producer and presenter
Kingdom curator of Sub-Saharan Music, Philosophy & Oral tradition Projects
Dik DowneyWhen Ami from the Kingdom Project first told me we would be performing Coulrophobia (a clown show featuring swearing and disappointing nudity) in the local Catholic Church, I thought she was insane. However, I can honestly say it was a genius idea.
Having performed in festivals and theatres all over the World, it turned out to be one of the highlights of my career. The whole experience epitomised the wonderful originality of the Kingdom Project – using small, unusual local venues to bring exciting, challenging performance to the heart of the town. There was a palpable sense of excitement in the town during the build-up of the event and even on its first tentative outing the Kingdom Project felt established. The reaction from the audience for the whole event was fantastic and showed just how popular The Kingdom Project was with the local community and how ready the town was for this event.
Ami has spent many years delivering incredible arts and performance projects and festival events worldwide and is now bringing all these experiences to bear on this innovative new project. I for one have no doubt she will make it a resounding and long-term success and hope to be involved in it as much as possible!
Dik Downey from Coulrophobia about his performance at the Jaunt Through The Kingdom.