Talk #161

Jamal Gerald

Tuesday 3 March 2026, 6.00pm

Poetry Library
Grosvenor East Building
Cavendish Street
Manchester
M15 6BG

Please register on Eventbrite if you wish to attend.

A video recording of this talk will be available from 2 April.

Jamal Gerald is a writer and performance artist based in Leeds. Since 2014, his practice has spanned Live Art, theatre, performance, short film, and poetry, exploring spirituality, ancestry, and the intersections of Blackness and queerness. His work is conversational, unapologetic, and socially driven.

He is the author of Dee Jumbie Dance: A Resurrection (2023) and has participated in the Channel 4 New Writers Scheme (2024/25). His writing has been published by Methuen Drama, Oberon Books, and the Live Art Development Agency.

Selected commissioned works include Idol (Transform / Theatre in the Mill, 2019), 3 Monday Midnights (Heart of Glass, 2020), and Baba Osain (Marlborough Productions, 2024), which was also supported by Factory International. His short play Pastor Fi Dead was presented at the Royal Court as part of Queer Upstairs (2021), and his monologue Dear Chief was commissioned by Eclipse Theatre for My White Best Friend – North (2021).

In 2025, he created A Joy Ritual, an interactive performance at Wharf Chambers in Leeds. Other touring highlights include You See…, a one-to-one performance which has been presented at Kampnagel (Hamburg), SPILL Festival, and New Performance Turku (Finland). His work has also been presented at venues, festivals, and showcases including Battersea Arts Centre, Barbican, Leeds Playhouse, HOME, Roundhouse, Contact, Midlands Arts Centre, and caravan.

Jamal has undertaken artist residencies at Alice Yard (Trinidad) and RISCO Festival (São Paulo, Brazil), and completed research in Montserrat funded by Arts Council England. He is a recipient of Jerwood Arts’ Live Work Fund (2021) and the Another Route Fellowship (2022), and was shortlisted for the Adopt A Playwright Award (2023).