Multi-discipinary Artist
Chanje Kunda is a poet, performance artist and film maker. Her work explores 21st century life, and aims to use art as a tool to transform lives, shift consciousness and also bring joy to an otherwise serious and stressful modern existence. She creates content across the literary, theatre, live art and film sectors.
She was a Slate: Black. Arts. World. Commissioned Artist in 2019. Slate was a three-year project, that ran 2017 – 2019, led by Eclipse that supported Black artists in the North to work regionally, nationally and internationally, building sustainable models for careers in the independent sector.
Contemporary Performance
As a performance artist she has presented work nationally and internationally, including at the Southbank, London, The National Arts Festival of South Africa, and the Harare International Festival of Arts, Zimbabwe.
Solo theatre productions to date are ‘Blue Black Sister’ 2009 (Royal Exchange Theatre), ‘Amsterdam’ 2014 (Contact Theatre Commission), Superposition 2017 (The Lowry commission), Plant Fetish (Home Mcr commission) 2019, and ‘Celestial Bisexual’ (Superbia Queer Arts) 2023 . Other international representation includes selection by the British Council for IETM conferences in Romania 2017, Croatia 2019 and Luxembourg 2023.
Poetry
As a poet prominent performances include features at The Royal Albert Hall London, Calabash Literature Festival Jamaica, Black Magic Woman Festival Amsterdam, Apples and Snakes at Soho Theatre and the Latitude Festival. As part of a residency in the Netherlands, she also performed in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Groningen. Her poetry has been published in literary journals & anthologies. Her solo collection ‘Amsterdam’ was published by Crocus books.
Creative Health
As an artist living with Complex PTSD Chanje’s creative work celebrates and champions the value, importance and beauty of ‘broken people’. Her works in this area includes creating performance for digital media, such as Art Film ‘Kintsugi Gold’ for DadaFest International Festival.
She has lived experience of racial injustice, gender based violence and oppression, colonial legacies, diasporic identities, and migration . She portrays the sanctity of a Black, female body as a vessel for art as activism
