I’ve met Nishla Smith before. More coincidentally it is in the exact place that I’ve encountered her majestic voice doing the same festival. Smith is back, once more taking her place in HOME Manchester’s much vaunted PUSH Festival. This time round its another personal retelling, in What Happened to Agnes, she recounts a family secret, through song and animation and her own unique way of telling a simple story.
Tania Camara doesn’t utter a single word. Not one. Instead for the whole hour of the production of Oreo, she gives a tour de force of a performance in captivating the audience to her every whim. Oreo is part of HOME Manchester’s now established PUSH Festival, which not only showcases the best the region has to offer but in my humble opinion, brings a little bit of sunshine in this bleakest of months.
Hafsah Aneela Bashir. You don’t normally see many people like Hafsah on stage. A bold Muslim woman of colour with a head scarf. That’s exactly what you get though, Hafsah on stage, just her, being all Islamic and political and being utterly blooming brilliant in the latest offering from Push 2019 at Home Manchester.
Thank the lord for HOME’s annual jamboree, the PUSH festival. PUSH 2019 celebrates the region’s creative talents from screenings to exhibitions – they have even commissioned brand new pieces for the festival. For me, however, it is a welcome distraction to the miserable, moribund month that January often ends up becoming, providing this writer with a little bit of colour and sunshine. Fat Girl Singing is exactly the kind of antidote one needs to get over the month before with a trip to see an act that showcases exactly what PUSH 2019 is all about, a sassy talented individual that looks like us, talks like us, with razor sharp wit and a bit of a song and dance!