AMAECHI - film launch
Recital Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR
Free - booking required
Wheelchair users are entitled to concessionary priced tickets with a complimentary companion seat.
Guide dogs are welcome at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire venues. If you wish to bring a Guide Dog or wheelchair, please let the Events Office know by calling 0121 331 5909.
Four Birmingham basketball players, four percussionists and an electronic musician run, jump, shuffle, bounce and play across the 3X3 practice court of the Commonwealth Games creating an energetic and sonically rich performance that sits in the space between sport and music. This action is frequently interspersed by four singers quoting in close harmony the inspiring words of psychologist and former NBA player, John Amaechi, the first basketball player to come out as gay in the very straight world of sports.
This queer-led performance is a celebration of sport, teamwork, collaboration, difference, and the human spirit, whilst also drawing attention to the difficulties faced by queer people in sport, and the status of queer people in 35 Commonwealth countries that criminalise homosexuality, 13 of which punish homosexuality with imprisonment or death.
Today we are launching the 15-minute film of the performance that was commissioned by and took place at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in July 2022.