Black Label
Joey Starr & David Bobée
“Poetry is a weapon of mass construction”: with the show Black Label, rapper and actor Joey Starr denounces racism, colonialism and police violence through poems and writings from both the past and the present.
Based on Léon-Gontran Damas’s 1956 poetic work Black-Label, Joey Starr and director David Bobée take up anti-racism’s greatest texts, accompanied by the jazz musician and singer Sélène Saint-Aimé and the singer and dancer Nicolas Moumbounou. Alongside them, the deaf artist and sign singer Jules Turlet translates the show into sign language.
Part concert, part poetic reading, part sign singing and part dancing, Black Label is a show of incredible power where anger competes with beauty.
Performers: JoeyStarr, Nicolas Moumbounou, élène Saint-Aimé, Jules Turlet|Literary advice: Didier Boudet |Withtexts by: James Baldwin, Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, Souleymane Diamanka, Éva Doumbia, Kiyémis, Lisette Lombé, Roger Robinson, Tracy K. Smith, Assa Traoré, Julien Delmaire... |Set design: David Bobée and Léa Jézéquel Set design: Les ateliers du Théâtre du Nord Lighting: Stéphane Babi Aubert Sound: Jean-Noël Françoise Video : Wojtek Doroszuk Costumes: Mayuko Bobée Assistantdirectors: Sophie Colleu and Jean Serge Salh Thanks: Renarde Ailée and Éva Doumbia |Production: Théâtre du Nord, CDN Lille Tourcoing Hauts-de-France |Coproduction: Equinoxe, Scène Nationale de Châteauroux ; Les Nuits de Fourvière - Festival international de la Métropole de Lyon |Withthe support of the Fondation Handicap Malakoff Humanis |With thesupport of VIA Agence d'Interprétation LSF
