Hope 4 Justice

ESKA

Composer

Zimbabwean-born and Lewisham-raised, ESKA is a vocalist, composer, choral director, actor and producer, whose genre-hopping career has included collaborations with a host of internationally acclaimed artists including the likes of Grace Jones, Zero 7, UNKLE, Tony Allen and designer Rick Owens, as well as choral directing for the likes of Matthew Herbert and Bobby McFerrin. Alongside making international festival appearances, ESKA has had her own sold-out performances at Southbank Centre and The Roundhouse. Her self-titled debut album was Mercury Prize nominated and she is currently working on her follow-up album alongside composing her first opera, commissioned by the Royal Opera House.

ESKA is an Alum of both Blackheath Conservatoire and Tomorrow’s Warriors. She continued to work in music whilst studying for a Maths degree, eventually completing her MSc Econ (Statistics) at the London School of Economics followed by a PGCE (Secondary) at the Institute of Education.

Through this project I’ve got a profound sense of what this subject matter is doing to young people, what they’re grappling with. This is their life on the line. It’s an incredible opportunity to stand in solidarity with them. It’s potent, it’s powerful. It’s important.”

Sarah Golding

Lead Choreographer

Sarah Golding graduated with a BA (Hons) in Dance Theatre at Trinity Laban in 2012, before joining Transitions Dance Company and completing an MA in Dance Performance in 2013.

She has danced works by Colin Poole and Alesandra Seutin and performed for three years with Lîla Dance in The Deluge. Sarah has performed and movement directed for the Royal Court in The Internet is Serious Business, and Primetime, directed by Hamish Pirie.

In 2017 she joined the West End cast of STOMP at the Ambassadors Theatre.

Hannah Gittos

Director

Hannah is a multidisciplinary director, actor, writer and dramaturg, born and raised in Lewisham.

As a director her credits include critically acclaimed The Burning Tower in association with Bush theatre, the multi award winning Womanz, Guinea Pigs by Dare Aiyegbayo and Kidocracy by Keith Farnan. She has worked extensively for the Lyric Hammersmith including on their ground-breaking START programmes and has delivered theatre projects for the NYT, Roundhouse and in both Rochester and Feltham Young Offenders Institutes.

As a performer, she has worked with the National Theatre Studio, Young Vic Theatre, award-winning physical theatre company Tangled Feet and The Work Theatre Collective. She is a founding member of the 5* sketch group, Comedy Bitch and took her first solo show, The Clown, T & Me to the Edinburgh Festival in 2017.

She was the assistant head for BRIT KIDS at the BRIT School of Performing Arts and an associate lecturer at Chichester University. She trained at The Manchester School of Theatre at the world- renowned École Philippe Gaulier.

Waddah Sinada

Associate Choreographer

Originally born in Sudan, Waddah Sinada is a London based dance artist and choreographer, integrating himself in street and hip hop styles along side community led collectives.

Over the course of the last few years Waddah has been working independently teaching, directing and choreographing to further nurture and develop his voice as a young and emerging choreographer, and is co-artistic director of Fubunation.

Cecilia Knapp

Writer & Narrator

Cecilia Knapp is a poet, playwright and novelist and the Young People’s Laureate for London 2020/2021.

Commissions include The Tate, The BBC and The Guardian and she has written for The Huffington Post, The Independent, and The Stage. She has written commissioned poetry for Vogue and been featured in British Vogue as one of the UK’s young writers to watch.

She is the winner of the 2021 Ruth Rendell award and has been shortlisted for the Rebecca Swift Women’s prize and the Outspoken poetry prize.

“I love that we are collaborating and using a variety of creative branches to interrogate what can seem a huge and impenetrable subject. […] Having the voices of Lewisham’s young people and communities at the centre of this piece is crucial and so exciting.”