Since founding it in 2003, Brent Shuttleworth and I have done #ArtistsAcrossBorders, which seeks to bring together artists from different linguistic, cultural, and creative backgrounds to come together and create an original piece to be showcased live at a festival or other performance venue. Equal parts cultural exchange, artistic collaboration, and community- and peace-building initiative, Artists Across Borders aims to counteract the division and conflict that, increasingly, seem to define our fraught world.
Listen, we’ve done collaborations like this in South Africa, Canada, the Cayman Islands, UK, the United Arab Emirates (this past February), and many more places across the globe, and this latest collaboration in Ireland was one of the most powerful and distinct ones we’ve ever done.
So much of that has to do with the place and organization we collaborated with—Axis Ballymun—which is one of the most unparalleled arts & community centers I’ve ever encountered. Without Niamh Ní Chonchubhair & the Axis team’s vision, attention, & care, this collaboration could never have happened. So many invisible and thankless hours behind the scenes that will never be fully recognized in the way they should.
Also, of course, the artists. My goodness, what a spectacular group of human beings and staggering talents: Sharyn Ward, Adam Mohamed, GI, & Zeinab.
I feel such a connection with this group. Lifelong friends, for sure.
I’ll always remember the group of girls crowded around Zeinab and Sharyn in awe after our show for the students, the boys high up in the back of the theatre, dead-centre, holding up hearts as I delivered the last lines of “Magic,” the extended standing ovation last Friday night that seemed to whisper “more to come,” and, lastly, the majestic thrum in Axis as we dedicated the show to MC Lunitic (Danny McDonnell) with his little brother, Bob, looking on.
I know it took months, particularly from Niamh & everyone at Axis, to make this happen, but this feels like a tour. This feels like a concept that a producer sees at the Fringe in Edinburgh and funds for a three-week run.
More to come…
Onward, onward 
