Kamitan Arts CIC is a Performing Arts and Heritage Non-Profit Community Company, whose presence in the RBKC community has been evident for over 15 years.
Who we help with our work:
Kamitan Arts (KA) brings together inter-generational communities from disadvantaged and challenging backgrounds, amplifying marginalised voices through the power of bi-lingual poetry, harnessing the arts as a powerful vehicle for grassroots-driven social change.
Our objectives are to explore cultural identity and the heritage of our diverse community, as well as highlighting injustices and empowering women. We do this by promoting community cohesion and understanding of humanitarian issues through the performing arts. This includes workshops and productions in rap-poetry, dance, drama, music, art and film. KA collaborates with a wide network of artists and youth practitioners from Kensington and Chelsea and beyond. Our leadership team is rooted in the very community we serve, ensuring strong connections with both the local community and the wider voluntary and secular sectors.
Community, Heritage, Culture, Well-being, Equity and Creative Social Action, are values close to our heart. Ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) Philosophy also underpins our artistic and socially inspired activities which deliver positive outcomes for the community that we are part of and are passionate about serving. All our programmes are inclusive, and we always observe, critique and evaluate the learning and apply this to future work. Using these approaches shows that our ethos is to respect and understand without discrimination and embrace all communities in Kensington and Chelsea and beyond.
KA has been actively championing equity in the arts and culture sector, particularly within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) by amplifying marginalised voices, advocating for authentic representation, investing in grassroots performing arts and heritage organisations and artists and fostering more transparent, equitable partnerships.
Our work has taken us to Brazil, Egypt, Europe and Sudan, as we continue to develop and implement cross-disciplinary arts and cultural projects, which connects people, builds and empowers communities through contributing to a future that is resilient, rebalanced and regenerative; helping to create social change.
Where and with whom we work with:
We operate predominantly, but not exclusively in Kensington and Chelsea. In youth, community and play centres, schools, theatres and open air events in parks.
Emmanuelle Marcel (Princess Emmanuelle), the Founding Director of Kamitan Arts, professionally trained at Dance and Theatre Schools most of her life (RTS, NSCD, BRIT, Urdang, LCDS) began volunteering at Lancaster Youth Centre in 1999 delivering drama sessions to SEND young people. She later went onto deliver dance workshops, performances, and collaborated on productions fusing Dance, Drama, Theatre and Poetry. In the early 2000’s Emmanuelle Marcel was employed as a freelancer and ever since has worked across London, the UK and abroad in a variety of settings and with Kamitan Arts. This includes:
- The Harrow Club – 2004 – 2011
- Golborne Youth Centre – 2004 – 2010
- RBKC Youth Arts – 2004-2007
- Burlington Danes School – 2004
- RBKC Youth Support and Development Service – Early-Mid 2000’s
- The Rugby Clubs – Early 2000’s
- The Venture Centre – 2004 – present
- The Tabernacle – where ‘Princess Emmanuelle’s’ first Spoken Word album was launched 2001 with a live spoken word set and theatrical performance (also 1999 – present)
- The Man in the Moon Theatre – 1999
- One Voice – Vice Secretary and Poetry/Dance Theatre Tutor in 2011
- Portobello Film Festival – Since the early 2000’s-present
- Holland Park School – Street Dance at the after school club – 2007
- Inn on the Green – cultural performance and workshops with local young people
- The Royal Festival Hall – 2002
- Tutoring and running workshops for Shared Experience Theatre Company in Soho
- Step Afrika UK’ 6-week summer project in a Lewisham Girls’ SEND school which resulted in a performance at Lilyan Bayliss – 2003
- In Bradford and Leeds with ‘Breakers Unify’ – Early 2000’s
- Poetry workshops with inmates at Wandsworth Prison – Mid 2000’s
- Running independent workshops at the Favelas of Rio Brazil, Bahia Salvador, and in collaboration with Nu Tempo Dance Festival in Aracaju, Brazil – 2011
- The Cairo Opera House, Cairo American College (CAC), The Sawy Culture Centre Theatre, also in Egypt, and Beit el Fenoon in Sudan (House of the Arts) – 2008-2011
- Kensington Primary Academy – ‘Wonderful Woman’ Dance Classes (for women and mothers)
- Poetry 4 Grenfell – Voluntary Poetry workshops in North Kensington post the Grenfell fire and the documentation of this through film and the self-published book – 2017 – present
- Dance 4 Grenfell – Dance workshops for children affected by the Grenfell fire in the South of the RBKC borough @ Kensington Primary Academy – 2018
- Lyrikal Art and Poetic Art – Multi-disciplinary sessions for children, young people and elderly, in Poetry, Art, Live Music and Movement where one artistic discipline is used as a stimulus for the other; to express oneself, alleviate loneliness and for healing to take place – 2018 – 2019
- Virtual Acoustic Poetry (VAP) – Weekly online sessions tailored for an inter-generational creative community, enabling diverse artistry from RBKC, London and beyond! Bringing together live musicians, featured poets, artists and an inter-generational community to create and share in a safe virtual space. Welcoming all to participate in exploring thier own creativity and have thier voices heard; endeavouring to restore hope for a brighter day through-out and past the COVID19 Worldwide Pandemic – 2020 – Present.
Kamitan Arts works with many artists and youth practitioners from Kensington and Chelsea, thus we’re well-connected with the local voluntary and community sector. We are always open to new collaborations and partnerships. Whether you work within the community or have a private or corporate project, please do get in touch.