Join the Whitworth for an evening of live performance art

29 Sep 2023

'Portrait of a Poet', the live performance breakthrough from multi-award-winning artist Princess Arinola Adegbite (P.A.BITEZ), will take place on Thursday, 5 October

Portrait of a Poet is closing the Manchester Independents programme funded by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The performance art show is premiering at the Whitworth as part of their Thursday Lates for one spectacular night only inside The Grand Hall.

Portrait of a Poet is P. A. BITEZ’s surreal live performance art piece about the ways we all perform for love, safety and acceptance. The piece is both visceral and tender, combining live conceptual art instructions, poetry, opera and projection art in a captivating and honest portrayal of identity, agency and self perception. Audiences may or may not enact the instructions. Bitez portrays the way we all perform in a world that requires perfection from us. The performance is not just a one-night marvel; it will be filmed and transformed into a short conceptual film – a blend of live elements and scripted sequences. This film adaptation will debut on P.A.BITEZ’s YouTube channel.

“Spend your day as a poem. Smile at misinterpretations.”

“Pretend for one day you are not your race, age, nationality, class or gender. Look at everyone’s reality like it is as valid and real as yours. When people ask for your name reply with the month you were born.”

Princess Arinola Adegbite (P.A. Bitez) is a poet, performance artist, Factory International, Youth Music and MOBO Help Musicians funded musician and filmmaker from Manchester. She is a winner of Slambassadors, BBC Words First 2020, Slam-O-Vision Manchester Champion 2021, and Manchester Young Creative of The Year 2021. She is also a member of Young Identity. Her in-progress poetry collection 'Algorithms of Meaning' won an Eric Gregory Award from The Society of Authors in 2023.

• To get a ticket, please visit Eventbrite for more details