Human Rights Cultures Workshop

How can photography and writing explore rights that are important to Rwandans today? What are the creative ways in which artists can engage with everyday issues relating to human rights through their work?  And how can we imagine rights that are specifically Rwandan: that extend and complicate international structures such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

This four-day workshop will bring together 6 photographers and 6 writers to consider what we mean by human rights in Rwanda and how these can be explored through the Arts. Taking place during the Kigali Photo Fest, the workshop forms a collaboration between the Kigali Center for Photography and King’s College London.

We invite applications from artists making a living from their creative work. The workshop will offer the chance to:

• Consider what we mean by human rights cultures

• Rethink the relevance of these rights for creative work in Rwanda

• Develop personal projects in relation to these ideas

• Gain specific technical and creative skills

  • For photographers: how to develop a project from conceptualising, planning shots, selecting images and captioning to applying for funding and pitching to different platforms

  • For writers: understanding what we mean by narrative non-fiction, planning structure, characterisation, description, argumentation

• Receive feedback on your work from both peers and international facilitators  

• Build artistic networks for future collaborations

Billy Kahora

Author of short stories including Treadmill Love, Urban Zoning and Gorilla’s Apprentice, the non-fiction novella The True Story of David Munyakei and screenplays for Soul Boy and Nairobi Half Life (co-author) and upcoming story collection, The Cape Cod Bicycle War. Billy is Managing Editor of East Africa’s leading literary journal, Kwani? andhas edited 7 Kwani? journals. An experienced creative writing facilitator, Billy has worked for years between human rights and the cultural sector.

Sarah Waiswa

Ugandan-born, Kenya-based documentary and portrait photographer with an interest in exploring the New African Identity on the continent.  With degrees in sociology and psychology, Sarah’s work explores social issues in Africa in a contemporary and non-traditional way. Her photographs of people living with albinism and ballet dancing in the Kibera area of Nairobi have generated dialogue through their visual poetry.

Liz Hingley

British photographer, anthropologist and curator working on multi-platform projects that explore systems of belief and belonging around the world. She has produced numerous books and exhibited internationally. Her photographs have been published in Time, Le Monde, The Guardian, Financial Times and New Scientist. Liz is a trustee and curator at SIDE gallery in Newcastle and an honorary research fellow at the University of Birmingham and University College London.

This workshop is convened by Dr Zoe Norridge, academic, broadcaster, curator, facilitator and translator at King’s College London, in collaboration with Jacques Nkinzingabo, photographer, cultural activist and Director of the Kigali Center for Photography.