How To Be Kind

A season exploring radical approaches to kindness. 

Since childhood we have been told to ‘be kind’; to send flowers, give to charity – or offer a hug or round of applause. But in the face of police brutality, economic collapse and a mental health crisis, isn’t time that kindness tried a different tack?

How To Be Kind explores compassion beyond platitudes. With theatre performance, workshops, film and original writing, we showcase the writers, artists and activists calling for a kindness that is urgent, active and transformative.

Join Hamja Ahsan (Shy Radicals) and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan in resisting anti-immigrant state apparatus; explore kindness as solidarity with acclaimed exiled Kurdish artist and journalist Zehra Doğan; envision a kind economy with The Black Economists Network; examine motherhood, mental health and ancestral trauma with Zakia Sewell (NTS, BBC Radio 4) and Amey St. Cyr or learn how to write to forgive with Cecillia Knapp and The Forgiveness Project.

How To Be Kind looks at subversive forms of kindness; from the hope that can be found in acts of resistance to the quiet kind of politics we challenge within ourselves at home. Join us as we explore actions that are re-defining kindness and how we care in the world today.

This season is generously supported by Fritt Ord and Arts Council England