An in conversation with Yusra Warsama & Lucky Roy Singh. Host Jenna G delves into the medium of art as a tool for resistance and positive change.

Lucky Roy Singh is an award-winning LGBTQ+ activist, an honour-based domestic violence campaigner, and the mother of the House of Spice. She lives in Manchester, UK. Lucky has worked tirelessly to support survivors of domestic abuse and honour-based abuse by educating police forces across the UK, social workers, and the NHS, advocating for survivors with the British Government, and working with charities such as Karma Nirvana, the LGBT Foundation, and Sparkle. Lucky’s focus has been on LGBTQ+ individuals, which earned Lucky many accolades, most notable the Pride Attitude Magazine Award, Spirit of Manchester Awards Recognition, winner of Gaydio’s 2024 LGBT Influencer of the Year, IKROW’s True honour award 2024 & shortlisted for a Rainbow Honour this year. Lucky’s skill and talent, along with his performance and dedication to anti-racism work, have seen Lucky lead a successful grass-roots performance collective called the House of Spice. This is the UK’s first LGBTQ+ South Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African house. In the House’s first year, Lucky gave a powerful speech during Manchester Pride in 2022, where he vowed to turn racist incidents many LGBTQ+ people of colour had experienced (the House’s included) into a positive outcome for the community. Lucky’s determination led to the delivery of this promise, with major opportunities for performances for Manchester Pride, the LGBT Foundation, Homobloc, Transcreative, and other events and organisations. Lucky continues to mentor and nurture those within the demographic and to continue bringing in more opportunities for the long- term strength of the community. When Lucky takes a break, he enjoys margaritas and chips.

Yusra Warsama is a performance poet, actor, writer and theatre practitioner, her passions lie in creating work through play and exploration of life experiences in world we live in. Past, present and future work takes many forms, from her developing a one woman show which uses spoken word, storytelling, live art and physical expression, to ‘Grace’ and ‘Make – Believe’ with Quarantine, which looks at exploring theatre without focus on characters but the one to one relationship between performer and audience.

Yusra began her theater career in her home city Manchester, whilst studying (BA HONS) Criminology & Sociology,

From there, she began working with both national and international theatre companies and artists, learning that art and communicating narrative, had the power to translate human experience through a multitude of lenses. Her collaborative work includes Don Lett’s Speakers Corner, a spoken word theatre piece.

She is currently acting on several projects and working on her pieces – “Of All the Beautiful Things In The World” 2023 inspired by Lorca’s.