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Yewande 103 nurture tender,
compassionate, creative encounters.

Our work firstly lives in our bodies. Our form of embodied activism is
responsive. Themes of repair, loss, joy and intimacy define our work. We practice holding multiplicity and intersectionality by staying in creative processes.

Yewande 103 was founded in 2020 by interdisciplinary artist Alexandrina Hemsley. The organisation amplifies Alexandrina’s established creative practice in dance for inclusive, access-led change. Yewande 103 leadership is co-held with producer Nancy May Roberts.

We are one of the UK’s only Black, disabled, neurodiverse, survivor and artist-led dance organisations. We hold an
access-led practice across dance, arts and mental health.

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Origin & Ethos

Yewande’ is Alexandrina’s Yoruba middle name. It has been passed down the women in their family from their great-great-grandmother who ran away from slave traders in Nigeria. She hid, survived and lived until she was 103 years old. In Yoruba, Yewande means ‘mother has returned’.

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What Matters To Us

Yewande 103 are passionate about enlivened, sensitive, caring and inclusive frameworks. This approach is at the heart of all that we do. We instigate interdisciplinary projects within contemporary dance film and publications, alongside wider artist and producer development projects.  We also facilitate movement and creative writing workshops in community and social healthcare spaces

Uniting these strands is our embodied advocacy for the inclusion and equity of diverse voices within the cultural sector; with a particular focus on transforming the landscape for people of colour with long term health conditions.

We do this through