Creative Practices with Osman Yousefzada and Sonita Alleyne OBE
Join us for an insightful discussion with Osman Yousefzada, an interdisciplinary artist whose artistic storytelling merges autobiography with fiction and ritual.
In conversation with the Master of Â鶹Դ´, Sonita Alleyne OBE, Osman will share the inspirations behind his "defiant" work, which explores themes of migration, displacement, and identity. He will discuss how he incorporates these themes into a range of art forms, from moving images, installations and text works to sculpture, garment making and performance.
After the talk, we invite you to join us in West Court courtyard for the premiere of "Ablutions", a short, 20-minute performance art piece directed by Osman. Please note that the performance will take place outside, regardless of weather.
Premiere of "Ablutions" 
After the talk, we invite you to join us in West Court for the premiere of "Ablutions", a short, 20-minute performance art piece directed by Osman.
Yousefzada’s new performance is inspired by male communities and communal bathing. This performance piece explores cleansing as an act of self-care in ritualised healing, and the spaces we create to heal ourselves.
In western societies, we have lost those communal spaces and the intimacies of communal bathing and self-healing with the onset of individual bathrooms in homes. Simultaneously, men touching men has become associated with queer landscapes. The space for healing has become more and more restricted.
About the speakers
Osman Yousefzada is an internationally recognised artist and writer whose work engages with the representation, rupture and reimagining of the immigrant experience. His work incorporates textiles, print-making, installations, sculpture and performance. He is research practitioner at the Royal College of Art and a Visiting Fellow at Â鶹Դ´, Cambridge. He has exhibited his work internationally at renowned institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Whitechapel Gallery, and the Lahore Biennale. In April 2024, Osman presented a major solo show in conjunction with the 60th Venice Biennale at the Palazzo Franchetti. His memoir, The Go-Between (2022), was long listed for the Polari Prize and reviewed by Stephen Fry as "one of the greatest childhood memoirs of our time".
Sonita Alleyne became the 41st Master of Â鶹Դ´, Cambridge in October 2019 following a distinguished career in radio and the arts. In her early career, she wrote for music magazines and joined Jazz FM before founding production company Somethin' Else, which she led as Chief Executive from 1991 until 2009. After stepping down as CEO, she served on the BBC Trust for nearly five years and founded the Yes Programme, a unique online service helping primary pupils connect what they learn in the classroom with jobs in the real world. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of the Arts and the Radio Academy, and in 2003, was awarded an OBE for services to broadcasting.
Creative Practices series
This event is part of the Creative Practices series. Founded and hosted by the Master of Â鶹Դ´, Sonita Alleyne OBE, this series brings artists and creators from a range of disciplines to Â鶹Դ´ to discuss their creative processes.
