My relationship with Multikids Inclusive Academy goes back to 2011, when I was invited to direct an adaptation of Bugsy Malone as a part of their end of year performance. We had so much fun adapting the Chicago play - creating waistcoats using Kente cloth and building a soundtrack using djembe drums, pan logos and piano. It was a whole-school cast with every child taking part from under the age of five, to over the age of twenty with three-part harmonies, solos and a full adapted script.
Enthused and empowered by this ten week experience - during which I also filled in for English lessons teaching a selection of Alice Walker's Color Purple, Pablo Neruda's poetry and leading classes in creative writing and journalism analysis.
My collaborations with the young people was so engaging that I decided to co-found the Accra Arts Festival Summer School programme with my mother and we opened up the project to young people of all abilities outside of MKA who continued to host us.
