Jonzi D and Pawlet Brookes on Black dance, TS Eliot Prizewinner Bhanu Kapil, portraying politicians

Choreographer Jonzi D has created a new work for Dancing Nation, the all-day digital festival of dance which is streamed on BBC iPlayer this Thursday. Jonzi discusses the state of Black dance with Pawlet Brookes, who runs Serendipity in Leicester and has edited the collection of essays My Voice, My Practice: Black Dance.

In the light of the announcement that Kenneth Branagh has been cast to play Boris Johnson in a new TV drama about the Covid-19 crisis, critic, journalist and former political researcher Sam Delaney joins Samira to talk about the impact of dramatisations of contemporary political moments on the public imagination.

Last night Bhanu Kapil won the TS Eliot Prize for her collection How to Wash a Heart. She talks to Samira about and reads from her book which, in the voice of an immigrant guest in the house of a citizen host, explores the idea, and limits, of hospitality, and the experiences of diaspora people.

For his Moment of Joy, the writer Darran Anderson chooses a scene from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, an exploration of mortality that is nonetheless deeply life-affirming.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jerome Weatherald Studio Manager: Tim Heffer

Main image above: Jonzi D Image credit: Dave Barros