ABOUT SIANA.

MISSION-CENTRED.

Siana’s artistry creates a foundation for supporting the communities she serves. Working and campaigning on issues of race, class, gender and their intersections, Siana is currently undertaking projects that focus on climate change, the arms trade, and state violence.

Storytelling leads her approach in empowering and prioritising marginalised voices, communities of the global south, Black womxn, and young people from all backgrounds; founder and former editor of Black British Feminist platform, No Fly on the WALL, Siana is the author of critically acclaimed debut collection, ‘Elephant’, a book of poetry meditating on Black British womanhood and life growing up in London.

“No black woman writer in this culture can write ‘too much’. Indeed, no woman writer can write ‘too much’. No woman writer has ever written enough.”
bell hooks

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY.

Her work also spans film and stage; the producer of ‘1500 & Counting’, a documentary film investigating deaths in custody and police brutality in the UK, and short film ‘Denim’, meditating on the impacts of gentrification, she is also the founder of independent social justice production house Courageous Films.

Siana was an artist-in-residence at the Birmingham Rep Theatre throughout 2019, a Jerwood supported artist throughout 2020, and is the co-host of ‘Behind the Curtains’ podcast, produced in partnership with English Touring Theatre (ETT). Her latest play Swim, Aunty, Swim! opens at the Belgrade Theatre in May 2024.

More of Siana’s work→

“An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.”
Nina Simone

SYSTEMS-CHANGE.

Siana’s work takes a purposeful, root-causes approach to implementing systems-change. Working with, empowering and building community, Siana believes in Transformational Governance, using non-hierarchical and other non-traditional forms of collective organising.

Motivated by being raised in her mother’s love – and observing how women like her mother navigated an unjust society – Siana uses her voice to lean into the conflict many are discouraged from addressing, doing so in healthy generative ways to promote a professionalism that embraces a culture of care and humanity, a working culture that treats people like human beings and comrades.

Holding herself accountable is a big part of how Siana shows up, and who she aligns with in her creative and campaigning endeavours.

Siana’s mission statement is as follows:

I will never be ashamed to care deeply.

I will aspire to, more often than not, act with compassion – even when doing so feels hard.

I will do everything with integrity – in my work and in my personal life.

I will seek to understand and listen with minimal judgement.

I will always take up my rightful space and show up – for myself, for my friends, for my community.

I will always use my voice and say the things others find difficult to say.

I am committed to ensuring my work feels meaningful and intentional, returning to my core values of justice, equity, and love.

I will create for, document, and archive my communities and our times diligently – respecting and honouring my gifts as a storyteller.

I will act, rather than be acted upon, setting the standard for, and narrative of, my life.

I will give generously as long as I am able.

I will not be driven by greed and pressures from capitalism – money and resources will be in service of enabling a better, more comfortable life, rather than the dictators of my life.

I will aspire to keep recognising the difference between loneliness and solitude, valuing the latter as much as time spent in communion.

I will continue to act in service to my communities, without martyring myself in the name of them.

I will remain curious and questioning – seeking always to envision the possibilities of what could be, refusing to only accept what is.

I will keep seeking joy and laughter – welcoming them into my life as necessary fuel for life’s marathon.

I will honour my feelings, and show myself the same kindness I readily show others.

I will remain rooted in my mother’s love, and stay grounded in that at my core, remembering who I am and all that I am.

And I hope that at the end of my days, it can be said that I am exactly who I said I am; that my words matched my deeds; that I gave everything my all and helped move voices and experiences from the margins to the centre.