Cheryl, Co-Artistic Director of both Manchester’s black-led literature Arts Council NPO Commonword and ACE-supported Black Gold Arts Festival, has worked as a poet, playwright and director, and was a former Associate Director, New Writing/New Work at Contact. She was also lucky enough be part of the 2019-2020 British Council Australia INTERSECT programme, and had loads of fun as Guest Curator for homotopia 2018.
A Manchester Evening News TheatreAward winner as both writer [musical Heart and Soul, Oldham Coliseum Theatre] and director [Iron by Rona Munro, Contact], Cheryl’s solo stage show Alaskafeatured in 2016’s A Nation’s Theatre, & 2019’s Summerhall Edinburgh Fringe&Wellcome Festival of Minds and Bodies in London. Her first solo poetry collection Alaska was longlisted for the 2015Polari Prize.
Her filmOne Woman, an Unlimited Wellcome Collection Partnership Award, toured festivals including the Unlimited Festival at the Southbank Centre, Barcelona’s L’Altre Festival, and Edinburgh’s 2021 Summerhall Digital Fringe.
She directed The Walk: A Sleeping Child for 2021’s Manchester International Festival, which launched the journey of the giant puppet Little Amal; The Gift for Graeae’s Crips Without Constraints online; andtaughtforManchester Metropolitan University’sandALRA North Drama School in 2021-22.