Rwanda’s leading figure in contemporary Rwandan theatre Hope Azeda has seen her annual concept Ubumuntu Arts Festival selected among pioneering 10 projects slated to be honoured with a prize at the 2021 Segal Center Awards for Civic Engagement in the Arts. Since the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, the Segal Theatre Center has presented a series of public talks, with over 300 artists and institutions from over 50 countries. The aim of the initiatives presented was to introduce artistic projects and concepts that develop a new perspective on social and institutional developments in the field of art, especially performance art. The Segal Center Award for Civic Engagement in the Arts was originally established to recognise individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to civic discourse and have had a real impact on contemporary theatre and performance in New York City. During the pandemic era, the Segal Center decided to honour global theatre and performance artists who have become agents of change in 2020 and 2021. As the center moves to honour global theatre and performance artists who have become agents of change in 2020 and 2021 in a ceremony slated for January, Azeda found herself among the 10 honorees, owing to the fact that her festival concept has brought the impact of change in the global community during the past two years of the covid-19 era. She is expected to receive the global prize during The Segal Center’s 2021 global Civic Engagements in the Arts Awards ceremony slated for January 22 in New York, United States. During the pandemic, Azeda created daily online programming for three months connecting her community and the world, dubbed 100 stories of home prior to two virtual festivals themed ‘Stop, Breath, Live’ in 2020 and ‘Rebirth’ in 2021. Additionally, she migrated site-specific outdoor performances to digital platforms. “I am truly delighted and honoured that Segal can acknowledge our humble endeavours. We were exploring unknown spaces and believed that every moment that came into our existence found the inner flame awake to light a world shadowed by the uncertainties of COVID-19,” Azeda told The New Times shortly after being announced among the awards honorees. Azeda is on the recognition lineup alongside Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota (France), students and faculty of the SZFE University of Theatre and Film of Budapest (Hungary), Indian duo Abhishek Majumdar and Tanvi Shah as well as Chris Myers (United States). Other honorees include Thomas Oberender (Germany), Milo Rau (Belgium), Papermoon Puppet Theatre (Indonesia), Pamela Villoresi (Italy) and Kirill Serebrennikov (Russia).
