≈ 75 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: October 12, 2022
Fighting The Power Never Tasted So Sweet
Written by Kim “Busty Beatz” Bowers and Lisa Fa’alafi
Rise and Shine Motherlovers! Hot Brown Honey are back with THE REMIX - Fierce! Femme! Global First Nations! Everything you love about the smash hit show, with extra sweet treats of radical fierce love and joyous rage
- Centrestage.
Steeped in the Word of The Mother and packing a punch of Hip Hop politics, Hot Brown Honey is an extraordinary production that spins tradition on its head, going above and beyond to challenge boundaries and embrace resilience. Equal parts theatrical masterpiece & social activism, a stellar posse of phenomenal World First Nations women smash stereotypes in an unapologetic celebration of our similarities & differences. So get ready to laugh until you cry, clap until your hands bleed, dance in the aisles and shake every part of what your mama gave you. It’s time to be the change we want to see.
BUSTY BEATZ aka THE QUEEN BEE (Creator | Writer | Musical Director | Composer | Sound Designer)
Definition: So Boss. Vessel for The Word of The Mother. Divine Feminine Power. Hip Hop Wrath. Filled with joyous rage. Protector of the Hive. Nurturer. See Matriarchy. Fights The Power.
In the words of Busty Beatz: “Fighting The Power Never Tasted So Sweet
LISA FA’ALAFI aka THE GAME CHANGER (Creator | Writer | Director | Choreographer | Designer)
Definition: Innovator of an event, idea, or procedure that significantly alters the current way of doing or thinking. Shake’Em Up Woman. Defies the Norm. Shifts the Paradigm. Rocks The Boat.
In the words of Dr Angela Davis: “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
MATEHAERE HOPE HAAMI aka HOPE ONE (Beatboxer | Poet | HBH Senior Collaborator)
Definition: Embodies the two-spirit. Takatāpui. Brings light to darkness. Seeks truth, Speaks truth. Breathes Hope to inspire change. Connector. Collaborator. Defies gender binaries.
In the words of Bell Hooks "The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom."
GHENOA GELA aka THE GROUND BREAKER (Multi-Arts Navigator | Multi-Dimensional Storyteller | HBH Senior Collaborator)
Definition: Originator or pioneer that leads to/makes possible further growth. Devours Space. Risk Taker. The Fierce Awakens. Makes Noise.
In The Words Of Nina Simone: “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times”
MAYU MUTO aka THE GRAVITY DEFIER (Aerialist | Circus | HBH Ensemble)
Definition: One that defies convention, refuses to obey, grounded in tradition and elevated by the fantastic. Strength of body and mind beyond boundaries, generating joy as they reach for the sky.
In the Words of Yuri Kochiyama: “The most powerful weapon for we women of colour is truth. Go out and tell truth, everywhere.”
ALINTA McGRADY aka BADASS MOTHER (Singer | Songwriter | HBH Ensemble)
Definition: Embodying values of justice, courage, compassion and integrity, one who has the responsibility of physical and emotional care of the next generation. Land connected, Fiercely protective, The Hardest job on earth.
In the Words of Hot Brown Honey: “The Revolution Cannot Happen Without Childcare.”
LILIKOI KAOS aka THE WAVE MAKER (Circus | Comedy | HBH Ensemble)
Definition: Oceanic innovator, navigating the way for those to follow. Flirting with risk, shaking up the system and braving the unknown. Washing away colonised thought, change through Kaos.
In The Words of Haunani Kay Trask: “I break the ideology of happy natives and that makes me dangerous.
A killer Music Director, Composer, Sound Artist, Music Dramaturg and Performance Maker, Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers has been making fearless art to activate, pollinate and liberate for over 25 years. Of Xhosa heritage and living on Yuggera country, Kim creates sonic experiences intersecting disciplines, politics and soundlines with a focus on giving voice to stories which are unseen and unheard. Kim signed her first record deal at sixteen, performing, recording and touring with bands for over a decade - this era has been immortalised via her contribution to Sophie Howath’s Big Day Out book Peace, Love and Brown Rice and her place in the Women Who Rock photographic exhibition of the Melbourne Arts Centre. She is a composer for film, including Amar directed by Fatima Mawas, Love Bites directed by Jermaine D’Vauz (ABC/Screen Australia) and Lawrence Lim’s award winning short Eleven. Composition and Sound Design for theatre credits include Belvoir Street Theatre, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Queensland Theatre, La Boite Theatre Company and London’s Roundhouse. Music Direction credits includeEast London West Sydney directed by Breakin’ Convention’s Jonzi D, Polytoxic’s The Rat Trap and she is resident MD for the internationally renowned, award winning Briefs. This beat-making Mama is the Co-Creator, Writer, MD and Queen Bee of the international smash hit Hot Brown Honey. Kim creates across forms commissioned by London’s Wellcome Collection and The Sick of The Fringe for the 2017 installation We Are The Latest Models of Our Ancestry, and was invited to be a part of Barby Asante's work Declaration of Independence for the 2018 Venice Biennale’s Diaspora Pavilion. She is currently making an album with Birri Gubba/Kungalu artist Ancestress and is creating the Soundtrack to The Hot Brown Honey Revolution. Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers is a sound visionary, defying genres and bringing her fierce empowerment to activate museums, galleries, theatres and public spaces, all while leading audiences onto dance floors across the globe.
Samoan Australian Lisa Fa’alafi is a multidimensional artist and teine toa living and working on Yuggera and Turrbal country. With 20 years experience as a performer, designer, dramaturg and director. The heart of her process makes space for indigenised feminine processes, pushing cultural and gender boundaries as well as Decolonising western theatrical spaces. Her work is visually stunning, highly entertaining, conceptual, political and uses theatre as an instrument to create change. Lisa is Co-Director of artist collective Polytoxic who have created platforms and landmark intersectional works recently commissioned by Brisbane Festival for two large scale works; Snapshot multimedia arial work 2020 and Matilda award nominated feminist work Demolition 2021. As an independent maker, Lisa’s work combines her ethos with a unique style of cultural analysis, experimentation with form and eye for design. From theatre direction and choreography, costume and set design, immersive interactive design and performance as well as her work as a speaker on diversity and intersectional feminism in theatre, Lisa has worked with numerous renowned artists and companies, including Rosanna Raymond’s SaVAge K’lub (APT GOMA), ATUA (National Gallery of Australia), Nick Cave: The Heard (GOMA), The Guilty Feminist, Babushka, Circa, The Art Engineers, Don’t Speak UK, The Treasury London, Bech and Phluxus2 Dance Collective. Her work has been seen at Sydney Festival, festivals in Noumea and Vanuatu, Darwin Festival, Brisbane Festival, Las Vegas Burlesque Hall of Fame, Dublin Fringe, Planet IndigenUs Canada and PS122’s COIL Festival NYC. Lisa is the Co-creator, Writer, Director, Designer, Choreographer and Performer for the international smash hit Hot Brown Honey, performing across six countries, the work has receiving massive popular and critical acclaim, winning the prestigious 2016 UK Total Theatre Award for Innovation, Experimentation and Playing with Form, 2016 Greenroom Awards for Best Production and Best Design, 2017 Helpmann Award for Best Cabaret Performer and 2018 Nominee for Best Touring Production for the UK Theatre Awards. Lisa continues to grow a cohort of incredible BIPOC creatives through the Hive City Legacy Project which first premiered a London show at Roundhouse 2018, touring 2019 and 2022 will see the creation of a new HCL show with Dublin Fringe Festival who have commissioned a new Irish hive. Today she is sought out for her skills as a director, dramaturg, mentor and is working with POC artists across Australia, the UK and Canada.
Maori Artist Materhaere Hope 'Hope One' Haami is Australia and New Zealand’s most renowned female beatboxer. Based in Brisbane Queenland, she has toured the globe, placing 3rd in the women’s division at the World Beatboxing Championships in Germany. Hope One has performed with Tom Thum, Joel Turner & the Beatbox Alliance, T-Pain, Naughty by Nature, Eve, George Clinton, Michael Franti and The Wailers. She continues to work with young people from diverse backgrounds creating HopeOne’s School of Beatbox.
Koedal (Crocodile) and Waumer (Frigate Bird) woman Ghenoa Gela is a strong Torres Strait Islander woman from Rockhampton, Central Queensland. Her background is in Torres Strait Island dance and since receiving a Diploma in Careers in Dance, she has been a Sydney based independent Performing Artist working across Dance, Circus, Television and Stage. Some credits include Mura Buai – Everyone, Everyone, Choreographer/Co-Director with Artistic Director Danielle Micich; Nothing to Lose (Force Majeure), additional choreography with Kate Champion; #GenuaGela, Performer/ Choreographer/Director (Nula Nura Residency, Performance Space); Move it Mob Style, Choreographer & In Studio Host; Top 100, So You Think You Can Dance Australia 2014; Dance Site, Booraloola NT, Facilitator; The Piper, (My Darling Patricia), Edinburgh Fringe 2015; Fragments of Malungoka – Women of the Sea (Keir Choreographic Award – winner 2016). Ghenoa’s arts practice is inspired by her family stories and her passion to share her Torres Strait Islander culture. She aspires to inspire.
Mayu Muto is a circus/physical theatre performer based in Meanjin (Brisbane). She has been creating and performing as an independent artist, also with Casus Circus (Driftwood, Knee Deep, DNA), Polytoxic (Snapshot, Apocaliptick), GUSH, Wilde Applause Entertainment, Aerialicious Entertainment, SA circus and more. Monsteria by GUSH won Matilda Award Best Costume Design in 2017 and Best Circus and Physical Theatre Weekly awards at Adelaide Fringe in 2018. Her solo show Mutating Roots was presented in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. Before discovering Circus, her creative outlet was dance. She performed extensively both in Japan and Europe prior to coming to Australia. Mayu discovered Circus at Vulcana Circus where it continues to be her circus and creative home. Mayu’s work is unconventional, drawing on experiences as a Japanese woman artist living away from her cultural home and integrating skills and knowledge from various training. Mayu is trained at Royal Antwerp Dance school in Belgium, Professional year (Dance) at Frankfurt University in Germany, Bachelor of Exercise Science at QUT.⠀⠀⠀
A First Nations woman with her roots planted in Meanjiin, Alinta McGrady is a multi-disciplinary artist in music, dance and theatre. Performing at festivals and events such as Woodford folk festival, Yonder, Quandamooka Festival, Anywhere Theatre festival, Anti-social at the Zoo, Clancestry, Green Jam at QPAC, Meanjin Markets and more, she has also taken to the stage at Brisbane Powerhouse, QPAC, La’Boite Theatre, The Judith Wright Centre and Queensland Theatre for various Creative developments and seasons of work. With a love of creating Music and Theatre for Children, she has toured Regionally with Productions Stradbroke Dreamtime with Queensland Theatre, Have you Ever Heard a Wombat Sing a Music Theatre works written by herself, Waveney Yasso and Sue Rider and was an Artist in residency in 2020 with Powerkids: Little Artists At Play at the Brisbane Powerhouse working alongside Imaginary Theatre. She has also worked with the likes of Xavier Rudd and Blue King Brown as a Backing Vocalist and has toured nationally and internationally with Xavier Rudd & the United Nations for the Album tour of Nanna. March 2020 saw Alinta release her Debut Ep Red to airwaves and she is looking forward to continuing to spread her ‘Hypnotic sound’ and weaving stories through her practice in the years to come.
Lilikoi Kaos is an international superstar, multi-award winning Australian/Hawaiian powerhouse. Surfing a dazzling wave of her own iconic, innovative, fierce and dynamic energy, Lilikoi Kaos has thrilled audiences around the world with her hip-shaking heart-breaking hula-hooping, incredible sideshow stunts and mischievously cheeky wit. A creative cyclone on stage and screen she directs, performs, produces, designs and teaches, her innovation across circus, cabaret, sideshow, and the visual arts embraces her Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) heritage while pushing the cutting edge. From London to Las Vegas, Berlin to Buenos Aires, Lilikoi has MCʻd, created solo acts, collaborated, produced full shows, toured with celebrated productions and ensemble shows:Headlined The Miss Behave Gameshow on the Las Vegas Strip, Circus Oz (Aust & USA), La Soiree (London), La Clique (Edinburgh, London, Brighton), Strut and Fret (Aust) Finucane & Smith (Argentina & Aust), Circus London (Westend London).Lilikoi has directed and produced shows for Londons Roundhouse, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Melbourne Fringe, Theatreworks, Byron Bay Bluesfest, London Wonderground Southbank, Adelaide Fringe, The Commonwealth Games.
Projectionists, Wardrobe Mistresses, Masters and Attendants are members of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 471.
NAC Indigenous Theatre is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and engages professional Artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the terms of the jointly negotiated Canadian Theatre Agreement.
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees