Holding Ground

Nomakhwezi Becker’s Holding Ground is a multilingual live performance weaving story-theatre, song, and poetry to explore home, memory, and connection across distance. Rooted in her South African–German heritage, the work reflects on life between languages, homelands, and generations through the material practices of quilt-making and beadwork, handed down by maternal lineages.

At its centre is a patchwork of modern-day “love letters”, WhatsApp messages, voice notes, screenshots, and music links, transformed into quilted squares that form a soft archive of care. Drawing on research into German Blaudruck/Isishweshwe textiles and Southern African beadwork love letters, the performance invites audiences into a shared act of “holding ground.”

Wed 2- Sat 23 May at Camden People’s Theatre

Written and performed by Nomakhwezi Becker, with movement direction and dramaturgy by Francesca Matthys.