As our first mentorship scheme for Black & Black Irish Writers comes to a close, we’re delighted to spotlight the 6 writers who took part in the mentorship scheme.

A huge thank you to our mentors, Celia Morgan, Erika Clark & Amanda Farley.

This mentorship scheme was funded through Screen Ireland’s Stakeholder Funding scheme.

Shauna Harris is a biracial actor and writer with a particular interest in creative work that intersects with advocacy and promoting inclusivity due to her background in social justice studies.Shauna was a 2023-2024 Dublin Fringe Festival Weft Studio artist and collaborative recipient of the 2023 Romilly Walton Masters Award and residency from Centre Culturel Irandais Paris x Dublin Fringe Festival. Shauna is a co-writer and performer of ‘Monsters’ which premiered at the Lir Academy as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2024. Shauna performed her spoken word piece ‘Homecoming’ as part of Culture Night 2024 at Draíocht, her writing has also been exhibited at MOLI, UCD and NCAD as part of ‘The Belonging Project’ and will feature in Bloomer’s upcoming ‘Bless the Corners of this House’ publication. Performance credits include ‘The Giggler Treatment’, ‘Passports’ and Hot Brown Honey’s ‘Hive City Legacy: Dublin Chapter’ which won the 2022 Dublin Fringe Festival Judges Choice Award. 

Seán Gallen is a writer, director, essayist and playwright — whose work has been featured in The Irish Times, at the Cannes Film festival as well as Smock Alley Theatre. His short film ‘The Head on Him’ is currently doing the festival circuit.

Shannon Phelan: I am an Irish filmmaker with an obsession for the horror genre. My storytelling style is often dark and twisted, sometimes disturbing. I have a strong fascination with dark folklore and mythology. I love stories that blur the lines between reality and fantasy harbouring a strong sense of surrealism and absurdist humour akin to Kafka. My favourite storytellers include David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock, Dario Argento Rod Serling and John Carpenter to name a few.

Rema Hamid: Anti-disciplinary, emotional maker. Rema explores various materials, mediums and spaces. Through their art, Rema embarks on a continuous journey of self-discovery, destruction and creation. They attempt to provoke emotion through play, movement and whatever makes most sense in the circumstances they find themselves creating in.

CN Smith: Playwright and Screenwriter, CN Smith was awarded the 2020 Patricia Leggett Scholarship by the Lir Academy, for an MFA in Playwriting, and was an inaugural member of both the Rachel Baptiste Programme at Smock Alley and the WEFT Studio Group at Dublin Fringe Festival. His play Spear was commissioned by Dublin Fringe the following year, leading in turn to further commissions with Fishamble: The New Play Company & New York’s Irish Repertory Theatre, as well as a commission with The Abbey Theatre. Colin’s work has been shown both in Ireland and in the United States – in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  

  

Kayssie K: A poet and singer-songwriter, Kayssie K. also known as Christie Kandiwa was born in Zimbabwe and raised in Ireland. Her work is influenced by blending her Zimbabwean cultural heritage and her Irish upbringing and intertwines Southern-African myths and local languages and forms. She was awarded as the Poet Laureate of County Wicklow in 2021.

Published as one of seventy women who have shaped Irish culture, Kayssie was invited to perform as part of the Literature Festival in Limerick, Diversifying the Canon 2022, MoLi Culture Night, Living Canvas Programme, produced Ruvheneko as part of the Fringe Festival 2023 and NCWI’s 2022 conference and is working as part of the Moonfish Ensemble.