BLACK TO NORMAL: INTERNATIONAL READINGS
TicketsDuring the international event Black History Month, the festival Black To Normal joins Sort/Hvid. Experience two evenings of international readings by five European playwrights with African roots. Encounter new global voices in a reading program where drama meets urgency in manuscripts exploring the themes of race, identity, and history through satire, humor, music, and poetry – from the deeply personal to the relentlessly political.
On stage you will meet an Afro-Danish cast and the Danish-Gambian musician Dawda Jobarteh. Dawda Jobarteh will incorporate both electronic elements and the West African string instrument, the Kora, creating unique soundscapes for the festival’s readings. It will be music and text merging in this raw experiment.
PROGRAM
16th of October at 17h30 – G by Tife Kusoro (UK/NG)
The award-winning G is a mystifying coming-of-age story. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2024. G is a hypermodern and raw script where slang, phone screens and a hash psychosis melt together in an electric reflection on youth, fragility and survival.
Tife Kusoro is a British-Nigeran writer and performer. She has written scripts for movies and television, performances and poetry. Her playwright debut G was awarded with the George Devine Award and the Playwrights ’73 Award. Kusoro is a resident writer at Royal Court Theatre fundet by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation.
16th of October at 19h00 – VILHELM HERMANSEN, debut novel by Alexandré Nsonis (DK/CG), dramatized by Anna Skov Jensen (DK)
A writer searches for a new identity and a foothold in a new country, while his past as a child soldier and experiences of sexual abuse haunt him. He meets Natasja. She is kind. Caring. Attractive. It terrifies him. Does a murderer deserve love? Can you escape your past with a new name?
Alexandré Nsonis is a Danish-Congolese poet. He debuted with the poetry collection In Africa, Boys Are Not Born – Only Men in 2021. The honest, harsh, and confrontational poems dealt with the Second Congo War, fleeing to Denmark, and a life marked by love, rape, racism, and mental suffering. Nsonis uses poetry as a survival tool – a way to cope with trauma, grief, and cultural alienation.
16th of October at 20h30 – MY VOICE WAS HEARD BUT IT WAS IGNORED by Nana-Kofi Kufuor (UK/GH)
An intense chamber play about a five-year-old boy who takes his attacker hostage in his classroom. Class, skin color, and authority collide in this poetic and unforgettable exploration of what it means to be seen – but denied a voice.
Nana-Kofi Kufuor is a British-Ghanaian playwright, screenwriter, and TV writer. He holds a degree in film and TV production from the University of Cumbria (2014) and a master’s in screenwriting from the University of Salford (2018). Kufour writes about race, gender, politics, and class struggles – often through a comical yet sharp lens.
17th of October at 17h30 – SUKKER by Linda Gathus (NO/KE)
A satirical, Afro-futurist text challenging the idea of heritage, power, and our past and future with its sharp-edged humor and imaginative power. With parallel timelines, magical realism, and overlapping time zones, we are taken on a journey through the 400-year-long connection between Scandinavia and Africa. Sukker premiered at Det Norske Teatret in oslo on Oktober 10 2025.
Linda Gathu is a Norwegian-Kenyan actor, director, playwright, and filmmaker. She was educated at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. In 2022, she received the Critics’ Prize for Best Screenplay and Direction together with Ingrid Liavaag for the short film The Director (2022).
17th of October at 19h30 – HVOR INTET HÆNDER, debut manuscript by Amina Elmi (DK/SO)
A meeting between two aging men in a house in Sweden. They have drifted out of each other’s lives. Friendship has turned into betrayal. Together they face a difficult conversation — about the story that has been told and distorted by others. The story that made them doubt their own memory. The story they have desperately tried to flee from, now finally catching up to them.
Amina Elmi is a Danish-Somali poet. She’s a graduate of the Danish School of Authors (Forfatterskolen) in 2023. That same year, she published her debut poetry collection Barbar [Tavshedens objekt], which won the Bogforum Debut Award in 2023 and was nominated for the Politiken Literature Prize in 2024. In April 2024, she received the Spirekraft Prize at the Ordkraft literature festival in Aalborg.
ABOUT BLACK TO NORMAL
The festival Black To Normal is led by actor Marie-Lydie Nokouda and has existed since 2021, driven by a desire to cultivate and spotlight writing talent among BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). With a focus on our shared colonial heritage, the festival creates space for new connections across borders and life experiences. The festival’s activities take place at various locations in Copenhagen.
BLACK TO NORMAL: INTERNATIONAL READINGS
TicketsDuring the international event Black History Month, the festival Black To Normal joins Sort/Hvid. Experience two evenings of international readings by five European playwrights with African roots. Encounter new global voices in a reading program where drama meets urgency in manuscripts exploring the themes of race, identity, and history through satire, humor, music, and poetry – from the deeply personal to the relentlessly political.
On stage you will meet an Afro-Danish cast and the Danish-Gambian musician Dawda Jobarteh. Dawda Jobarteh will incorporate both electronic elements and the West African string instrument, the Kora, creating unique soundscapes for the festival’s readings. It will be music and text merging in this raw experiment.
PROGRAM
16th of October at 17h30 – G by Tife Kusoro (UK/NG)
The award-winning G is a mystifying coming-of-age story. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2024. G is a hypermodern and raw script where slang, phone screens and a hash psychosis melt together in an electric reflection on youth, fragility and survival.
Tife Kusoro is a British-Nigeran writer and performer. She has written scripts for movies and television, performances and poetry. Her playwright debut G was awarded with the George Devine Award and the Playwrights ’73 Award. Kusoro is a resident writer at Royal Court Theatre fundet by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation.
16th of October at 19h00 – VILHELM HERMANSEN, debut novel by Alexandré Nsonis (DK/CG), dramatized by Anna Skov Jensen (DK)
A writer searches for a new identity and a foothold in a new country, while his past as a child soldier and experiences of sexual abuse haunt him. He meets Natasja. She is kind. Caring. Attractive. It terrifies him. Does a murderer deserve love? Can you escape your past with a new name?
Alexandré Nsonis is a Danish-Congolese poet. He debuted with the poetry collection In Africa, Boys Are Not Born – Only Men in 2021. The honest, harsh, and confrontational poems dealt with the Second Congo War, fleeing to Denmark, and a life marked by love, rape, racism, and mental suffering. Nsonis uses poetry as a survival tool – a way to cope with trauma, grief, and cultural alienation.
16th of October at 20h30 – MY VOICE WAS HEARD BUT IT WAS IGNORED by Nana-Kofi Kufuor (UK/GH)
An intense chamber play about a five-year-old boy who takes his attacker hostage in his classroom. Class, skin color, and authority collide in this poetic and unforgettable exploration of what it means to be seen – but denied a voice.
Nana-Kofi Kufuor is a British-Ghanaian playwright, screenwriter, and TV writer. He holds a degree in film and TV production from the University of Cumbria (2014) and a master’s in screenwriting from the University of Salford (2018). Kufour writes about race, gender, politics, and class struggles – often through a comical yet sharp lens.
17th of October at 17h30 – SUKKER by Linda Gathus (NO/KE)
A satirical, Afro-futurist text challenging the idea of heritage, power, and our past and future with its sharp-edged humor and imaginative power. With parallel timelines, magical realism, and overlapping time zones, we are taken on a journey through the 400-year-long connection between Scandinavia and Africa. Sukker premiered at Det Norske Teatret in oslo on Oktober 10 2025.
Linda Gathu is a Norwegian-Kenyan actor, director, playwright, and filmmaker. She was educated at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. In 2022, she received the Critics’ Prize for Best Screenplay and Direction together with Ingrid Liavaag for the short film The Director (2022).
17th of October at 19h30 – HVOR INTET HÆNDER, debut manuscript by Amina Elmi (DK/SO)
A meeting between two aging men in a house in Sweden. They have drifted out of each other’s lives. Friendship has turned into betrayal. Together they face a difficult conversation — about the story that has been told and distorted by others. The story that made them doubt their own memory. The story they have desperately tried to flee from, now finally catching up to them.
Amina Elmi is a Danish-Somali poet. She’s a graduate of the Danish School of Authors (Forfatterskolen) in 2023. That same year, she published her debut poetry collection Barbar [Tavshedens objekt], which won the Bogforum Debut Award in 2023 and was nominated for the Politiken Literature Prize in 2024. In April 2024, she received the Spirekraft Prize at the Ordkraft literature festival in Aalborg.
ABOUT BLACK TO NORMAL
The festival Black To Normal is led by actor Marie-Lydie Nokouda and has existed since 2021, driven by a desire to cultivate and spotlight writing talent among BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). With a focus on our shared colonial heritage, the festival creates space for new connections across borders and life experiences. The festival’s activities take place at various locations in Copenhagen.