Inviting You In Rather Than Calling You Out / André Fabien Francis (2025)

This urgent Practice-as-Research thesis critically examines the systemic and intersectional barriers Black male creatives face in the United Kingdom’s arts sector. Grounded in intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991/2020) and informed by British writer Ryan Calais Cameron’s For Black Boys (2021), the research explores how participatory choreography, and installation can expose and reimagine systemic exclusion. Drawing on the Matthew Effect (Merton, 1968), it interrogates how structural advantage accumulates, restricting access to leadership, recognition, and opportunity for marginalised creatives. Through a hybrid methodology—combining autoethnography, qualitative methods (interviews, workshops, observations), and embodied performance—this research challenges the myth of meritocracy and interrogates the persistence of outdated institutional models that claim inclusion while resisting structural change. Referencing the satirical Dead Horse Theory, it critiques institutional tendencies to invest in dysfunctional systems rather than dismantle and rebuild them. Instead of adapting broken frameworks, the research advocates for new creative structures rooted in equity, agency, and coauthorship. Playful Paradigm – a participatory performance installation devised for this research presented at Trinity Laban (2024) – functions as an embodied analysis; integrating gameplay and movement, it provokes dialogue, empowers marginalised voices, and Summary 3 confronts hierarchies that limit inclusion. Inspired by figures such as Alvin Ailey and Katherine Dunham and grounded in the legacy of events like the Windrush scandal (Gentleman, 2020; Williams, 2020), the thesis positions choreography not only as art but as a tool for social critique and creative transformation. Ultimately, the research contributes to reimagining an arts sector where intersectionality is embedded, creative leadership is diversified, and Black male creatives are not just visible – but empowered to thrive, lead, and transform the spaces they inhabit without limitation.