The Power of Story

Renata Peppl is Head of Research Management at Queen Mary University of London and a Creative Researcher, with over 12 years of experience developing mid- to large-scale international research programmes connecting grassroots organisations, academia and policymakers across the UK, Latin America and South Asia.

Her work focuses on the use of arts-based and community engagement methodologies to research and address the themes of migration and gender studies, gender-based violence, mental health and urban violence.

Alongside her academic roles, Renata is a Co-Director at MinA – Migrants in Action, a London-based community arts organisation working with migrant women from the Global Majority. She is also the International Partnership Manager for the WOW – Women of the World Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Robbie Bird launched MENtalk a festival focusing on men’s mental wellbeing in October 2025. He trained from the age of ten at The Royal Ballet School before embarking on a career dancer with English National Ballet and The Estonian National Ballet. After injury, he pivoted to choreography, attaining an MFAC and creating works for The Stuttgart Ballet and a range of other platforms. His film 1-4-2 has recently been screened at Richmond Festival of Ideas . He’s training to be a counsellor and his 8 year old daughter is also encouraging him in his occasional stand up. RobbieBird.co.uk

Kay Rufai is a Photographer, Poet, Filmmaker, Author, Mental Health researcher and founder of the internationally acclaimed S.M.I.L.E-ing Boys projects. He is currently the first Artist in residence for West Midlands Police Artist as part of Coventry City of Culture, using creative arts to improve relationships between police and marginalised young people. His work spans the past 8 years in a handful of countries including the UK, USA, Ethiopia, Bhutan, Germany, Scandinavia, Mexico, Nigeria and Colombia.

His work explores themes of masculinity, identity, mental health, serious youth violence and community cohesion through art, photography, educational workshops, residencies, training and public events.

A great deal of his work has directly engaged diverse communities, young people in custody, at-risk youth, refugee and displaced groups of people as well as collaboratively creating bodies of work with them.

He has recieved numerous accolades for his research-led series of workshops and exhibitions across the country. His work has been exhibited at The Barbican, City Hall, Tower Bridge, the Royal Court and The Battersea Arts Centre. His award-winning work has been featured on the BBC, Channel 5 News, in the Guardian and HuffPost.

Sam Browne is a spoken word poet from Southend, Essex, who originally set out to be a stand-up comedian until he realised all his jokes rhymed and none of them were particularly funny. So he pivoted to poetry, and things started to click. Since then, Sam has developed an online following of over 100,000 followers across all platforms and tens of millions of views. He has won awards for his activism work and has one numerous prestigious poetry slams. At just the age of 21 Sam Browne is helping reshape the way young men think about masculinity and feminism one poem at a time.

Rodrigo is an internationalist, producer and human rights researcher with an international focus. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from UERJ, with a career focused on the intersection of culture, education and human rights. He is currently a Producer at the Escola do Olhar at the Rio Art Museum, where he works on developing initiatives that bring the museum closer to neighbouring communities in the city’s Port Zone. He is co-founder of Proxy Junior Consultoria Internacional — a student-run enterprise linked to the International Relations course at UERJ. He has over five years’ experience in the cultural sector, specialising in the management and implementation of cultural and educational projects.

Priscilla is Black, lesbian woman. A museum educator for over 10 years, she has worked at the Rio Art Museum since 2014. She develops and organizes projects, courses, and seminars focused on the relationship between art and education through cultural mediation and educational practices intersected by racial, gender, and sexuality relations. She develops art and education projects in collaboration with the school community and cultural institutions.

Pedro Pessanha is an artist and researcher from Rio de Janeiro, with a master’s degree in Contemporary Art Studies from UFF. His work seeks to understand what allows Black rhythms, buried by various attempts at erasure, to continue resonating in the bodies of the city of Rio de Janeiro. His artistic practice develops works across various media, including paintings and urban interventions, as well as ongoing research in comics and illustration, investigating how the specificities of these medias can contribute to the construction of unique narratives.

Juca Fiis works in the intersection of art, architecture, and education, with a dedicated practice in collaborative work, often with children/young people. They have participated in education residencies worldwide, including DocumentaFifteen(Kassel), ART OMI(Hudson, NY), Demonstra (Lisbon),QMA (Vienna), Pivô (São Paulo), Fahrender Raum (Munich) and the Tamayo Museum(Mexico City). Their experience in museum education includes a role with the Education department at the Museum of Modern Art Rio de Janeiro and as an educational consultant for the Museum of Tomorrow. They have also collaborated with the Paranaense Museum in Curitiba and served as a member of the Educational Board at the Visual Arts School of Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro.

Juca Fiis has been invited to present their work in symposia and talks at venues such as the University of Hildesheim (Germany), Drawing Projects (UK), the Museum of Modern Art Rio, and Oficina Francisco Brennand (Brazil).

Jordan Stephens is a creative, musician, and author, best known as one half of the chart-topping duo Rizzle Kicks. Jordan is also an established actor, having made his debut as the lead in the London stage production of Entertaining Mr Sloane. On television, he has appeared in series such as The Ex-Wife (for two seasons), Starstruck, and Catastrophe, alongside film roles in Teen Spirit and Star Wars: Rogue One. He also hosted the ITV2 show Don’t Hate The Playaz for four series.

By speaking openly about his own mental health struggles, Jordan has become a leading voice in raising awareness and tackling stigma. His #IAMWHOLE mental health campaign reached over 120 million people online and was mentioned in the UK Parliament. He published a children’s book, The Missing Piece, a personally inspired story about joy and connection, and his first book for adults, Avoidance, Drugs, Heartbreak and Dogs.

Helena is a communications specialist, currently working as WOW – Women of the World’s Senior Communications and Marketing Manager leading on WOW’s social media and digital channels, and on global marketing and communications. Previously she worked at Chichester Festival Theatre, where she led on developing new audiences, championing work for young people and increasing access to the arts. She developed Chichester Festival Theatre’s first Youth Advisory Board and was an AMA Audience Diversity Academy Fellow in 2020. Helena studied English and Theatre at the University of St Andrews and University of California San Diego, followed by an MLitt in Writing for Performance. She is passionate about championing the power of stories, both real and imagined, and using storytelling to engage and inform new audiences, and writes The Rummage on Substack.

Freddie Feltham is a filmmaker, digital storyteller and host of political podcast ‘What’s Left?‘. After making several documentaries investigating the world of Andrew Tate and his impact on young men, Freddie has written in The Guardian and appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. As a political strategist, Freddie was a key part of the Labour Party’s digital campaign, creating content in the ‘first TikTok election’. He now hosts his own show, with fellow Labour campaigner Jovan Owusu Nepaul, speaking to fellow progressives on how best to navigate an increasingly polarised and extreme political landscape.

Charlie is a strategic communications and marketing expert, with 20 years’ experience working across the cultural and charitable sectors. She specialises in purpose-driven work, digital strategy and brand leadership. As Head of Communications and Marketing at WOW – Women of the World, she is responsible for building its global reputation as a joyful, creative movement championing gender equality through arts-driven activism. Before joining WOW, Charlie worked at theatre companies and led-communications for place-led cultural projects. 

Hailing from Jamaica, Adjani is a writer-director and actor who only writes “what he likes”. As well as an avid reader, he spends his time people-watching, eavesdropping and randomly chatting up strangers, not putting his Architecture degree to good use.

In 2022, the pilot for BBC3’s TV adaptation of his web series Dreaming Whilst Black garnered critical acclaim winning an RTS and BAFTA Award for Breakthrough and Emerging Talent respectively. In collaboration with A24, Season 1 is available globally (including being spotted in an illegal DVD shop in Uganda) with Season 2 out now. Despite his accolades, Adjani is most proud of the fact that he can finally pay rent from his once passion turned profession.

Patu Araújo is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist and designer born in Ilhéus, Bahia, and currently based in Curitiba, Paraná.

Their practice engages with the construction of identity and the ongoing processes of erasure surrounding Afro-Indigenous Brazilian histories. Working across visual arts, Patu develops a language shaped by distortion and a vibrant, insurgent color palette, moving fluidly between painting, performance, photography, and video mapping. In the field of design, their work centers on typography, animation, and production design, where narrative, space, and visual rhythm converge as critical tools of expression.