Travis Alabanza

Travis Alabanza is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, performer, and theatre maker from Bristol. They started writing at aged 16, keeping drafts of poems exclusively on their phone until the pressure of adverse experiences of racism and trans-phobia pushed them to share their work more publicly. Alabanza’s work speaks out for Trans rights and the importance of safe spaces and communities for gender non-conforming and transgender people. Their writing has appeared in the BBC, Guardian, Vice, Gal-Dem, and the metro.

Alabanza’s poems were first published in 2015, in the Black and Gay in the UK Anthology. The same year, they went on tour for their theatre show Stories of a Queer Brown Muddy Kid, performing at clubs, bookstores, and performance venues across the United Kingdom and abroad. After being the youngest recipient of the artist in residency program at Tate Galleries, Alabanza debut show Burgerz toured internationally to sold out shows in Southbank Centre, Sao Paulo Brazil, HAU Berlin, and won the Edinburgh Fringe Total Theatre Award in 2019. In 2020, their theatre show Overflow debuted at the Bush Theatre to widespread acclaim and later streamed online in over 22 countries. They were listed by the Evening Standard as one of the 25 most influential under 25 year olds.

Alabanza’s plays Overflow and Burgerz are available to read at the Royal Court library

In 2022, Alabanza released their debut full-length semi-autobiographical non-fiction book None of the Above: My Life Beyond the Binary. The book was listed as one of Waterstones Best Book of 2022: Politics and won the 2023 Jhalak Prize.

Alabanza and Hannan co-created Sound of the Underground at the Royal Court Theatre in 2023. In reflection, Trabanza said: “I wouldn’t be working in the arts today without the London cabaret scene. All my shows, understanding of live work and theatre came from places like Duckie, Bar Wotever and Her Upstairs giving me space – it’s so exciting to interrogate and showcase that world on the Royal Court stage. Right now art and live art has a money problem, a crossroad to choose from – and I think cabaret artists are the most suited to interrogate these questions. I’m so excited to see what we all make together.”