In conversation with Clive Lyttle

“Our aim is to support the best in new, diverse work. ”

 - Clive Lyttle

Clive Lyttle

Clive Lyttle is the Artistic Director of Certain Blacks, an Arts Council England funded organisation for arts development based in Docklands, East London and currently celebrating its 10th year. He has also worked for Arts Council England as a Combined Arts Relationship Manager, Senior Manager for Engagement and Audiences and Head of Combined Arts SE and was responsible for circus, outdoor arts and arts centres including The Roundhouse and Jacksons Lane. Before ACE, Clive led The Central Arts Trust, developing a new arts centre for Waltham Forest.

Clive has also been artistic director of The Brewhouse Arts Centre, The Croydon Clocktower, and produced The Portobello Arts Festival in North Kensington. Other roles have included Multi Cultural Events officer for London Borough of Newham, programming and producing The Newham Mela. He holds an MA from City University in Cultural Leadership and BA (Hons) in Creative and Performing Arts. Clive is also a jazz musician and has worked with, and presented, several leading musicians and artists from the UK and internationally.

Ensemble Festival is now in its sixth edition, and it’s returning to the Royal Docks. What is it about this location that makes it such an inspiring canvas for the festival’s celebration of circus, dance, and street art?

The Royal Docks is where I live so it's fantastic to be able to present Ensemble Festival in such a stunning setting which is also part of my community. Over the past few years we have been able to present large scale circus events, such as Gorilla Circus and Unity on site opposite London City Airport and Bamboo by NoFit state performed with the Royal Victora Docks as a backdrop.

What does “ensemble” mean to you, both in terms of the festival and your own artistic journey?

The festival’s name is taken from jazz group Art Ensemble of Chicago, who made the album Certain Blacks. As a jazz musician, I was fascinated with their freeform approach to music and passion for Black empowerment and Civil Rights. I think these aspects have influenced the development of the organisation. We have been able to work with associates of Art Ensemble of Chicago, such as LT Beauchamp in our Heroes Festival, which was a real honour.

Each year, your programme features new work from groundbreaking UK artists. How do you select or commission artists, and what do you look for in the performances that become part of Ensemble Festival?

Ensemble Festival is part of Without Walls - a national network of commissioning festivals that selects a programme of new work each year. This has supported shows like Tell Me from Sadiq Ali, and other artists whom we have worked with over the years. Certain Blacks also commissions new work directly, including Holy Dirt from Thirunarayan Productions and Miss High Leg Kick’s Palais de Danse. Our aim is to support the best in new, diverse work.

Certain Blacks is now celebrating its 10th year of championing diverse artists, how do you think your work has helped shift the landscape for underrepresented artists?

Over this time Certain Blacks has been able to present work which is not about artist backgrounds but around topics that artists want to address. Tell Me deals with the challenges of living with your community whilst being HIV positive and recently, we presented Best Friends from theatre company Crying In the Wilderness, a play about Black friendship and assisted dying. These are areas that tell different stories of communities which have more than colours and origins in common.

Tell Me by Sadiq Ali. Image credit Luke Whitcomb 

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing festivals and outdoor arts right now—and how is Ensemble responding to that?

The biggest challenge is cost. Ensemble Festival is free to everyone and funded by Arts Council England, Without Walls and the Royal Docks and without this support it would not be possible to stage. We must keep the festival free to make sure the local community, as well as tourists,  can access it.

Are there any particular performances in Ensemble Festival's 2025 lineup that you’re especially excited for audiences to experience?

Tell Me from Sadiq Ali will be a fantastic circus performance on a fantastic set, Holy Dirt from Thirunrayan Productions is a partnership with physical theatre legend David Glass - a project Certain Blacks has supported over the years and Waiting Song by Mish Weaver - a fantastic show which asks us to reflect on life and what we are waiting for.

The [Quick] #FLODown:

Best life advice?

"Don't take on something that is already a success, you will only F.. it Up" Philip Headly, Theatre Royal Stratford East

Last song you listened to?

Abolition of the Royal Familia by The Orb

Last book you read?

Sex is no Emergency : Adventures in a Post Punk Wonderland by Dorothy Max Prior

Can’t live without...?

My Guitars/ Synths

What should the art world be more of and less of?

More wildness and diversity and less high art

The Ensemble Festival 2025, produced by Certain Blacks, will take place on 26 and 27 July 2025 at London’s Royal Victoria Docks. It is a free outdoor festival showcasing circus, dance, physical theatre and street art.

Website: certainblacks.com
Instagram: @certainblacks