Asmaa Jama

Asmaa Jama is a Somali multidisciplinary artist, writer and filmmaker based in Bristol. Asmaa Jama’s first film work Before We Disappear (2021) is an interactive moving image piece commissioned by BBC Arts. It was followed by The Season of Burning Things (2021), in collaboration with Gouled Ahmed, commissioned by the Bristol Old Vic (2021). The work has also been presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in collaboration with the Goethe Institute and Theatre Neumarkt’s 100 Ways to Say We Programme (2021), and was part of the official selection at Blackstar Film Festival and Aesthetica Film Festival. 

Jama’s writing has been commissioned by Jerwood Arts, Hayward Gallery, Arnolfini and Ifa Gallery, Berlin. Jama was commended for the Brunel African Poetry Prize (2022); and shortlisted for the New Poets Prize (2022) ; Queen Mary Wasafiri Writing Prize (2021); James Berry Poetry Prize (2021); To Speak Europe in Other Languages prize (2020), and longlisted for National Poetry Competition (2021) A Cave Canem Fellow, Jama was also an artist-in-residence at the School for Sonic Memory,Mucem/Onassis Stegi (2022) and at In Between Time Festival, Bristol (2019). Asmaa is currently a Film London FLAMIN fellow (2022); a resident artist at Somerset House Studios and a Barbican Young Poet.