If you missed British comedy writer, performer, and activist Jane Bussmann last time she was in New York City, or if you just want to see her again, you’re in luck. She’ll be performing her sometimes inappropriately funny comedy show, Bussmann’s Holiday, in NY on March 11, 16, and 18 as part of the Culture Project’s Women Center Stage Festival at the Living Theatre. Enough has written about her shows in Nairobi and New York.
After years of working as a journalist covering celebrities, Bussmann traveled from Hollywood to northern Uganda to interview (and possibly get a date with!) Enough Project Co-founder John Prendergast. Instead, Prendergast returned to the U.S. before she could interview him, and she found herself witness to the brutal campaign of violence carried out by the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA – and became inspired to end it.
For almost 25 years, the LRA has terrorized and destabilized central Africa. Originating in northern Uganda, the organization now operates in southern Sudan, northeastern Congo, and eastern Central African Republic – abducting children and adults to serve as soldiers, sex slaves, and porters, killing, mutilating, torturing, and pillaging.
Bussmann started performing the show in the U.K. and later wrote the book The Worst Date Ever: or How It Took a Comedy Writer to Expose Africa's Secret War. Bussmann now lives in New York and continues to raise awareness about the LRA. She is calling for the U.S. and U.K. governments to work together to stop the LRA.
Frederick Clarkson of Religion Dispatches did an in-depth interview with Bussmann last summer.
You can buy tickets here for Bussmann’s New York performances.