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Community projects · Film · Music

Adetayo “Tutipsy” Manuwa

I bring generations and cultures together through music, dance and film.

Founder and artistic lead of the One Community Project. For museums, cultural institutions, cities and funders looking for a partner who has done this work for years.

Since 2019One Community Project, in cooperation with the integration office of Dessau-Roßlau
38documented screenings, workshops and staff trainings
1,618recorded attendances, in three countries
9 to 96the ages of the performers at the One Community Gala
1st placeIntegration Prize of Saxony-Anhalt, 2019

Watch

See the work, then hear the idea behind it.

Noch einmal Walzer · official trailer of the documentary, 2023 · Watch on YouTube

The Power of Small Encounters · TEDx Linz, 2026 · 18 minutes · Watch on YouTube

The approach

Prejudice survives in the absence of contact. Trust is built through repetition.

The One Community Project creates repeated encounters between people who would otherwise remain strangers to one another: care-home residents, schoolchildren, international students, refugees and long-standing residents of a city.

Its methods are music, dance, storytelling and shared meals. Participants are invited to sing, dance, share stories and contribute in ways that feel comfortable to them. They meet week after week, and what they make together is shown in public.

What has been built

From a weekly visit to a film on tour

The audience at the premiere of the documentary Noch einmal WalzerThe project team receiving first place in the Integration Prize of Saxony-AnhaltAdetayo and fellow students on stage with care-home residents at a One Community Concert

Who has hosted it

Hosted by organisations across care, education and culture

Fewer than a quarter of the bookings were public cinema screenings. Many took place in organisations that used the film with their own staff and the people they serve.

9Social services, migration and NGOs
8Cinemas, festivals and premieres
8Churches, community and culture
5Care, health and dementia services
5Universities and colleges
3Workplaces and staff training

Among them: a Jobcenter, a dementia network, a psychiatric clinic, a youth welfare office, a migration museum and three NGO trainings in Dublin. Figures come from the project’s attendance record, kept with the integration office of the City of Dessau-Roßlau and cover June 2023 to September 2026. They reflect the records available, so the real numbers are likely to be higher. Attendance for the September 2026 workshop is still to be added.

Adetayo with the Museum Friedland team and audience members in front of the screen after the screening of Noch einmal Walzer

One example

Museum Friedland, Lower Saxony · 25 September 2024

The museum placed the film in its Intercultural Dance Week: an afternoon of dances for all generations in the foyer, then “Noch einmal Walzer” and an open conversation, with free admission.

The audience spanned several generations and included people who had found refuge in Germany. The discussion moved between German, English and Arabic, and people with little German still took part. Several said they felt encouraged to contribute something themselves to the place that had taken them in.

“You have put a smile on the faces of very different people, old and young, residents and newcomers from other parts of the world. Your idea and its realisation should serve as a model for many other places.”
Museum Friedland, public comment on Instagram after the screening

Working together

What I can bring to a partnership

We start with your participants, your setting and the time available. Together we agree the format, responsibilities and resources, from a single facilitated screening to a programme of repeated encounters. I lead the concept and the artistic work; rooms, access to participants and organisation on site are agreed with the host.

Concept and artistic direction

Developing a programme with a partner institution, from the first idea to the public event, and leading it artistically.

Participatory programmes

Weeks of music, dance and storytelling with mixed groups, such as older people, newcomers and school classes, ending in something shown in public.

Screenings with discussion

“Noch einmal Walzer” with a facilitated conversation, for staff, service users or the public, in German or English.

Workshops and training

Half-day and full-day sessions for teams in care, education, culture and integration work, built around the film and the experience of the project.

Documentation

Film, short-form video and written stories of a project, planned from the start and produced with a small team.

Recognition

What others have said, and who has been part of it

“I am delighted that Adetayo Tutipsy Manuwa is committed to our city and that his work is now receiving such recognition. This makes him a role model for others and an ambassador for civic engagement.”

Robert Reck, Mayor of Dessau-Roßlau, in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 20 September 2025 (translated)

“They dance and talk together, and what does it do to people? It gives the audience goosebumps.”

Heidi Thiemann, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, on “Noch einmal Walzer” (translated)

“Thank you Adetayo ‘Tutipsy’ Manuwa for showing 1,000 attendees of Urban Future 2025 how to change lives with compassion and empathy.”

Gerald Babel-Sutter, CEO, Urban Future

Awards and recognition: 1st place, Integration Prize of Saxony-Anhalt (2019) · Prize-winning project, Federal Agency for Civic Education, “Aktiv für Demokratie und Toleranz” (2023) · Guest of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Bürgerfest, Schloss Bellevue (2025)

Partners and hosts: Integration office of the City of Dessau-Roßlau · Hochschule Anhalt · Altenpflegeheim Marienheim, Anhaltische Diakonissenanstalt Dessau · Bauhaus Museum Dessau · Anhaltisches Theater Dessau and the Anhaltische Philharmonie · BOEHNÈL Films · Alexianer Dessau · Heiligenfeld Kliniken · Netzwerk Demenz Vulkaneifel · Trägerwerk soziale Dienste, Erfurt · Museum Friedland · Universität Jena · NGO partners in Dublin

“Noch einmal Walzer”: directed by Robert Boehnèl. Executive producers: Adetayo “Tutipsy” Manuwa, Jolene Rätz, Robert Boehnèl and the integration office of the City of Dessau-Roßlau.

About me

Musician, speaker, and the person who kept coming back

I moved from Nigeria to Germany in 2017 and thought I was leaving music behind. Visits to a care home in Dessau became friendships, and the friendships became a project. From 2021 to 2022 I also worked in that care home as a working student, leading group activities for residents.

I hold two master’s degrees, in Expanded Media and in Architecture and Cultural Heritage, and I work in communications alongside this. I am based in Frankfurt am Main and work in German and English.

Speaking

Keynotes, interactive sessions and hosting, including the TEDx Linz talk and the opening of Urban Future.

speaker.tutipsy.com

Music

As Tutipsy I write and perform Afro-influenced songs. Music is often how I bring people together.

tutipsy.com

Contact

Planning a project that brings people together?

Tell me about your institution, the people you want to bring together, and what you have in mind. I will reply personally.

LanguagesGerman and English
Based inFrankfurt am Main. Projects across Germany and Europe.
On requestA two-page project profile
Email Adetayo

adetayomanuwa39@gmail.com

Photos: One Community Project.

Adetayo sitting with a care-home resident, both in Homies and Omies shirts