Ah England... Even after the Brexit referendum, even after the most wonderful weeks in the equally as wonderful Sicily, you manage to remain such a source of inspiration for me! Why...? How come?! You know, a friend even suggested that we may have been deeply linked in a past life...
Anyway, England, as much as things are changing right now, as awkward as the political prospects remain, I'm still deeply connected to your culture.
It's not only about England... It's the whole of the British Isles!
I was reading some poems from the great William Butler Yeats and it's obvious that in terms of history and politics, Ireland is a special source of inspiration. Samuel Beckett is indeed one of my favourite writers. And Dubliners have always shown to me how incredibly welcoming they are...
It's about how London has managed to remain connected to the world, I guess, to preserve its openness and intelligence from bigoterie.
So here are a few events that I want to share, currently in or soon to take place in London.
I'll be back soon in West England too. Then I hope to visit Glasgow and Northern Ireland before the end of the year. Next summer, I have to be in Edinburgh for the literary festival. And I don't even mention my long-overdue visit to Liverpool where a dear friend is from.
And so on and so on.
Below for the events!
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First, art:
BLACK CHRONICLES
PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS 1862-1948
18 MAY - 11 DECEMBER 2016
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
LONDON, UK
Free display
The National Portrait Gallery in partnership with Autograph ABP presents a unique ‘snapshot’ of black lives and experiences in Britain.
An important display of photographs, which will reveal some of the stories of Black and Asian lives in Britain from the 1860s through to the 1940s, opens in May at the National Portrait Gallery.
Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 will bring together some of the earliest photographs of Black and Asian sitters in the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection.
These will be exhibited alongside recently discovered images from the Hulton Archive, a division of Getty Images. The display of over 40 photographs will highlight an important and complex black presence in Britain before 1948, a watershed moment when the Empire Windrush brought the first group of Caribbean migrants to Great Britain.
In addition, Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 will highlight new acquisitions including a series of portraits by Angus McBean, of Les Ballets Nègres, Britain’s first all-black ballet company and a selection of photographs of the pioneer of classical Indian dance in Britain, Pandit Ram Gopal, by George Hurrell.
Individuals with extraordinary stories, from performers to dignitaries, politicians and musicians, alongside unidentified sitters, will collectively reveal the diversity of representation within 19th and 20th century photography and British society, often absent from historical narratives of the period.
They will include the celebrated portraits by Camille Silvy of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, one of the earliest photographic portraits of a black sitter in the Gallery’s Collection. Born in West Africa of Yoruba descent, Sarah was captured at the age of five during the Okeadon War. She was thought to be of royal lineage and was presented to Queen Victoria, as if a gift, from King Gezo of Dahomy. As Queen Victoria’s protégée, Sarah was raised among the British upper class and educated in both England and Sierra Leone. In 1862, she married the merchant and philanthropist James Pinson Labulo Davies.
Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 will also feature Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a celebrated British composer of English and Sierra Leonean descent who was once called the ‘African Mahler’; Dadabhai Naoroji, the first British Indian MP for Finsbury in 1892; members of the African Choir, a troupe of entertainers from South Africa who performed for Queen Victoria in 1891; international boxing champion Peter Jackson a.k.a ‘The Black Prince’ from the island of St Croix; and Ndugu M’Hali (Kalulu), the ‘servant’ of British explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who inspired Stanley’s 1873 book My Kalulu, Prince, King and Slave: A Story of Central Africa.
Black Chronicles: Photographic Portraits 1862-1948 will include original albumen cartes-de-visite and cabinet cards from the Gallery’s permanent Collection, presented alongside a series of large-scale modern prints from 19th century glass plates in the Hulton Archive’s London Stereoscopic Company collection, which were recently unearthed by Autograph ABP for the first time in 135 years and first shown in the critically acclaimed exhibition ‘Black Chronicles II’ at Rivington Place in 2014.
Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London says: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Autograph ABP and present this important display - bringing together some of the earliest photographs from our Collection alongside new acquisitions and striking images from Hulton Archive’s London Stereoscopic Company collection.”
Renée Mussai, Curator and Head of Archive at Autograph ABP, says: “We are very pleased to share our ongoing research with new audiences at the National Portrait Gallery. The aim of the Black Chronicles series is to open up critical inquiry into the archive to locate new knowledge and support our mission to continuously expand and enrich photography’s cultural histories. Not only does the sitters’ visual presence in Britain bear direct witness to the complexities of colonial history, they also offer a fascinating array of personal narratives that defy pre-conceived notions of cultural diversity prior to the Second World War.”
Liz Smith, Director of Participation and Learning, National Portrait Gallery, says: “Beyond the significant display, the partnership with Autograph ABP will enable the National Portrait Gallery to provide a rich programme for schools, families and young people and a one-day conference. This will enable a fuller exploration of perspectives on identity and representation and for the images to reach a wider audience.”
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UK FILM PREMIERE AND DISCUSSION
DREAMS IN TRANSIT
TUE 6 SEPT, 7 - 9PM
RIVINGTON PLACE
LONDON, UK
£3
Join us for the UK premiere of award-winning director Karen Martinez's Dreams in Transit, a poetic documentary reflecting on the theme of identity and contemporary migration.
First screened to much acclaim at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival in September 2015, the film is narrated by a Trinidadian based in London, who returns to the Caribbean to explore what 'home' and ‘belonging’ really mean for both migrants and non-migrants, particularly in the age of cheap air travel and Skype. The film uses a kaleidoscopic approach that mixes interviews, actuality, a meditative narration delivered by the actor Martina Laird and an evocative acoustic score by acclaimed London-based Trinidadian composer Dominique Le Gendre.
After the screening independent film and moving image curator Karen Alexander will be in discussion with director Karen Martinez.
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Theatre / Musical
Groundhog Day
Join us this summer for the world premiere of Groundhog Day a new musical directed by Old Vic Artistic Director Matthew Warchus.
Groundhog Day is the story of Phil Connors (Andy Karl), a cynical Pittsburgh TV weatherman who is sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in the isolated small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, when he finds himself caught in a time loop, forced to repeat the same day again and again…and again. As each day plays out exactly the same as before Phil becomes increasingly despondent, but is there a lesson to be learnt through his experiences, will he ever unlock the secret and break the cycle?
Director Matthew Warchus, composer and lyricist Tim Minchin, choreographer Peter Darling and designer Rob Howell, four of the creators of the international sensation Matilda The Musical, have joined forces with writer Danny Rubin to collaborate on this new musical based on his 1993 hit film.
Andy Karl’s numerous Broadway credits include On the Twentieth Century, Rocky, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Jersey Boys, Wicked, 9 to 5, Legally Blonde, The Wedding Singer and Saturday Night Fever.
Groundhog Day will play a strictly limited 10-week season from Friday 15 July – Saturday 17 September 2016.
[Andy Karl is appearing with the support of UK Equity, incorporating the Variety Artistes’ Federation, pursuant to an exchange program between American Equity and UK Equity].
At the Old Vic Theatre
Fri 15 Jul – Sat 17 Sep 2016
(Previews Fri 15 Jul – Mon 15 Aug)
(Previews Fri 15 Jul – Mon 15 Aug)
Mon – Sat 7.30pm; Wed & Sat 2.30pm
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See you soon England.
Massive Attack