July 1st is... International Reggae Day

To celebrate, sharing a song from my beloved Bristol:

'One Love' (2012 Mix/Master) -  Massive Attack

Blue Lines ℗ 2012 Virgin Records Ltd Released on: 2012-01-01 Studio Personnel, Mixer: Massive Attack Producer, Executive Producer: Booga Bear Producer: Massive Attack with Johnny Dollar Studio Personnel, Mixer: Johnny Dollar Composer: Andrew Vowles Composer: David Wolinski Composer: Grantley Marshall Composer: Robert Del Naja Composer: J Williams

How 'white fragility' reinforces racism

 Dr. Robin DiAngelo discusses 'White Fragility'

Robin DiAngelo’s bestselling book White Fragility has provoked an uncomfortable but vital conversation about what it means to be white.

As protests organised by the Black Lives Matter movement continue around the world, she explains why white people should stop avoiding conversations about race because of their own discomfort, and how 'white fragility' plays a key role in upholding systemic racism

On Black British artists

Under the gloomy English weather, this week I'm conducting my research on Black British artists, first for a profile of Sonia Boyce fo ART UK, then for a book I'm writing fo the Arnolfini... More on this soon.

Interesting find today, a BBC documentary produced in 2018, to be aired again later this week:

The Pioneers of Britain's Black Art Movement - BBC

Whoever Heard of a Black Artist? Britain's Hidden Art History | BBC

Brenda Emmanus meets groundbreaking artists from the black arts movement of the 80s to 2017's Turner Prize winner, Lubaina Himid. Watch more of Whoever Heard of a Black Artist? Britain's Hidden Art History on the BBC: https://bbc.in/2vSgYq8

Portishead Live in Glastonbury

Glastonbury Festival is celebrated all over... But the BBC hasn't posted much footage from Bristol bands yet.
So here is one:

Portishead Live in Glastonbury - 2013 - full

0:04 Silence 5:13 Mysterons 11:17 Sour Times 15:16 Magic Doors 18:33 Wandering Star 23:48 Machine Gun 28:39 Over 32:41 Glory Box 38:38 Chase The Tear 44:32 Cowboys 49:28 Threads 55:47 Roads 1:01:32 We Carry On

Bernardine Evaristo and Amelia Gentleman / Orwell Prize shortlist

Two of the most important writers in this country:

Orwell Prize shortlist conversation #1 with Bernardine Evaristo and Amelia Gentleman

In the first of a new series of conversations across genres, styles and perspectives, Orwell shortlisted writers Bernardine Evaristo and Amelia Gentleman talk about politics, art and giving a voice to the powerless. The winners of all four Orwell Prizes will be revealed via our online Prize Ceremony on Thursday 9th July 2020. THE WINDRUSH BETRAYAL Amelia Gentleman Shortlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2020 "A heartbreaking, shocking and deeply moving book that dares to give voice to the voiceless, say the unsayable, and reminds us, with remarkable power, why journalism truly matters." Published by: Guardian Faber Amelia Gentleman is a reporter and author of The Windrush Betrayal, Exposing the Hostile Environment. She won the Paul Foot award, Cudlipp award, an Amnesty award, journalist of the year British journalism awards and London press club print journalist of the year for Windrush investigations. She has also won the Orwell prize, feature and specialist writer of the year. GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER Bernardine Evaristo Shortlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020 "A worldly, compassionate and detailed depiction of the lives of different generations of black women attempting to achieve self-realisation against the forces of classic family conservatism and within a society structured to maintain white supremacy. Piercingly funny even as it welcomes the reader into the complexities of being a female parent, child, lover, and an ambitious traveller through life when no one has yet provided a suitable guide book." Published by: Hamish Hamilton Bernardine Evaristo is the Anglo-Nigerian award-winning author of several books of fiction and verse fiction that explore aspects of the African diaspora: past, present, real, imagined. Her writing also spans short fiction, reviews, essays, drama and writing for BBC radio. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, London, and Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature. She was made an MBE in 2009. As a literary activist for inclusion Bernardine has founded a number of successful initiatives, including Spread the Word writer development agency (1995-ongoing); the Complete Works mentoring scheme for poets of colour (2007-2017) and the Brunel International African Poetry Prize (2012-ongoing).

Débats intenses sur le racisme à Bristol : Mon reportage pour la DW

Débats intenses sur le racisme à Bristol au Royaume-Uni

Il y a 80 ans, des soldats sénégalais, maliens, ivoiriens, guinéens ou burkinabè étaient massacrés par des soldats allemands, alors qu’ils combattaient pour la France. Des soldats dont on connaît depuis peu certains visages. Et en seconde partie de ce magazine, reportage à Bristol, où les manifestations contre le racisme ont fait tomber la statue d’un négrier et provoquent de vifs débats.

Statut déboulonnées, musées questionnés... Débat sur le racisme aussi à Bristol

Le 7 juin dernier, des manifestants ont déboulonné la statue d'Edward Colston, avant de la jeter dans la rivière Avon

Votre magazine hebdomadaire consacré à l’actualité vous emmène chaque semaine dans un autre pays pour un grand reportage. Cap dans ce numéro au Royaume-Uni. Là-bas, comme dans d’autres villes d’Europe, des manifestations contre le racisme ont eu lieu dans le sillage des événements aux Etats-Unis. 

À Bristol une statue a même été arrachée. Il faut dire que la ville portuaire était autrefois un des lieux principaux du commerce triangulaire, de la traite des esclaves et qu’elle en porte toujours les marques. De quoi provoquer d’intenses débats comme le raconte Melissa Chemam. 

Pour écouter : https://www.dw.com/fr/en-juin-1940-des-soldats-africains-massacrés-par-des-soldats-allemands-débats-intenses-sur-le-racisme-à-bristol-au-royaume-uni/av-53936098

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Vu d’Allemagne est un magazine proposé par Hugo Flotat-Talon et Anne Le Touzé. Vous retrouvez tous les numéros du magazine Vu d'Allemagne dans la médiathèque. 

Cleo Lake In Conversation with Melissa Chemam

The week after the Bristol BLM protests, I wanted to interview Cleo Lake - Bristol’s former Lord Mayor, dancer, performer and ambassador for its African-Caribbean culture, also a Green Party Councillor. 

We talked about her views for positive change, Greens of Colours, her work in Ghana to connect Caribbean, British and African cultures, and how her projects have been affected by the lockdown...

We also talked about her new podcast ‘AFRICAN AF’ and the role that African Caribbean people in the UK can have in the fight against the climate crisis.

Here is the entire conversation:

Part of our conversation was also featured this week in the Quarantini Podcast that I co-produce and present with Pommy Harmar here in Bristol. 

We celebrated Windush Day (22 June), Refugee Week (15-21), and the summer Solstice, with music and our usual round up from Bristol, UK and around the world.

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Music:

Opening & closing music: Hot Flu, The Old Bones Collective
Celebrating Sanctuary at Home : Servo & Family
Lark Ascending, Ralph Vaughan Williams

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More on Windush Day soon!

Interview with Dr Shawn Sobers: on BLM, Colston' statue and the role of the arts against racism

My interview with Dr Shawn Sobers: 

on BLM, Colston' statue and the role of the arts against racism

Freelance writer and reporter Melissa Chemam speaks to Dr Shawn Sobers, filmmaker, photographer and writer, and Associate Professor in Cultural Interdisciplinary Practice at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE: ACE - Film and Journalism) about Black Lives Matter, the fall of Edward Colston's statue in Bristol and the role of the arts in the current fight against racism.

Bristol Refugee Festival 2020: Online

Africa changed my life; it's always on my mind, and especially its music!

Beautiful moment from the Bristol Refugee Festival 2020

Celebrating Sanctuary at Home : Servo & Family

Servo & Family performing for the Bristol Refugee Festival 2020. Servo Severin is a drummer and teacher from Congo and has been performing with his family in the Bristol area since 2018. In place of the annual Celebrating Sanctuary event in Queen Square, Bristol, 4 artists recorded performances at King Sound Reinforcement at Barton Hill for the Bristol Refugee Festival. Along with a contribution from the Fantasy Orchestra, these performances form the Celebrating Sanctuary at Home series. #BRF2020 15-21 June 2020 www.bristolrefugeefestival.org Credits: Sound, Staging, Filming and Editing: King Sound Reinforcement https://www.kingsr.com/

19 June marks the remembrance of 'Juneteenth' in America.

Juneteenth is a Texas state holiday celebrated annually in the United States to commemorate Union army general Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in the city of Galveston, Texas, in 1865, proclaiming that all slaves in Texas were from then on free.

African American people are campaigning for it to be a federal holiday in the whole of the US.

A great video for more by Vox:

Juneteenth, explained

Why all Americans should honor this day.... When American schoolchildren learn about chattel slavery in the US, we’re often told it ended with Abraham Lincoln’s signature on the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. But, as late as June 19, 1865, enslaved people in Texas were still held in bondage. On that date, the Federal troops entered the state and began to punish slave holders and former confederates who refused to obey the law. “Juneteenth is a deeply emotional moment for enslaved people,” says historian Karlos K. Hill, of the University of Oklahoma. In Texas and across the country, emancipated African Americans began celebrating annually, with parades, concerts, and picnics. “Being able to go wherever they want and being able to wander about; for enslaved people, it was an expression of their freedom,” says Hill. “Formerly enslaved people celebrating, in public, their newfound freedom, was an act of resistance.” However, by 1877, the Federal government had largely abandoned the South. The lynching era— when hundreds of African Americans were killed by white mobs each year across the North and the South— began soon after. Today, Dr. Hill says, commemorating Juneteenth is important for all Americans because it helps us see all the ways that slavery still shapes this country, including, as he says, “the desire to master and dominate black bodies.”

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Sourches/further reading Why celebrating Juneteenth is more important now than ever (P.R. Lockhart, Vox, 2018) https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/6... The Impact of Lynching on Black Culture and Memory: The Impact of Lynching on Black Culture and Memory (Karlos K. Hill, Cambridge University Press, 2016) Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror (Equal Justice Initiative, 2017) https://eji.org/reports/lynching-in-a... The National Museum of African American History and Culture— online collection: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/collection Portraits of African American ex-slaves from the U.S. Works Progress Administration, Federal Writers’ Project slave narratives collections (Library of Congress) https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/200... Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com. Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories (Library of Congress) https://www.loc.gov/collections/voice... Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 to 1938 (Library of Congress) https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave... African American Spirituals (Library of Congress) https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197495/ Florida Memory: State Library and Archives of Florida https://floridamemory.com/ New Georgia Encyclopedia (Georgia Humanities) https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/