Colston gone, one year on

 

An important debate with key questions, raised by a group of artists who have always had their heart and activism invested in this debate, since the late 1990s at least, from Bristol UK: 

7 June 2021, posted on Twitter: 

Massive Attack

@MassiveAttackUK

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+ THREAD + Today marks the 1st anniversary of the #Colston statue finally being pulled down; a hugely symbolic action that resonated around the world.

Massive Attack

@MassiveAttackUK

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1h

History is now being written & set before our eyes, but before these accounts turn into authoritative records, there is a brief window of time to pose several important questions …

Massive Attack

@MassiveAttackUK

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1h

Why are the civic contests & campaigns that tried to remove the statue (& rename “Colston Hall”) & the institutional & political failures that protracted/frustrated those efforts both now being overlooked, undermined or glossed over?

Massive Attack

@MassiveAttackUK

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1h

What could Bristol and other cities potentially learn from those multiple institutional & political failures?

Massive Attack

@MassiveAttackUK

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What role did individuals and organisations such as the Society of Merchant Venturers play in those repeated frustrations?

Massive Attack

@MassiveAttackUK

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1h

Is it right for private, opaque bodies to be exercising influence on the civic stage? How is this influence – then & now - reported or recorded for public interest & accountability?

Massive Attack

@MassiveAttackUK

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1h

It has been suggested publicly that the SMV (via its investment arm SMV Investments) has major holdings in sectors that continue to have a devastating impact on the people of global south, notably the arms and fossil fuel industries…

If these suggestions prove to be correct, what role should this, or any institution with unethical policies be allowed to play in the civic decision making of a modern, progressive city?

Men, women, and wars

 

When white men write or film stories of colonial times, they tell it through the lens of the white soldiers, and take away the point of view of civilians, women, and of course the 'colonised'.

Latest one:

'DES HOMMES' de Lucas Belvaux 

I personally wrote a short story about these years, that war, inspired by what my grand-mother and mother lived through. 

I know it's not the thrilling type of page-turner romance or true crimes that publishers really want at the moment. 

But I hope to share it some day.

Colston, a year later

Now that we're reaching a year after the toppling of Colston's statue here in Bristol... I can see a lot of social media noise.

I came to Bristol in 2015 precisely to discuss these crucial post-colonial problems, when it was a non-issue for most. And I interviewed the people who actually campaigned for change, from Massive Attack's 3D to Cleo Lake.

So I'm going to focus on the debates coming up only if including people who have actually campaigned for the statue to be taken down or to change the context in which it was displayed, at least.

Whoever invites commentators who jumped on the bang-wagon on the day of the protests is disrespectful to real activists.

I want to share again some of the interviews I produced last year.

First and foremost Cleo Lake:

One of the real voices on these issues, involved in trying to raise a plaque to be posted by the statue, is Dr Shawn Sobers.

He is an Associate Professor at UWE, where I also teach, a researcher, photographer, and filmmaker on 'black' history here in Bristol.

Here I interviewed him in June 2020 on #BLM, Colston' statue and the role of the role of the arts against racism, for the radio I have reported for years, DW.

Unedited discussion in English:

Good luck to them and good luck to Bristol as we go through a strange time...

Photo exhibition // High Volume: Bristol Sounds

 

Soon here in Bristol, as part of the Photo Festival.

I've met Mark many times, he's adorable and had followed Bristol music scene from the early 1990s! 

Looking forward to this.

High Volume: Bristol Sounds

Photographs from Mark Simmons

 

Autumn 2021 (TBC) | Venue: Strange Brew

 

 

Photographs documenting Bristol’s music scene since the early 1980s by Mark Simmons will go on display, many for the first time as part of Bristol Photo Festival.

 Studio portraits of artists such Massive Attack and Roni Size & Reprazent are shown alongside photographs capturing music events and venues across the city, ranging from St Paul’s Carnival to Aston Court Festival, Malcolm X, Trinity and Easton Community Centre. 

Collectively, these photographs demonstrate the diversity and energy of music in and across the city.

 

I really didn't expect this for this month of May 2021, already full of good news... But one of my poems has been published online by this lovely new website: Thawra.

I've been writing poetry for decades but rarely dared to send any...

Very grateful for this opportunity !

You can read here.

An extract here:

And the whole poem: 

Heavenly Gardens

An enemy of our future

Is walking by at dawn.

Our city, darker and darker,

Violated by a gesture,

All broken, drowned and done.

Paris floats like a dreamer.

Its people have become ghosts,

Lost in fear and in terror

Due to men whose hearts turned to stone.

Our meaning has gotten lost

And we no longer can honour

The promise we’ll never be alone.

After death should have come heaven,

We could only find blurred limbos.

Our children will have to look at a glow,

For a path cast away behind a forgotten garden;

And, you and I, we don’t know where it goes.

I only fathom my soul’s salvation, far below.

But the victims are sometimes silenced,

And the real perpetrators masquerade as saviours.

They have buried the traces of the past and distanced

Themselves from their old guilty crimes and dishonours.

Lost lives are all mourned,

But only some get to defend their dolors.

Deep inside my heart, I feel another world breathes,

Way underground, or over the rainbow,

And you and I can reach its gates if we drive

Far, far away, along the right way, beyond death.

Under a wreath, I will carry a crown and take a bow

While you will be able to catch the beat where we thrive.

By Melissa Chemam

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Thanks ever so much to the literary magazine Thawra for publishing my poetry... 

Thawra in Arabic means Revolution, a key word in my life! 

'Heavenly Gardens' was inspired by my experience just before, during and after the Paris attacks in 2015, and the love, inspiration and rebirth I found by coming to Bristol after spending 3 months in a war zone in Central Africa, weeks working on news from the Middle East - and especially Gaza and Turkey, then these terrible terrorist attacks and their aftermath... 

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And do check their website for more poems.

melissa x