Podcasts about black britain

The cultural historian Tiffany Jenkins looks at the long history of the private life from Ancient Athens to the digital age. In her new book, Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and fall of the Private Life, she examines how our attitudes to the intimate and personal, have shifted over time. She argues that the challenge of big tech is simply the latest development that has seen our private lives increasingly exposed for public consumption. It is only through understanding the history of the very idea of the private life, that we might protect it. Homework: A Memoir is Geoff Dyer's new book. In it he tells his own story, that of a boy growing up in a working class family in the 1960s and 1970s. He charts the transformative opportunities afforded by the post war settlement for an eleven year old boy who wins a place at a grammar school. Evoking deep personal memories, he explores the challenges of his childhood and teenage years in the mid twentieth century England. Lanre Bakare is interested in the stories of the Black Britain we don't often hear – the one that exists beyond London. In moving his focus outside the capital, he explores the economic and social unrest of 1970s and 1980s from very different perspectives. His new book, We Were There: How Black Culture, Resistance and Community Shaped Modern Britain suggests that we need to incorporate a broader range of the experiences of Black Britons into the fabric of our national story.Producer: Ruth Watts

From struggles over miscarriages of justice to groundbreaking music, Lanre Bakare looks at the places and events that shaped Black Britain in the Thatcher years. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family and Slavery (UNC Press, 2024) is a dramatic transatlantic story about five women who birthed children by the same prominent Barbados politician and enslaver. Two of the women were his wives, two he enslaved, and one was a servant in his household. All were determined to make their way in a world that vastly and differentially circumscribed their life choices. From a Barbados plantation to the center of England's empire in London, Hester Tomkyns, Frances Knights, Susannah Mingo, Elizabeth Ashcroft, and Dorothy Spendlove built remarkable lives for themselves and their children in spite of, not because of, the man who linked them together. Mining seventeenth- and eighteenth-century court records, deeds, wills, church registers, and estate inventories, Jenny Shaw centers the experiences of the women and their children, intertwining the microlevel relationships of family and the macrolevel political machinations of empire to show how white supremacy and racism developed in England and the colonies. Shaw also explores England's first slave society in North America, provides a glimpse into Black Britain long before the Windrush generation of the twentieth century, and demonstrates that England itself was a society with slaves in the early modern era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family and Slavery (UNC Press, 2024) is a dramatic transatlantic story about five women who birthed children by the same prominent Barbados politician and enslaver. Two of the women were his wives, two he enslaved, and one was a servant in his household. All were determined to make their way in a world that vastly and differentially circumscribed their life choices. From a Barbados plantation to the center of England's empire in London, Hester Tomkyns, Frances Knights, Susannah Mingo, Elizabeth Ashcroft, and Dorothy Spendlove built remarkable lives for themselves and their children in spite of, not because of, the man who linked them together. Mining seventeenth- and eighteenth-century court records, deeds, wills, church registers, and estate inventories, Jenny Shaw centers the experiences of the women and their children, intertwining the microlevel relationships of family and the macrolevel political machinations of empire to show how white supremacy and racism developed in England and the colonies. Shaw also explores England's first slave society in North America, provides a glimpse into Black Britain long before the Windrush generation of the twentieth century, and demonstrates that England itself was a society with slaves in the early modern era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family and Slavery (UNC Press, 2024) is a dramatic transatlantic story about five women who birthed children by the same prominent Barbados politician and enslaver. Two of the women were his wives, two he enslaved, and one was a servant in his household. All were determined to make their way in a world that vastly and differentially circumscribed their life choices. From a Barbados plantation to the center of England's empire in London, Hester Tomkyns, Frances Knights, Susannah Mingo, Elizabeth Ashcroft, and Dorothy Spendlove built remarkable lives for themselves and their children in spite of, not because of, the man who linked them together. Mining seventeenth- and eighteenth-century court records, deeds, wills, church registers, and estate inventories, Jenny Shaw centers the experiences of the women and their children, intertwining the microlevel relationships of family and the macrolevel political machinations of empire to show how white supremacy and racism developed in England and the colonies. Shaw also explores England's first slave society in North America, provides a glimpse into Black Britain long before the Windrush generation of the twentieth century, and demonstrates that England itself was a society with slaves in the early modern era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family and Slavery (UNC Press, 2024) is a dramatic transatlantic story about five women who birthed children by the same prominent Barbados politician and enslaver. Two of the women were his wives, two he enslaved, and one was a servant in his household. All were determined to make their way in a world that vastly and differentially circumscribed their life choices. From a Barbados plantation to the center of England's empire in London, Hester Tomkyns, Frances Knights, Susannah Mingo, Elizabeth Ashcroft, and Dorothy Spendlove built remarkable lives for themselves and their children in spite of, not because of, the man who linked them together. Mining seventeenth- and eighteenth-century court records, deeds, wills, church registers, and estate inventories, Jenny Shaw centers the experiences of the women and their children, intertwining the microlevel relationships of family and the macrolevel political machinations of empire to show how white supremacy and racism developed in England and the colonies. Shaw also explores England's first slave society in North America, provides a glimpse into Black Britain long before the Windrush generation of the twentieth century, and demonstrates that England itself was a society with slaves in the early modern era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/caribbean-studies

The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family and Slavery (UNC Press, 2024) is a dramatic transatlantic story about five women who birthed children by the same prominent Barbados politician and enslaver. Two of the women were his wives, two he enslaved, and one was a servant in his household. All were determined to make their way in a world that vastly and differentially circumscribed their life choices. From a Barbados plantation to the center of England's empire in London, Hester Tomkyns, Frances Knights, Susannah Mingo, Elizabeth Ashcroft, and Dorothy Spendlove built remarkable lives for themselves and their children in spite of, not because of, the man who linked them together. Mining seventeenth- and eighteenth-century court records, deeds, wills, church registers, and estate inventories, Jenny Shaw centers the experiences of the women and their children, intertwining the microlevel relationships of family and the macrolevel political machinations of empire to show how white supremacy and racism developed in England and the colonies. Shaw also explores England's first slave society in North America, provides a glimpse into Black Britain long before the Windrush generation of the twentieth century, and demonstrates that England itself was a society with slaves in the early modern era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family and Slavery (UNC Press, 2024) is a dramatic transatlantic story about five women who birthed children by the same prominent Barbados politician and enslaver. Two of the women were his wives, two he enslaved, and one was a servant in his household. All were determined to make their way in a world that vastly and differentially circumscribed their life choices. From a Barbados plantation to the center of England's empire in London, Hester Tomkyns, Frances Knights, Susannah Mingo, Elizabeth Ashcroft, and Dorothy Spendlove built remarkable lives for themselves and their children in spite of, not because of, the man who linked them together. Mining seventeenth- and eighteenth-century court records, deeds, wills, church registers, and estate inventories, Jenny Shaw centers the experiences of the women and their children, intertwining the microlevel relationships of family and the macrolevel political machinations of empire to show how white supremacy and racism developed in England and the colonies. Shaw also explores England's first slave society in North America, provides a glimpse into Black Britain long before the Windrush generation of the twentieth century, and demonstrates that England itself was a society with slaves in the early modern era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family and Slavery (UNC Press, 2024) is a dramatic transatlantic story about five women who birthed children by the same prominent Barbados politician and enslaver. Two of the women were his wives, two he enslaved, and one was a servant in his household. All were determined to make their way in a world that vastly and differentially circumscribed their life choices. From a Barbados plantation to the center of England's empire in London, Hester Tomkyns, Frances Knights, Susannah Mingo, Elizabeth Ashcroft, and Dorothy Spendlove built remarkable lives for themselves and their children in spite of, not because of, the man who linked them together. Mining seventeenth- and eighteenth-century court records, deeds, wills, church registers, and estate inventories, Jenny Shaw centers the experiences of the women and their children, intertwining the microlevel relationships of family and the macrolevel political machinations of empire to show how white supremacy and racism developed in England and the colonies. Shaw also explores England's first slave society in North America, provides a glimpse into Black Britain long before the Windrush generation of the twentieth century, and demonstrates that England itself was a society with slaves in the early modern era.

The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family and Slavery (UNC Press, 2024) is a dramatic transatlantic story about five women who birthed children by the same prominent Barbados politician and enslaver. Two of the women were his wives, two he enslaved, and one was a servant in his household. All were determined to make their way in a world that vastly and differentially circumscribed their life choices. From a Barbados plantation to the center of England's empire in London, Hester Tomkyns, Frances Knights, Susannah Mingo, Elizabeth Ashcroft, and Dorothy Spendlove built remarkable lives for themselves and their children in spite of, not because of, the man who linked them together. Mining seventeenth- and eighteenth-century court records, deeds, wills, church registers, and estate inventories, Jenny Shaw centers the experiences of the women and their children, intertwining the microlevel relationships of family and the macrolevel political machinations of empire to show how white supremacy and racism developed in England and the colonies. Shaw also explores England's first slave society in North America, provides a glimpse into Black Britain long before the Windrush generation of the twentieth century, and demonstrates that England itself was a society with slaves in the early modern era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

In the immediate post war years, the arrival of Black British citizens from the Caribbean was met with widespread racism across most areas of British life. Black people encountering Britain for the first time discovered not a wealthy land of enterprise but one with a poor white working class whom assumed superiority by dint of their skin colour. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can support the podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the post war decades, migration from Britain's colonies in the Caribbean to the UK grew considerably. There are well documented 'pull' factors that led to this, including a deep sense of identification that many Jamaicans, Barbadians and others felt for the 'mother country'. However, long term structural economic hardships, the effects of a devastating hurricane in 1944 and the lack of any real prospect of migration to America after 1952 created powerful 'push' factors towards Britain.This episode of the Explaining History podcast explores these issues through Eddie Chambers' excellent cultural history of Black Britain, Roots and Culture Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Sewell joins The Brendan O'Neill Show this week to discuss his new book, Black Success: The Surprising Truth. Tony and Brendan discuss the myth of ‘structural racism', the paternalism of white liberals and the patriotism of ethnic minorities.  Get your ticket for Brendan's next live podcast, in conversation with Matt Ridley, on Thursday 21 March at 7pm GMT. Sign up here.  Order Brendan O'Neill's A Heretic's Manifesto now from:

In a time of death and isolation, a new tradition was born. As the UK struggled with Covid and a renewed fight for racial justice, I turned to two wheels to get by. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

The ‘Quiet Catastrophe' Brewing in Our Social Lives https://pca.st/39fjd8va Windrush: The Story of Black Britain https://pca.st/episode/26468530-dcf0-42b9-8d13-263f83902e20 para encerrar bem o ano, uma conversa inspiradora com um profissional de primeiríssima e um ser humano fantástico!vai ser nesta sexta, ao vivo, às 15h!https://t.me/radinhodepilha?livestream The Rest Is History ClubJoin The Rest Is History Club for ad-free listening, weekly ... Read more

On the 8th of June 1948, the HMT Windrush sailed from Kingston with almost 500 migrants on board, destined for England. The ship docked at Tilbury on the 22nd of June, and history was made. Since that day the legend of Windrush has gradually come to characterise an increasingly broad and more diverse group of British citizens, and the event stands as a sacred moment in the history of British multiculturalism, race relations and immigration, laden though it is with moral and political baggage. In today's episode Tom and Dominic are joined by acclaimed journalist and author Trevor Phillips, to discuss this seminal moment in the history of Black Britain. During the course of the episode they dismantle some of the myths that have since developed, explore the people who came over, and the emergence of the communities that settled in Britain in the wake of 1948. They also consider the complicated wider context of the Windrush story, and the long term significance of this foundational moment.

Linton Kwesi Johnson is one of the greatest poets of the modern era. His uncompromising political verse infused with reggae has influenced many people, and helped chronicle the lived experience of Black Britain for decades. This year, Linton has published a selection of his prose from the 1970s to 2021, titled “Time Come.” He joins Tom to talk about his life in words, poetry and music.

This week we look at the trial by media of Russell Brand; Rishi Sunak's change on net zero; Fiji; Azerbaiijan amd Ngorno-Karabakh; Japanese Fictosexuals; NHS 'diveristy and inclusion' officers; Black Britain; Book removals in Canada; Cancelling Roisin; Astral Weeks; Ronaldo gets baptised; SEEK - Obeying the government; Brian Cox on the meaning of life; with music from Gary Numan; Ken Ishii;  Rosin Murphy; Dream Nails; Van Morrison; David Bowie and Fijian worship. 

The Did Ya Know team are proud top be a part of the Google Arts and Culture series 'Union Black' with three very special episodes. UNION BLACK is an online multi-format content series across YouTube and Google Arts & Culture, featuring a curated collection of videos, audio documentaries, podcasts, stories and photographs taking us on a journey celebrating the contributions of Black British music artists, creatives, professionals and scenes.Told by the Black British music community, these stories will demonstrate the undeniable influence and impact of Black British music and culture in the UK and beyond. In three special episodes, 'The Black British Producers behind Global Albums', is a series of podcasts that accompany the visual series with additional content, spotlighting the contribution of Black British music producers who have had International impact.In this episode we talk to legendary producer Dennis Bovell, the man who not only produced incredible records, but created a genre - Lovers Rock a sound that epitomised Black Britain. He tells us about sound systems and the part they played in his life, how he c with Linton Kwesi Johnson, how a man synonymous in the world of reggae produced an iconic Punk band and of course how Janet Kay's single ‘Silly Games' change the music landscape.If you want too know more about Union Black and check the amazing content please head to goo.gle/unionblack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Did Ya Know team are proud top be a part of the Google Arts and Culture series 'Union Black' with three very special episodes. UNION BLACK is an online multi-format content series across YouTube and Google Arts & Culture, featuring a curated collection of videos, audio documentaries, podcasts, stories and photographs taking us on a journey celebrating the contributions of Black British music artists, creatives, professionals and scenes.Told by the Black British music community, these stories will demonstrate the undeniable influence and impact of Black British music and culture in the UK and beyond. In three special episodes, 'The Black British Producers behind Global Albums', is a series of podcasts that accompany the visual series with additional content, spotlighting the contribution of Black British music producers who have had International impact.In this episode we talk to legendary producer Dennis Bovell, the man who not only produced incredible records, but created a genre - Lovers Rock a sound that epitomised Black Britain. He tells us about sound systems and the part they played in his life, how he c with Linton Kwesi Johnson, how a man synonymous in the world of reggae produced an iconic Punk band and of course how Janet Kay's single ‘Silly Games' change the music landscape.If you want too know more about Union Black and check the amazing content please head to goo.gle/unionblack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writer and photographer Johny Pitts captures everyday experiences from Black communities around the British coast, bringing together the sights, sounds, and sofas shared from Liverpool to London, in his touring installation, Home is Not a Place. In 2021, Johny Pitts and the poet Roger Robinson set off on a journey clockwise around the British coast, to answer the question: 'What is Black Britain?' Their collaboration, Home is Not is Place, captures contemporary, everyday experiences of Blackness between Edinburgh and Belfast, Liverpool and Tilbury, where the Empire Windrush docked in 1948. Setting out from London, the multidisciplinary artist challenges the ‘Brixtonisation' of Black experiences, and binary media representations of Black excellence, or criminality. Johny shares stories of migration, how Brexit and COVID changed his perceptions of local environments, and archive albums from his own childhood in multicultural, working-class Sheffield. Flicking through shots of Yorkshire puddings and Mount Fuji, we find his travels-past in 1980s bubble-era Japan. And in his Living Room, we sit down to discuss Afropean, inspirations like James Baldwin, Paul Gilroy, and Caryl Phillips, plus his sister Chantal's pirate radio playlists, and the role of family and community in his practice. Johny Pitts: Home is Not a Place runs at The Photographers' Gallery in London until 24 September 2023. Join the Gallery this Thursday (7 September), and next, for special exhibition tours and artist talks. For more, you can read my article in gowithYamo. For more about Autograph, hear artist Ingrid Pollard's EMPIRE LINES on Carbon Slowly Turning (2022): https://pod.link/1533637675/episode/e00996c8caff991ad6da78b4d73da7e4 WITH: Johny Pitts, photographer, writer, and broadcaster from Sheffield, England. He is the curator of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) award-winning Afropean.com, and the author of Afropean: Notes from Black Europe (2021). ART: ‘Home is Not a Place, Johny Pitts and Roger Robinson (2021-Now)'. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Twitter: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 And Instagram: instagram.com/empirelinespodcast Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

In the first episode of our exploration into "Roots and Culture" by Eddie Chambers, we delve into the history of Black Britain from 1948 to 1989. This period witnessed a profound shift in Britain's cultural, social, and racial landscape, marked by the arrival of the Windrush Generation in 1948 and culminating with the end of the 1980s.In this episode, we navigate the complex tapestry of Black British history, charting the experiences, struggles, and triumphs of Black communities within Britain. We delve into the intricate web of immigration, systemic racism, cultural heritage, and identity formation that defines this era.The tale unfolds with the arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks, bringing the first large group of Caribbean migrants to the UK. This pivotal moment marked the beginning of significant Black immigration to Britain, shaping the multicultural society we know today.Throughout the subsequent decades, Black Britons forged a space for themselves in the face of adversity, enriching Britain with their unique culture, talents, and resilience. Despite persistent challenges, their legacy resonates in every facet of British society – from music and arts to politics and sports.Join us as we journey through this dynamic period in history, unveiling the vibrant and often overlooked narrative of Black Britain. The lessons learnt from this saga of resilience and cultural revolution hold vital importance for our understanding of modern Britain. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 (The History Press, 2020), Stephen Bourne tells the whole story of Britain's black community during World War II. On the home front, civilians came under fire from the Blitz in cities such as Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, and Manchester. Meanwhile, black servicemen and women, many of them volunteers from places as far away as Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, and Nigeria, risked their lives fighting for the Mother Country in the air, at sea, and on land. Drawing on first-hand testimonies, Bourne sheds light on a wealth of experiences, from evacuees to entertainers, government officials, prisoners of war, and community leaders. Despite facing the discriminatory "color bar," many black civilians were determined to contribute to the war effort where they could, volunteering as civilian defense workers--air-raid wardens, fire-fighters, stretcher-bearers, and first-aiders. Among those remembered are men and women whose stories have only recently come to light, making Under Fire the definitive account of the bravery and sacrifices of black Britons in wartime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 (The History Press, 2020), Stephen Bourne tells the whole story of Britain's black community during World War II. On the home front, civilians came under fire from the Blitz in cities such as Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, and Manchester. Meanwhile, black servicemen and women, many of them volunteers from places as far away as Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, and Nigeria, risked their lives fighting for the Mother Country in the air, at sea, and on land. Drawing on first-hand testimonies, Bourne sheds light on a wealth of experiences, from evacuees to entertainers, government officials, prisoners of war, and community leaders. Despite facing the discriminatory "color bar," many black civilians were determined to contribute to the war effort where they could, volunteering as civilian defense workers--air-raid wardens, fire-fighters, stretcher-bearers, and first-aiders. Among those remembered are men and women whose stories have only recently come to light, making Under Fire the definitive account of the bravery and sacrifices of black Britons in wartime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 (The History Press, 2020), Stephen Bourne tells the whole story of Britain's black community during World War II. On the home front, civilians came under fire from the Blitz in cities such as Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, and Manchester. Meanwhile, black servicemen and women, many of them volunteers from places as far away as Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, and Nigeria, risked their lives fighting for the Mother Country in the air, at sea, and on land. Drawing on first-hand testimonies, Bourne sheds light on a wealth of experiences, from evacuees to entertainers, government officials, prisoners of war, and community leaders. Despite facing the discriminatory "color bar," many black civilians were determined to contribute to the war effort where they could, volunteering as civilian defense workers--air-raid wardens, fire-fighters, stretcher-bearers, and first-aiders. Among those remembered are men and women whose stories have only recently come to light, making Under Fire the definitive account of the bravery and sacrifices of black Britons in wartime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

In Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 (The History Press, 2020), Stephen Bourne tells the whole story of Britain's black community during World War II. On the home front, civilians came under fire from the Blitz in cities such as Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, and Manchester. Meanwhile, black servicemen and women, many of them volunteers from places as far away as Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, and Nigeria, risked their lives fighting for the Mother Country in the air, at sea, and on land. Drawing on first-hand testimonies, Bourne sheds light on a wealth of experiences, from evacuees to entertainers, government officials, prisoners of war, and community leaders. Despite facing the discriminatory "color bar," many black civilians were determined to contribute to the war effort where they could, volunteering as civilian defense workers--air-raid wardens, fire-fighters, stretcher-bearers, and first-aiders. Among those remembered are men and women whose stories have only recently come to light, making Under Fire the definitive account of the bravery and sacrifices of black Britons in wartime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

In Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 (The History Press, 2020), Stephen Bourne tells the whole story of Britain's black community during World War II. On the home front, civilians came under fire from the Blitz in cities such as Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, and Manchester. Meanwhile, black servicemen and women, many of them volunteers from places as far away as Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, and Nigeria, risked their lives fighting for the Mother Country in the air, at sea, and on land. Drawing on first-hand testimonies, Bourne sheds light on a wealth of experiences, from evacuees to entertainers, government officials, prisoners of war, and community leaders. Despite facing the discriminatory "color bar," many black civilians were determined to contribute to the war effort where they could, volunteering as civilian defense workers--air-raid wardens, fire-fighters, stretcher-bearers, and first-aiders. Among those remembered are men and women whose stories have only recently come to light, making Under Fire the definitive account of the bravery and sacrifices of black Britons in wartime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

Recorded from the heart of London, host Dr. Sylvia sits down with Michael Eboda, Founder and CEO of Powerful Media UK, whose mission is to connect great African, African, Caribbean, and African American minds through events, publications, introduction, and recruitment.  This episode was recorded a few days after Britain elected its first Prime Minister of Indian descent and at the end of Black history month in the UK.   Michael shares his experience growing up in a working-class family in the UK and how being sent to live with his aunt in Nigeria after the death of his mother changed the trajectory of his life, providing him access to opportunities he never knew were available to him as a black man.  Michael provides his perspective on the negative narrative about black Britons and drive for creating the Powerlist in 2007, an annual list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom.  He explains the importance of using the Powerlist as a springboard to connect black talent to senior leadership opportunities, collaborate with African American executives via the Executive Leadership Council (ELC) to support black talent, as well as support and showcase future leaders in an annual publication that profiles 150 of the most outstanding black university students in Britain.    About Michael Eboda: Before starting Powerful Media, Michael was Editorial Director of the Ethnic Media Group, which at one time published some 10 titles. He has worked for and written for many national newspapers and magazines, including The Observer, The Guardian, The Sun, The Evening Standard, The Sunday Times, The Times and The Independent. Michael holds Bachelors and Master's degrees in Law and a post-graduate diploma in Periodical Journalism.

The first event marking Black History Month UK took place thirty five years ago, and the re-claiming and documenting of Black British and International History has since evolved into a national movement. But how much has changed in those three decades? The historian Miranda Kaufmann has spent years uncovering evidence of Africans in Renaissance Britain. Her first book Black Tudors: The Untold Story was published five years ago and has since become a free online course. The British Nigerian poet Yomi Ṣode interweaves his native Yoruba with English slang in his debut collection Manorism. He explores what it means to grow up black in Britain and the pressure to be constantly adapting his behaviour and language. But he also shows the past works in mysterious ways by finding inspiration in the life of the 17th century Italian painter, Caravaggio. The curator Christine Checinska explores how fashion has formed a key part of Africa's cultural renaissance in a ground-breaking exhibition at the V&A. Africa Fashion starts with the years of African independence that sparked radical political and social movements. But the show also includes contemporary designers who have broken with historical ideas to look to the future. The historian Peter Frankopan makes the case for world history – a view of the past from multiple foci – in the essay collection, What Is History, Now? He questions the role of history; whose stories are told and why. But the challenge of broadening horizons to encompass the whole world can make it oversimplistic and fractured. Frankopan believes the job of the historian is to look at the connections between societies, and explore what the past can tell about today's world. Image: Thomas Gainsborough's 'Portrait of Ignatius Sancho', 1768

For Black History Month, Julian speaks to broadcaster Diane Louise Jordan about her work on the website The Making of Black Britain.

Today we are joined by David Lammy, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tottenham since 2000. David served as a Minister in Government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, with his final role being Minster of State for Universities. David grew up in Tottenham where he won a choral scholarship that just so happened to set him on the path for a career in the Law. He studied Law at the University of Law, and was the first Black Britain to attend the Harvard Law School where he got his Masters. Enjoy. * Breaking Legal Glass Ceilings is a series of conversations with leading lawyers from backgrounds outside the law. David Lock KC explores how successful lawyers from "non traditional" backgrounds made it into the professions, what they did to get on, what legal practice demanded from them, what they did to stand out from their peers, and their top tips for the aspiring lawyers of tomorrow. We would also like to invite you to join the conversation, and you can email us with your comments and questions at legalglassceilings@gmail.com, and you can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. We look forward to sharing these conversations with you, and very much hope you enjoy them. Hosted by David Lock KC Produced & Edited by Amy Jansen

The one where we talk about football. Football podcasting great and award-winning writer Musa Okwonga joined the pod at the start of the season for a wide-ranging deep dive on the relationship of our game, media and the England team with Black Britain. We begin talking about how Blackness has permeated football culture (5:17), charting from Wenger's Arsenal through Nike's Londoner advert to now. We then discuss the marketing of the England team(35:28) behind not just Black faces but Black identities with the unspoken caveat of "Conditional Identity" afforded to those players(43:19). We then touch on the traditional media discourse about Black athletes(50:15) and why there have been no "clever" Black footballers(1:01:06), before finishing on Musa's experience moving abroad and the impact it had on his life and career(1:18:02). Our regular segment "Black in the Box" closes out pod, with us giving love to chicken, carnival, Munya and Musa's exceptional latest book "In The End, It Was All About Love"(1:29:41). Like. Share. Subscribe.

Take a look into the unique sounds of Black Britain and their history

本期我和老林聊了牙买加音乐在英国的发展，从 sound system 进入英国开始，牙买加音乐其实是塑造 UK sound 最关键的核心，它的影响力极其深远，并且在很多阶段都与美国流行乐的平行进化是不同的审美体系。 老林专门为这次节目整理了一份“Jamaican music in UK”文档，

Sitting down at the Converse Create Next Film Club which is part of Converse's All-Star Film Programme, Chuckie Online sat down in front of an audience of creators in London's West-End with Hollywood actor and Peckham alumni John Boyega for a heartfelt catch-up about Star Wars, Black Britain's current role in Hollywood, its future role and the ways he makes the most of his success...

This week spring is springing, birds are chirping, and Florida is...Florida-ing. We spend a bit of time on some potentially hopeful news about the perceived value of a college degree, and that is good. Hold on to that feeling, because from there it's pretty much straight downhill. This week's Disingenuous Arguments segment is really just a rundown of sunshine state shenanigans, from fired tenured faculty with 20 years of service to undermining the very notion of accreditation. And that's before we get to "don't say gay". What is in the water down there? Can we help? Florida, blink twice if you need help. Cleanse the pallet with a book. People will think you're smart. Further Reading "Public's Impression of Higher Ed Improves (Somewhat)", Inside Higher Ed "Florida Memorial University Lays Off Four Tenured Professors, Discontinues 16 Degree Programs", Miami New Times "Education Department Warns Florida: Forcing Colleges to Change Accreditors Jeopardizes Financial Aid", Chronicle of Higher Ed "Florida Lawmaker Puts a Conservative Stamp on Higher Ed", Chronicle of Higher Ed What We're Reading Han C. Winter, Racial Erotics: Gay Men of Color, Sexual Racism, and the Politics of Desire Karen Sands-O'Connor, Children's Publishing and Black Britain, 1965 - 2015

The Start Line Girls are back with episode 33, the last in the series of the 'Behind the Podcast' episodes.  This month, our special guest is Marcus Brown (formerly known as Marathon Marcus and now as Marcus_Runs on Instagram!). Marcus is what we would call an 'Amateur Elite' athlete!  A man of many marathons, he is a co-founder of Black Trail Runners, co-host of BTR podcast 'The Checkpoint' and his own podcast 'A Runners Life'. Marcus speaks to The Start Line Girls about his life as a runner, activist and someone who constantly kicks himself out of his comfort zone, pushing himself to do the things that he wouldn't otherwise do. There's a lesson for all of us in Marcus' attitude, we hope you will all strive to run a marathon (or at least in your dreams!) soon!We'd love to hear from you, so please follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook by searching for @thestartlinepod.  You can also follow the show on your favourite podcast provider or at our website thestartlinepod.com (where you can also get your hands on some TSL merch!).  We'd also love to stay in touch, so don't forget to subscribe to our email list so that we can notify you when the latest episode is coming out!Theme music: Street Festival by Franco Eneiro. Used under licence.Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thestartlinepod)

On this week's Change Makers episode in collaboration with the University of London's School of Advanced Study, looking at addressing the question, “How has Covid changed us?” host Michael Hayman is joined by Cephas Williams, who describes himself on his website in just one word: human. But one word doesn't quite do justice to someone with a career as extensive as any campaigner in the UK today. As founder of the Black British Network, he aims to use the collective influence of business leaders across the UK to keep the conversation going around the challenges of systemic racism we see here and around the world, beyond moments of trauma and public traction. And as well as convening and inspiring corporate leaders, Cephas has a track record of impacting the public consciousness with his photography campaigns Portrait of Black Britain and 56 Black Men, and the open letter he penned to his new-born son in the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020, ‘Letter to Zion'.

Topics Covered: January 25th 1981: New Cross Fire Meeting https://woodsmokeblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/1981-bufp-new-cross-massacre.pdf https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/darcus-howe-a-political-biography/ch14-thirteen-dead-and-nothing-said.pdf?dl January 26th 2020: Jo Martin becomes the first Black doctor https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/28/doctor-who-jo-martin-becomes-first-bame-actor-to-play-the-doctor January 27th 2018: Reimagining Black Britain Conference https://issuu.com/reimaginingblkbritainconf/docs/_re-imagining_black_britain__-_conf January 28th 2017: End of The Missing Chapter: Black Chronicles http://themissingchapter.co.uk/exhibition-in-a-box/ https://vimeo.com/206429005 January 29th 1900: Death of William Craft - a formerly enslaved man who settled in the UK https://www.history.com/news/slavery-escape-william-ellen-craft https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/articles/news/2021/10/hammersmith-blue-plaque-celebrates-abolitionists-and-former-slaves January 30th 1959: London's first televised Caribbean Carnival https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/world/europe/notting-hill-carnival-claudia-jones.html https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2013/08/birth-of-notting-hill-carnival January 31st 2011: Rastamouse airs for the first time https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/rastamouse-mania-meet-the-man-behind-the-reggaeloving-rodent-6570619.html Support the pod: https://patreon.com/blackintime

This week on the Legally Speaking Podcast, our host Robert Hanna welcomes Chidi Onyeche.Chidi is currently an associate at Latham & Watkins working in the Project Development and Finance Practice. She is also a member of the firm's Africa Practice.Chidi is also a non-executive director of the Making of Black Britain Project, a governor at Connaught School for girls and was previously a trustee of the Young Advisor Charity. Chidi is also the co-founder of an online platform called the Ultimate Guide Group which focuses on providing information to the black community on careers, finances, property investing and wellness. In 2021, Chidi is the winner of Under-33 Lawyer of the Year by First 100 Years' The Inspirational Women in Law Awards. In this episode, she discusses the following:The innovative legal solutions that she provides to clients doing business in Africa as part of the firms' Africa practiceHer platform “Ultimate Guide Group” and how she helps young people in succeeding in their own chosen fieldsThe importance of LinkedIn in doing legal professionHer project “The Making of Black Britain” and how she got involved in itDiversity, inclusion and black representation in top universities, legal professionFollow Chidi at the following platforms: LinkedInSponsored by Clio: Clio is a legal case management software that work in partnership with the Law Society of England and Wales and is an approved supplier of the Law Society of Scotland.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/legallyspeakingpodcast)

A man has gone on trial accused of killing two women in Tunbridge Wells more than 30 years ago. Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce were found within months of each other in 1987 - hear from our reporter at Maidstone Crown Court. Also in today's podcast, a man who was apprehended by security guards at Bluewater and accused of stealing has returned to the shopping centre in a bid to celebrate diversity and change opinions. Cephas Williams says he was targeted because of the colour of his skin and has put on the Portrait of Black Britain in a bid to tackle racism. Hear the moment he was approached at the shopping centre back in the summer and find out why he's decided to return. As Cop26 takes place in Glasgow, all this week we're going to hear from some of the people in Kent doing their bit to tackle climate change. Today you can hear from eight-year-old Summer Harman from Northfleet who was inspired after watching a David Attenborough documentary. A Kent teenager who lost both of his parents within months of each other was at the Pride of Britain awards at the weekend. Jeremy Daubeny from Tunbridge Wells raised more than £37,000 for The MND Association and The Brain Tumour Charity in memory of his mum and dad. He's been describing his epic challenge to find the best cooked breakfast. Kent drag queen River Medway has been speaking after leaving Drag Race UK. She sashayed away after losing the Lip Sync battle last week. And in football, find out why some fans have been banned from Priestfield and the boss reacts to a frustrating weekend on the pitch.

The Radio Times Podcast, hosted by Jane Garvey with TV expert Rhianna Dhillon, is the place for your trusted TV recommendations each week.In this episode:We hear from Will.i.am about his new documentary ‘will.i.am: The Blackprint' on ITV, where he meets civil rights heroes, leaders in tech and the odd celebrity friend to find out about events that have shaped Black Britain. Jane and Rhianna review ‘Attenborough: The Mating Game', ‘Paul Merson: Football, Gambling and Me', Who Do You Think You Are? and The Little Things, as well as looking at this week's radio highlights. What We Watched' sparks our TV memories of panel shows of the past with future world leaders as guests. You can find the programmes mentioned as follows: Attenborough: The Mating Game BBC1 Sun 10 Oct 8pm Paul Merson: Football, Gambling and Me BBC1 Mon 11th October 9pm Will.i.am: The Blackprint' ITV Thurs 14th October 9pm Who Do You Think You Are: Josh Widdicombe Tues 12th October 9pm The Little Things (£8.99) HD Amazon We'd love to hear from you. You can send us an email anytime to podcast@radiotimes.com or find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @Radiotimes The Radio Times Podcast is produced by Somethin' Else for Immediate Media.See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jeffrey Boakye is a writer and teacher originally from Brixton in south London, now living in Yorkshire with his family. He has a particular interest in issues surrounding education, race and popular culture. Jeffrey has taught English in secondary schools and sixth form colleges since 2007.In this episode, he talks to Nikki Gamble about his book Musical Truth: A Musical History of modern Black Britain in 28 songs.About Musical TruthMusic can carry the stories of history like a message in a bottle. Lord Kitchener, Neneh Cherry, Smiley Culture, Stormzy...Groundbreaking musicians whose songs have changed the world. But how? This exhilarating playlist tracks some of the key shifts in modern British history and explores the emotional impact of 28 songs and the artists who performed them.This book redefines British history, the Empire and postcolonialism, and will invite you to think again about the narratives and key moments in history that you have been taught up to now. Thrilling, urgent, entertaining and thought-provoking, this beautifully illustrated companion to modern black music is a revelation and a delight.

Artists Sonia Boyce, Isaac Julien, Eddie Chambers and Harold Offeh talk to Anne McElvoy about their art and the influence of the British black arts movement - which began around the time of the First National Black Art Convention in 1982 organised by the Blk Art Group and held at Wolverhampton Polytechnic. Eddie Chambers has written Roots and Culture: Cultural Politics in the Making of Black Britain and Black Artists in British Art: A History since the 1950s. He teaches at the University of Texas, Austin. Sonia Boyce is Professor at Middlesex University, a Royal Academician and the Principal-Investigator of the Black Artists & Modernism project. She will show work in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022. Isaac Julien shows at the Victoria Miro Gallery. His work is on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Scotland until August 31st. Lessons of the Hour is a ten-screen film installation looking at the life and times of Frederick Douglass who, from 1845-7, made repeated visits to Edinburgh, while campaigning across the UK and Ireland against US slavery. Harold Offeh is an artist, curator and senior lecturer in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University. His work Covers features in Untitled: art on the conditions of our time which runs in a newly curated display at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge 10 July 2021 – 3 October 2021 following its opening at the New Art Exchange in Nottingham. You can also see his work in the Wellcome Collection exhibition Joy which runs until February 2022. Nottingham Contemporary's The Place Is Here brought together around 100 works by over 30 artists and collectives in 2017 when this episode first aired. Producer: Karl Bos Editor: Robyn Read You might be interested in our playlist on the Free Thinking programme website Exploring Black History https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08t2qbp

Hello dear friends,If you've watched the wildly-popular Netflix series Bridgerton or the wonderful film The Personal History of David Copperfield starring Dev Patel, you might have experienced and appreciated what today's podcast guest saw: People of color in a fictionalized dramatization of 18th and 19th Century Britain. But in Gretchen Gerzina's case - and unlike most of us - she knows the back stories of the real lives of Black residents of Britain in those eras. Professor Gerzina says she is drawn to “biographies and lives of those who cross boundaries of history, time, place or race” - that's on her website - and her work is all about this. In books like Black London, Black Victorians, and Britain's Black Past, Gerzina bridges all of those boundaries for us - connecting us to people across time, place, and history - and introducing us to some of the Black performers, memoirists, activists and everyday people in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Professor Gerzina joined me a few weeks ago, by Zoom, for today's Austen Connection podcast, and we talked about the lives of some of these Black residents of Britain historically, how she is helping to tell the stories about their lives, and how contemporary fictionalizations of Regency England capture these stories, or not. Enjoy the podcast - and if you prefer to read, here's an excerpt from our conversation. Plain JaneSo, I have been poring through your books, and I really enjoyed Black London [among others]. And … it's just really beautiful the way that you write about what you're doing - reconstructing, repainting history. In a way, you say, to illuminate the unseen vistas of people and places that are part of British history and part of our world history. Really illuminating the stories of the people and the community of Black women and men in [the] Regency era in 18th and 19th century Britain. So would you just talk first, Professor Gerzina, about that, illuminating the unseen? In what ways has this history been erased? And in what ways are you still trying to uncover that history?Gretchen Gerzina So that book was published 25 years ago or so and it's still being read all the time. And in fact, it's available as a free download through the Dartmouth College Library. And it stays in people's minds. The reason I wrote it was that I was actually working on a very different book. And … I went into a bookshop, a very well known bookstore in London, looking for … Peter Fryer's book called Staying Power, the history of Black people in Britain - massive book. And it had just come out in paperback. So I said, “Oh, let me go buy that.” And I went into the bookshop, and I couldn't find it. And I finally went up to a clerk. And I said, “I'm looking for this new this book. It's just been released in paperback.” And she looked at me and said, “Madam, there were no Black people in Britain before the Second World War.” And I said, “Well, no, that's not true.” .. .So I got so angry. I never found the book. I mean, I went to another bookshop, and it was right there. But I got so angry that I went home and put aside the book I was working on and wrote Black London. Now, I wasn't the first to write about this. Other people have written about it. And I wanted to both consolidate some of their research, go back to their research, and really look at everything that I could find. And then try to tell the story of Black people living in England. It was supposed to be called Black London. It was called Black London here but in England it was published as Black England. And of course, the reviewers all said, “Well, this is all about London. Why are you not calling it Black London?” which was amusing. … But I wanted to make people see … that these people are walking the same streets, we're living in the same neighborhoods. And I wanted to make it a living, breathing history. Now a lot of other people are working on this now and have done for a long time. But when I first started working on it, there weren't as many. And it wasn't known. And even now, it's not so much that it's been erased, as has been forgotten. People didn't quite realize that there had been a Black British history that goes back as far as the Romans. And they're still finding, they're excavating, you know, old Roman encampments and finding Black African nobility women. And they are doing documentaries on it. I've been in a few. So it's become quite a well-known issue now. Although there's still a great sense of many British people wanting not to understand or believe that past. I wanted to make people see … that these people are walking the same streets, we're living in the same neighborhoods. And I wanted to make it a living, breathing history.Plain JaneSo I suppose, as you say, this was almost 25 years ago, that Black London came out. You've mentioned in the BBC series that you did, Britain's Black Past, you mentioned that it's a detective job … finding these stories. How have you managed to find the stories that you found? And what was it like putting that into an audio series?Gretchen GerzinaThat was wonderful. And of course, it became a book, which was published when all the new research came out last year. So I was able to update a lot of the things … I've got to say - you're in radio - these producers … who have these independent companies and do the productions for BBC, they're incredible researchers. They sometimes find people that I hadn't been able to find, because we academics think in a very different kind of way than radio and television producers, who are out there finding people. So … I knew a lot of the people and we went to some of the places - but they were able to find some people I didn't know about. And then there were incredible stories … I think I was supposed to originally spend six months doing it. And then I was about to change jobs. And I only had one month. So I think I traveled all over Britain in one month doing the entire series. I would wake up in London and get on the train to Glasgow, spend the afternoon in Glasgow, come back to London. The next day, I go to Bristol, you know, kind of went on and on like that.Plain Jane That [sounds like] a really fun part of it. Gretchen GerzinaYeah, it was very tough. … Going to some of these places to really stand in the houses or on the shore. … But it was quite an adventure, to unearth some of these stories. And to just see how, for many people, these stories still last. People still really care.Plain JaneWhat stories have fascinated you? What have [written about] so many individual stories that are wonderful to hear. But what have you found most surprising and exciting to discover?Gretchen GerzinaThere's one - maybe it's one of the ones you're gonna ask about - which is Nathaniel Wells. And I resisted using that story. But they really pushed me because I hadn't really known it before. Nathaniel Wells was the son of a slave owner. He was mixed race. So he was the son of a [enslaved woman] and a slave owner. The owner … had daughters, but no legitimate sons. … He left this money to this mixed-race son ... He sent him off to England to be educated, as many slave owners did with their mixed-race children. And he went to boarding school and he studied. And then he died when Nathaniel was only 20 or 21, when he became the heir. He spent a lot of money. He was a young guy, and he moved to Wales to Chepstow. And he used the money to buy this enormous place. He built this incredible house. He had acres upon acres of this scenic land that was so gorgeous, that it became a kind of pleasure ground. And people would come - there was an open day - and they could come and walk through the parks and all of the mountains, and it was quite something. But he made his money. His money came from the slave plantation. And in fact, his mother owned slaves, his mother, who had been herself enslaved, and I was very reluctant to tell the story of a - essentially a Black or mixed-race - slave owner living in Britain. He married a succession of wealth, to white women … and his house is a ruin now. But he became the first Black sheriff in Britain. He had this enormous wealth. He didn't die with a lot of money. But his story was one I never expected to find. The one in my heart is always Ignatius Sancho, who's now been a play and everything.Plain JaneWhy is he the one in your heart?Gretchen GerzinaWell, because he was so amusing and so serious at the same time. He was brought as an enslaved child. He managed to get away, he was taken in by the Montague family, finally, away from these “three witches,” I think people call them now, who had owned him, didn't want him to read. So they took him in, he was educated. And he became a butler in their house for many, many years. And then he was a little on the heavy side, and then finally couldn't continue to do all his work. So they gave him a pension, and some money. And he moved to London. And he … set up a shop in Westminster, right near the heart of everything of the movers and shakers of British aristocracy and politics. And people would come into his shop. He married a Black woman, which was unusual at the time. And he wrote these letters, and he knew everybody. I mean, they would come in and talk to him. Laurence Sterne. He wrote to Laurence Sterne and [said], “If you're writing Tristram Shandy, please say something about slavery in there.” And he did. He had his portrait painted by Gainsborough. And it's quite a beautiful portrait. It's unfortunately in Canada - the British realize they made a mistake and are trying to get it back. I don't think they're going to get it. … And he was just somebody that people were so fascinated with - all of his letters have been published, his son arranged that they got published after he died. And he's still considered just a huge character. I mean, he … saw the Gordon riots and wrote about them in his letters. He knew people. And he was kind of the face of 18th century Britain in some ways, even though he's a Black man. He was also the first Black man ever to vote in England.Plain JaneSo many of these people were close to influential people and so therefore having an influence. As you point out, they're the easier ones [to discover], and the people who are able to write their own lives are easier to unearth and to find. But so many of the experiences of Black residents in London during this time were below stairs or quietly or really by necessity a lot of the time having to be under the radar. ...Gretchen Gerzina It's hard because … for instance, the British census doesn't list race. When I first published Black London, some reviewers said that I should have gone to all the rent rolls and seen who was Black. But the rent rolls don't necessarily indicate race. It's really hard to find. But the same thing happens in America. … When my book Mr. And Mrs. Prince came out about 10 years ago - it was about two formerly enslaved people who lived in New England in the 18th century. It was a long time ago. And all the stories that had been written about them were written about other people, most of whom got the facts wrong. They claimed that their ancestor had freed them or things like that, that proved not to be true. I had a publisher ask me if I had a photograph of them. And I said, “There was no photography in the 18th century, you know, what do you expect?” And… in general, you don't have your portrait painted, you don't have a journal, you're too busy getting on in life … If you're literate, you don't necessarily sit down and pen your memoirs, you know. You're just trying to get going. But on the other hand, there were people like Francis Barber, who was the servant of Samuel Johnson, and became his literary executor and heir at the end. And that was much disputed. And people were not very happy about that. So those kinds of people who were educated and were lucky enough to be known [we can learn about]. I actually think that the people who are finding out the most now are people you don't expect - genealogists who are starting to trace back family histories. A lot of white genealogists in Britain, they're finding that they have Black ancestors, and they didn't realize it.Plain Jane I'm a big fan of “Finding Your Roots” with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It seems like he ends every episode saying, “See how we're all connected? More than we thought we were?” … So yes, I hear you, that's really fascinating - that so many disciplines are sort of reevaluating and re-seeing, looking again, revisioning, all of this history. You're reminding me, when you talk about no photography from 18th century Britain, you're reminding me that not only are you and scholars like you having to honor these unseen histories, but you're actually having to re-tell stories where there's been a campaign of basically very racist imagery. You write about the constant, reinforcing sexualization of Black women from these times; but then also the pro-slavery imagery and campaigns that were put out there. Even the sentimentality. You say that there's sort of two versions that even those that were anti-slavery at the time, were sort of overly sentimentalized versions, like we think of Harriet Beecher Stowe. And, you know, doing a lot of good work, I suppose, and having an influence; but yet, we need to revision those stories as well. And you mentioned that you're just looking for the real people. They're real people in real places. So [you are] … having to, as you say, repaint these people?Gretchen GerzinaWell, I mean, just remember it's all worked very differently in America, and in Paris. And the way that it's memorialized or remembered is very, very different. There were certainly Black people in Britain from hundreds and hundreds of years. But there was not slavery on their soil in the same way that it was here. So they were able to sexualize women by looking at the Jamaican plantations and what happens there with a lot of rape and a lot of punishments. But this is the country, Britain is the countries, I should say, where Black minstrelsy was a television show until the 1970s. Blackface minstrelsy was not only on television, but it was in all the private homes. But at the same time, in the 19th century Uncle Tom's Cabin was the biggest thing going. People loved it, it really spoke to them. So there was Uncle Tom wallpaper. There [were] Topsy dolls. So you would go into a child's nursery and there could be wallpaper and dolls. So that sense that America was terrible, and “Look at us, we're so great. We abolished slavery before you did,” takes away the fact that for the most part, the British actually supported the American South in the Civil War. Because their cotton came from there that fueled their textile mills in the north of Britain. They didn't have the same kind of racism, it worked a little differently, but it certainly existed. But there were lots of people who were just living among them who were not necessarily known. They weren't necessarily in a book, and they were just sort of living their lives. And that's what I'm trying to write about now. But also I just really want to have a shout out to some people who are working on these things now. Miranda Kaufmann's book, Black Tutors, really sparked a huge response. … It became a huge bestseller in England. And there was a lot of pushback when people said there were no Black tutors. And she would show them the images of the people, and then all the documentation, and they didn't want to believe it. I belong within a group that she started, that is looking into Black people in British portraiture, and trying to identify who those people were. And so far, the list has over 300 British paintings that have Black people in them - they're most often a small boy servant or something, but not always. And they're scattered all over. They're in private homes. They're in museums. But there were lots of people who were just living among them who were not necessarily known. They weren't necessarily in a book, and they were just sort of living their lives. And that's what I'm trying to write about now.So there is a kind of visual reality to all of this, where you can see the people and you can understand a bit about their lives. And so people are going into the records trying to find out, who were these people? Were they borrowed sometimes, some painter would say, “Oh, you know, he's got a Black servant, let's put him in the picture and bring him over to a bigger house for a while.” So you know, trying to track them down is difficult. But there's just more and more evidence of this ongoing presence.Plain Jane You point out now in in your works the way these stories have been played, have been part of popular culture through the ages. And I guess our culture - various cultures - have worked out the stories, have worked out some of these things, either effectively or ineffectively, on the stage. And so that brings me to where much of your research deals with - the Regency era, which happens to be where so many contemporary cultural retellings, fan fiction, and romance is taking place. And then of course, we've got Bridgerton. So let me just start with a general question. We're talking about what people typically miss, but how are you experiencing some of these cultural inventions? Gretchen Gerzina Yeah, you know, I'm enjoying the heck out of this stuff. Just like a lot of [us].Sanditon, I can let go. It was, I felt, a travesty. It kept some of the book, but it actually just took things in a direction that I found very difficult. So, for example, in Sanditon, the Jane Austen novel - the fragment because it's incomplete - the heiress from the West Indies is Miss Lambe … She is not necessarily identifiably Black. They know she's mixed race. In the series, they made her a very dark-skinned woman to point out that she in fact was a Black woman. They wanted to make that visual sense very strong for people like “Oh, we're dealing with a Black woman here.” Whereas I think in Austen it was more subtle and probably more accurate about how somebody like her would have been seen. But Bridgerton just went over the top, and I just thought it was fabulous. Because we do know that Queen Charlotte probably had some mixed-race background. She was the wife of King George III. So she's presented as a mixed-race or dark woman … But then by just making everybody in it, you know, it was like saying, “Okay, what if we recognize that all these people were there? And assuming that they could have made their way into the aristocracy, how would this world have looked?” And I think the visual treat of it all is just really great. And we all know that that is not how Regency England looked. But we can say, “You know what? I would like to see what this looks like. If this could have been true, what would it have looked like?” And of course, it's just like a visual feast anyway. It's not just the racial stuff. It's the clothes and the sets.Plain JaneTell us more, Professor Gerzina, about Queen Charlotte. You did an entire Zoom talk event with JASNA, the Jane Austen Society of North America, about these questions, and this sort of casting and Black Britain and its history. And there were hundreds of people on the Zoom. But you talked about Queen Charlotte, and the chat room just went crazy. … So it was very, very lively. So anyway, all of that to say - tell us about Queen Charlotte?Gretchen GerzinaShe had … Portuguese family so that there were a lot of that movement between North Africa, the kind of what we would think of as North Africa today. But she probably had some ancestry through her Portuguese ancestors who might have been Black. When I was doing some research on Black people who left America and moved to Canada after the Revolutionary War, those who had become the British patriots, the Black ones, a lot of them went to Canada. So I was in Nova Scotia at a center there on Black history in the province. And I noticed they had - I think it was a picture of Queen Charlotte on the wall - and I said, “Oh, what do you think of that? Do you think she was part Black?” And he said that Princess Anne had come to visit many years before and had seen the portrait and was asked about it. And she said, “Well, everybody in the royal family knows she was Black.” So that means to me Meghan Markle wasn't the first. So there's some history there. It can't be necessarily proven, but it's pretty well seen as probably true that she had some Black ancestry, and her portraits do seem to indicate that as well. But you know, the other one I really like is David Copperfield. And what you have to do in this - the same as in fiction - is you have to create a world that you will believe. You may not like all the characters, but you have to create a vision of a world that you are saying, “Okay, I'm, I'm willing to go into this world with you.” And see and believe. It's the willing suspension of disbelief, and I'm willing to do that. Do they create a world that I can believe in Bridgerton? We know it's fantasy, and fun, with some historical elements. And yes, I'm willing to throw myself into that world.Plain JaneI was a graduate student at UCL in London, during 1994 and 1995, and everybody was reading Cultural Imperialism. I literally saw people reading it on the tube in London. And I was falling in love with someone who was an Arab-English person with the name Saidi - close to Edward Said's name. So I was as a grad student in literature and also wanting to dive into our views and our histories and how race plays into that. These conversations are still going. Edward Said even writes about Jane Austen. And he writes about Mansfield Park, and he writes - really similar to you writing at the same time - we need to investigate the unseen in these stories, tell the unseen stories, which is so much what you're doing, as well. So my question is - almost going on 25 years, are we getting any better at this? Gretchen Gerzina  Well, you know, there's more being written and more being published all the time. David Olusoga's books. And all of his television programs in England are very well known. He's quite the face of Black British history and studies now. Others have been writing about it for decades. But I think what's interesting is that there's still a kind of resistance to it, to believing it. There are several things going on. One is ... the report the National Trust put out recently, which ... hired some academics and some others to take a look at the colonial and imperial and slave connections between some of the National Trust houses. And I think they listed 93 houses in the National Trust that have some kind of connection. That wasn't to say that they were houses where there was plantation slavery or anything, but a lot of it had to do with the fact that the money that was earned either out of the slave trade, or out of imperialism, or out of colonialism. [It] funded and help build, and perpetuate those houses. A lot of the money that was earned came from, originally, from the slave trade and slavery, and all of those absentee slave owners who had plantations in the West Indies. But also, from the fact that when they, when slavery ended in the West Indies in 1807, that they decided to compensate the slave owners for the loss of the enslaved people who had lived on those plantations. The enslaved people were not compensated, while the slave owners were. And a wonderful book and study done by Nicholas Draper, about the legacy of all of this showed how all of that money that was made from that compensation - built these houses. It funded the philanthropy; huge swaths of London were built based on that money. And all around the country. So they wanted to just say, “Hey, if you're going to come to one of these houses, this is great. You can look at it, you can see it, you can appreciate the beauty of it. You can see how the generations of owners contributed to the culture and the landscape and all of that. But in fact, you should recognize that the money came from colonialism. And also from imperialism.” You know, the houses were filled with porcelain from China. They were built on land that used to be tenanted, but pushed the tenants off and made a beautiful landscape that made it look like it had always been there. And they had built these houses based on that money. When that report came out, the backlash was quite strong. People did not want to hear about this. They thought, “Why do we fund a National Trust, and it spends its money on being woke?” Plain JaneInteresting. They don't see it as factual. They don't see it as history. They see it as politics happening.Gretchen GerzinaYes, they do. And there's also some work being done now on updating the curriculum in schools. So some more of this is being learned at a younger age.Plain JaneSo when you say in 1993, and you've been doing this ever since, among many other things that you're reconstructing, you don't even just mean that figuratively. I mean, your writing takes us down the streets. And really paints a visual picture ...and I would add to that the landscapes of the houses. Also sugar and so much of the economic foundations are part of what I think Edward Said was calling the interplay. … You you paint a picture of, you know, Elizabethan England and … Regency England then as well, and then even Victorian Britain as being a very cruel and violent place. And I think that in many ways, our PBS adaptations [etc] really do [whitewash] these histories in so many ways. You also point out the cruelty, the disease. But what I want to say, besides the cruelty, the disease, and just the ignorance that was rampant in these times, that we tend to forget about - probably, thanks to our screen adaptations - it was there. You found a community of Black residents in London during these times - not just individual people who were famous; they were portrayed on the stage; they were recounted in stories; and many of them were musicians, writers, very fascinating individuals - but also a community. And that was you've talked about how difficult that was to unearth. Can you talk about how you uncovered this community and the difficulty of doing that?Gretchen Gerzina A lot of that came from people who had been researching this for quite a long time. In terms of community, there are people who've been doing tons of research since my book came out. And they have been finding people and they've been finding communities. We can't be sure how much of a community there was. But we do know that there were communities - people lived in certain places and certain areas, they were part of the fabric of the kind of working class. There were people that we call the Sons of Africa. Some people have questioned whether there were as many and met as frequently as was thought … But we do know that they were there. “Hey, if you're going to come to one of these houses, this is great. You can look at it, you can see it, you can appreciate the beauty of it. You can see how the generations of owners contributed to the culture and the landscape and all of that. But in fact, you should recognize that the money came from colonialism. And also from imperialism.” And it was interesting to just think of the fact that in all of these grand houses that had Black servants, that those servants in the households, they socialized with each other. Those servants were meeting in the kitchen. Those servants were talking. And those servants were marrying the white servants, because they were mostly Black men. And then you get a sense of just this kind of other world where if Samuel Johnson is having dinner with Sir Joshua Reynolds, or with the great actors of the period, that their Black servants are probably hanging out, talking to each other. So there was a kind of network of people, definitely, who were living [among] them. And then, of course, after the Revolutionary War in America, when so many Black people had been convinced to fight for the British in exchange for their freedom. A lot of them ended up in Britain, that had been part of the promise. And so they came over in their hundreds. Plain JaneThat's fascinating - I think that you pointed out that something like 20 percent, of the soldiers fighting on both sides in the Revolutionary War with America were Black soldiers. They came back to England. And then you also pointed out they were not allowed, they were actually banned from learning crafts, learning trades ....?Gretchen GerzinaI'm not sure that they so much were banned from learning trades; they just found it difficult to find work. And also if, if they were poor, it's not so easy to move around in England at that time. I mean, physically, it's difficult. But also, it's often difficult to find work. And if you, Heaven forbid, get sick and die, you can't necessarily be buried where you're living because you're not officially part of that parish. So it's a very different kind of system than we might [envision]. And so a lot of people who worked on the British side, and obviously on the American side, in the Revolutionary War, were not just soldiers but they were doing other things: They were guides, they were helping to lead them through different terrain; they were washing clothes, they were cooking. They were following them and giving them advice.And then they also did fight. So, yes, they worked in a variety of ways and the British said, “Hey, come on our side and we'll give you your freedom and we'll give you a pension.” And then, lo and behold, the British lost then, and they came.Plain JaneOkay. So: Dido Belle and Mansfield Park - basically thoughts on that? There's also the book The Woman of Colour and there's this experience of Francis Barber and some of the others that you've mentioned. But  … what are your thoughts on Mansfield Park and is it possible that Jane Austen knew the story of Dido Belle?Gretchen GerzinaIt's possible. I have to think about the timing of it all. So Dido Elizabeth Belle of course, has nothing to do with Mansfield Park, although her great uncle who raised her was Lord Mansfield, who made a famous court decision that a Black person could not be returned to slavery in Jamaica. And that was taken by many people to say that slavery was no longer legal in England, and people ran away and said, “Hallelujah.” But in fact, that's not what the decision was.He also presided over the case of the Zhong [ship], where a slave ship had thrown over a huge number of people ... in order to collect the insurance. And he came down hard on that case. So Dido Elizabeth Belle was raised by him .. but a lot of research has been done since the film Belle was made. And a lot of that film took a lot of liberties with it. So Dido was mixed-race, and her mother was - [but] Dido was not - born into slavery. And that was a misconception. Her mother actually came and lived in England, near her, with her, for some time. And then went back to Pensacola, where she had been living in [an] old property. Dido was given some money, and so she was able to marry. But she didn't marry an abolitionist, like in the film. She married a man who'd been a steward to an important French family. And so that was still a high-up position, but it was not the big raging lawyer abolitionist [as in the film].… And I think the biggest thing about it was that her portrait was just a double portrait of herself, and of their cousin. It became the cover of my Black London book - and was later re-used by The Woman of Colour. So there's a lot of interpreting this portrait that people try to do.So I've spent a lot of time trying to track down the true story, to use the research of these other people who have done such a good job. Plain JaneWhat would you like people to keep in mind as they're watching and reading Regency era histories and romance? Just realize there are real people behind some of this. We know now that Jane Austen was likely an abolitionist, although she didn't write political things in her novels. We know that in Mansfield Park there are mentions of - and we know that the money came from - slavery. And so there was some reference to sugar and some other things in there. So we know that she's aware of it. But she doesn't make it front and center, because that's not what she does as a novelist. But I think it's really good for people who want to read these books - [to know] that there was a more racially diverse society than people realized. And that there were Black people there. And that in the places where she went and lived - because she lived in a number of places, she had to move around a lot - that she would have seen people like this.And so it's really good to remember that this was a very different world and people have now accepted it. And I think to understand and accept that, it makes it more interesting. It doesn't diminish it at all.——-Thank you for listening, reading and being with us, friends.Let us know your thoughts! Have you watched the increasingly diverse casts making up Regency and 19th century British stories like Bridgerton, A Personal History of David Copperfield, and Sanditon? What would you like to see more of in these retellings and screen adaptations? Want to know more about Queen Charlotte? Write us at AustenConnection@gmail.com.If you like this conversation, feel free to share it!And if you'd like to read more about Black life in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, here are some of the people and projects that Gretchen Gerzina mentioned during this conversation - enjoy!Gretchen Gerzina's website: https://gretchengerzina.com//BBC program on Britain's Black Past:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07wpf5vSee: National Trust research into the connection to the slave trade in its great houses: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/addressing-the-histories-of-slavery-and-colonialism-at-the-national-trustThe report: https://nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/documents/colionialism-and-historic-slavery-report.pdfAll things Georgian - Gretchen recommends in interview: https://georgianera.wordpress.com/David Olusoga:  https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/magazine/features/david-olusoga/Dido Belle as Fanny Price: http://jasna.org/publications-2/essay-contest-winning-entries/2017/a-biracial-fanny-price/Peter Fryer's Staying Power: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745338309/staying-power/Mirands Kaufmann's Black Tudors: http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/black-tudors.htmlGet these and all our Austen Connection conversations delivered to your inbox, when you subscribe - it's free! Get full access to The Austen Connection at austenconnection.substack.com/subscribe

Adam Elliott-Cooper joins Luke de Noronha to talk about resistance to racist state violence in Britain, and how this resistance is shaped by histories of imperialism and anti-imperialism. Discussing his book, Black Resistance to British Policing (MUP, 2021), Adam situates current mobilisations in a longer history of anti-racist resistance in the UK, and explores the politics of abolitionism and anti-colonial struggles in the context of Black Britain and Black politics in the 21st century. Transcript: www.ucl.ac.uk/racism-racialisation/transcript-conversation-adam-elliott-cooperThis conversation was recorded on 26th May 2021 Speakers: Luke de Noronha, Lecturer in Race, Ethnicity & Postcolonial Studies, UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre // Adam Elliott-Cooper, Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of GreenwichExecutive producer: Paul GilroyProducer: Kaissa KarhuEditor: Anita Langarywww.ucl.ac.uk/racism-racialisation/podcasts See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

From the sunny shores of Carbis Bay in Cornwall, world leaders gathered last week for the three-day G7 summit. Pledges were made and deals were struck on everything from the pandemic to the environment. Boris Johnson had his first face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden to sign the Atlantic Charter 2.0 and ‘Sausage Wars' broke out as Brexit dominated the media. Damian Wilson, a former Fleet Street editor, political adviser, and journalist, joined Sputnik to discuss just what was discussed at the summit. Imagine arriving in Edwardian Britain from Jamaica and becoming the country's first black bus driver. Joe Clough is the inspiration for the Townsend Theatre's new production which tells the story of his extraordinary journey; from driving horse and carriages in Jamaica to a London omnibus in 1910 England, ambulances on the Western Front and finally retiring in the ‘60s after owning his own taxi. Playwright Neil Gore and actor Phillip Olagoke tell this man's story in ‘Farewell Leicester Square', and they joined Sputnik to tell us more about his life.

Piers Morgan has wished Alex Beresford "good luck" after the pair clashed on Tuesday's Good Morning Britain, hours before he quit the show.. The 55-year-old confirmed he was leaving GMB after five years, amid an Ofcom investigation into his coverage of Oprah Winfrey's Meghan Markle interview. State Sen. Liz Krueger, a prominent Democrat from Manhattan, also urged Cuomo to step down, saying: "Our state is rightly crying out for truthful, transparent government. The people's business is too pressing to continue to be derailed in this way." Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie did not explicitly call for Cuomo to step down, but he said he shares Stewart-Cousins' "sentiment" about "the governor's ability to continue to lead this state." --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bj-murphy9/support

We have a special episode for you today with a takeover from our friends at S.O.U.L Fest. S.O.U.L. Fest (Screening Our Unseen Lives) is a month long celebration of Black British talent in film, showcasing new work by Black British film creatives - allowing opportunities to see a diverse representation of Black Britain. The festival is the result of a collaboration between four organisations who serve Black audiences and talent: The British Blacklist, The New Black Film Collective, We Are Parable and S.O.U.L Film. We are so excited to hand the microphone over to hear all about their how they navigated 2020, and their amazing plans for reaching audiences. Many, many thanks to our wonderful friend Priscilla Igwe for organising this take over, and to Nuru Rimington-Mkali for their production work on the S.O.U.L Fest segment, as well as everyone involved in this takeover episode. The Cinema For All podcast is proud to be supported by the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery. HOSTS: Jaq Chell and Abi StandishTAKE-OVER SEGMENT: Priscilla Igwe and S.O.U.L FestPRODUCERS: Nuru Rimington-Mkali for S.O.U.L Fest and Jay Platt for Cinema For All Thanks for listening! Please subscribe and rate and review our podcast – it really helps other listeners find us! For more on Cinema For All head to www.cinemaforall.org.uk or follow us on Twitter/ Instagram on @cinemaforallpod https://www.soulfilmfest.co.uk/http://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/http://www.weareparable.com/http://www.tnbfc.co.uk/ https://www.soulfilm.co.uk/

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a show in which we talk about anything and everything to do with migration; with me your host Loksan Harley. Today I have the honour of being joined by Onyekachi Wambu, Executive Director of the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD-UK), to talk about his illustrious career spent engaging African diasporas in support of the African continent's development. Onyekachi has had a distinguished career as a print and broadcast journalist, spending time as a senior producer and documentary director at the BBC and PBS. He has also written extensively himself on Africa and the African diaspora, including authoring the books Empire Windrush – 50 Years of Writing about Black Britain and Under the Tree of Talking – Leadership for Change in Africa. Onyekachi now heads AFFORD-UK, a London-headquartered international NGO with a mission to expand and enhance the contributions of Africans in the diaspora to advance Africa's development. AFFORD-UK is a real pioneer and innovator in the field of diaspora engagement, and their advocacy work has contributed significantly to UK and international recognition of the importance of African diasporas to the continent's development. Onyekachi has also appeared as an expert contributor to numerous migration and diaspora-related high-level panels and forums. Having known Onyekachi for a while now, I relished this opportunity to dig into his background to find out what has driven him to dedicate so much of his career to advocating for African diasporas. After talking about his childhood in post-independence Nigeria and his subsequent migration to the UK, Onyekachi deconstructs the "African diaspora", providing his own conceptual framework to define who they are and to explain the different ways (or "transfers") in which they contribute to the continent. We then talk about the role of AFFORD-UK in engaging diasporas, including some of the work they've done to leverage diaspora interest in contributing their time, skills, money, and more. We close with Onyekachi's insights into the key areas of under-exploited potential in African diaspora engagement, as well as his own lessons learned from many years working at the forefront of this exciting field. I really enjoyed this discussion, as Onyekachi is one of the few people I know who has the vision and wealth of life experience required to draw the linkages between diaspora engagement and broader societal themes of racial injustice and inequality. And it was also great hearing more about AFFORD-UK's work, which has not only fostered the diaspora's contributions to the African continent but has also brought the African diaspora into critical conversations in the UK on the societal issues of our time. I definitely recommend checking out AFFORD's website at afford-uk.org to learn more. And if you want to hear episodes on diaspora engagement, I recommend checking out episodes 2, 4, and 9. As always, thank you very much for listening and I hope you enjoy the show. Useful links AFFORD-UK's website Follow AFFORD-UK on Twitter Want more diaspora episodes? Check out Ep 2 ("Doing diaspora"), Ep 4 (remittances), and Ep 9 (diaspora investment). Subscribe to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast

Discussion: Are black Britians supported more systematically than Black Americans in the US?The mental “life sentence” of being blackBeing too pro black in the workplaceFinding happiness in dark times...advice?My Guest: Ishbel Straker: is a Consultant Prescribing Nurse and is the CEO of IStraker Consultants in Liverpool.focused on offering a bespoke service to her patients, combining clinically evidenced therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Solution Focused Therapy as well as a prescribing service if appropriatea recognized expert in the field of Addiction and co-existing mental health problems. She writes a mental health column for the Liverpool Echo.She is an experienced Expert Witness for APEX.supervises senior nurses in various organizations which includes clinically advising on complex patientsIshbel has a keen interest in working with women with the following issues;Trauma, Performance Related Issues, Relationships, Alcohol, Recreational drugs, Gambling, Stress, Anxiety, OCD Ishbel Straker's Social Media and Websites Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IshbelStraker/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ishbelstraker/?hl=en Website: http://www.ishbelstraker.co.uk/ Email: ishbel@istrakerconsultants.co.uk Phone: 0151 7067912Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/biz/fund?id=WAHXDV8NM3K4A)

What’s in Steve McQueen’s miniseries exploration of Black Britain, Small Axe? Can our panel of senior b-boys plus one b-girl relate to hip hop raunchstress Megan Thee Stallion? World War II animated drama The Liberator on Netflix – is war hell or is it just drawn that way? Plus tales of DIY metal pyro mishaps and the pubs and doubling glazing adventures of our favourite footballers One-man bible of terrace style Anthony Teasdale and Michael Hann of The Guardian, the FT, The Spectator and QPR join Siân and Andrew to deconstruct pop culture’s body politic.Produced and presented by Siân Pattenden and Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Alex Rees. Bigmouth is a Podmasters production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We speak to Stephen Bourne about his newly released book Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime, 1939-45 (The History Press, 2020). The author of a number of books, including Black Poppies and The Motherland Calls, Stephen speaks to Phoebe and Liv about race relations in Britain during the First and Second World Wars. Khaki Malarkey is a weekly military history review podcast bringing you research that's hot off the press -- get in touch with us through our Twitter: @KhakiMalarkey. Hosted by Phoebe Style and Olivia Smith. Edited by Zack O'Leary (Twitter: @zickzack142).

In this episode we will discuss the interesting life Sarah Forbes Bonetta (1843 – 1880) a woman of colour with a truly fascinating life. She was born into a royal Yoruban Family, who were tragically killed, leading her into slavery in the house of King Ghezo. At aged 8 she was then given to Queen Victoria as a Diplomatic gift and went on to live a life of privilege and education but under the keen eye of the press and public who were fascinated by her intellect. Although Sarah's life is incredibly unusual it can shed fascinating light on how Victorians viewed race. Instagram @themuseumoffemininitySourcesBlack and British: a forgotten history by David Olusogahttps://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/real-stories/the-african-princess-sarah-forbes-bonetta/https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp63230/sarah-forbes-bonetta-sarah-davieshttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-54445289https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/osborne/history-and-stories/sarah-forbes-bonetta/

Black History Month is here and with it the first of our four specials talking about the best of the Black Britons. We begin with an ode to chief gooner "uncle Ian" Wright, a pioneer in moving from the estate, to the football pitch and to the top of the game before moving into the top of the media and the forefront of football culture all while remaining himself. We move on to talk about those achieving stardom through social media (25:40)with short-form comedy from Mo Gilligan, Munya and Kelechi Okafor to our own Black Boris. We end educating each other on unknown black Britons (55:00)from history before closing on an incredible finale our black British national anthems (1:12:09). Like. Share. Subscribe.

France Winddance Twine is a sociology professor and author of “A White Side of Black Britain”, which examines interracial parenting among white English and Irish mothers of children whose fathers are  of African-Caribbean heritage. Winddance talks about her mother Lois and her many lessons on embracing diversity, value of cultural capital, women’s friendships, enjoying life, discipline, self-reliance, and respecting our parents' secrets. Winddance also talks about racism, art as a bridge between cultures, importance of sexual education, and knowing that our mothers did the best they could. For more about "Thank You, Mama" please visit: http://www.tajder.com/ To contact Ana, please send a mail to: info@thankyoumama.net  

This week, Beki and Maria catch up on a book that Maria is currently reading called ‘Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race' by Reni Eddo-Lodge. In this episode, we discuss racism in the UK, using some of Reni's arguments for what she calls ‘the fear of a Black planet and Black Britain'. Reni discusses the discourse of a nation where some people are spending their time yearning for a nostalgic Britain... That never was. From Brexit to curry houses, from colonialism to Harry Potter, racism is alive and well in the UK, and we're here to talk about it. Unfortunately.

Dr. Arne Spohr, Associate Professor of musicology at BGSU and Spring 2019 ICS faculty fellow, discusses his research project entitled Forgotten Voices: Rediscovering Europe's Black Musical Past, in which he sheds light on the lived experiences and musical contributions of black composers and performers in Europe between 1415 and 1800.    Transcript: Introduction: From Bowling Green State University and the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, this is Big ideas. Intro Song Lyrics: I'm going to show you this with a wonderful experiment. Jolie Sheffer: Welcome to the Big ideas podcast, a collaboration between the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society in the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. I'm Jolie Sheffer, Associate Professor of English and American Cultural Studies, and the director of ICS. Today I'm joined by Dr. Arne Spohr. Dr. Spohr is an Associate Professor of musicology here at BGSU, where he teaches courses in music history and directs the BGSU early music ensemble. Jolie Sheffer: In spring 2019 Arne was an ICS faculty fellow. Dr. Spohr's research focuses on music, cultural exchange and court culture in Britain, Germany and Scandinavia between 1500 and 1750. In his new research project entitled Forgotten Voices: Rediscovering Europe's Black Musical Past, he sheds light on the lived experiences and musical contributions of black composers and performers in Europe between 1415 and 1800. I'm very pleased to have you here with you today, Arne. Dr. Arne Spohr: Yeah, thank you for having me and for giving me the opportunity to actually share some aspects of my research here. It's very exciting. So how did I come across this? Jolie Sheffer: I'll ask you the question. Okay. First off, I'd like to have you give a little background on your current work and how you first began studying these once famous, but now forgotten, black musicians and composers. How did you first come across these figures? Dr. Arne Spohr: Well, it's actually a bit of a long story, as it always is with research topics, or sometimes with research topics. I came across one of the composers when I was a PhD student and when I lived in Paris about 15 years ago and worked in the [inaudible 00:01:57] and saw somewhere in the library a flyer announcing a new recording of music by a certain Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges and a black composer. I thought how strange that I've never heard of him and what not might his music sound like? Dr. Arne Spohr: I dropped the ball, so to speak and never bought a recording. But on the other hand, saw this image of this flyer and this question that I had never really left me and remained in my mind. Then about in 2013, 10 years later, the Chevalier of George and the topic of black musicians came back to me in a broader sense. In 2013, I had a different mindset than in the early 2000s. I'd moved from Germany to the United States to start my job as a Professor of musicology here at BGSU. When I lived in Germany, I hadn't given the idea or the issue of race much thought, partially because the German term of us is so inseparably connected to national socialist ideology and the holocaust that it is commonly felt that it cannot be used in a positive way, which would lead to the problematic consequence that one avoid thinking about race all together. Dr. Arne Spohr: Germany has traditionally viewed itself as a racially and ethnically homogenous country an attitude that is now only slowly changing. After moving to the States and after meeting my partner who's African American in 2012, I've learned a lot about African American culture, music and black studies and race as a positive concept that can help us understand structures of power and oppression. These new experiences insights have widened my horizon and had let me ask different questions as a scholar. And have also let me critically reflect on my own role as a white man and the production of knowledge and scholarship and teaching. Dr. Arne Spohr: In 2013, I came back to Germany for longer time at a fellowship with the Herzog August library in Wolfenbüttel in Germany, which is a fantastic research center for early modern studies. Then there I encountered this topic with new thoughts and new questions. I met a friend who used to be my colleague at the local high school and he works with students about local issues like local composers, and local for instance, a black philosopher named Anton Wilhem Amo, who studied in Germany and taught at German universities in the early 18th century and black performers who were trumpeters and drummers who worked at the local court and I had never heard of these people. I got curious and I started reading about them. Dr. Arne Spohr: So that put that idea back in my mind. Then later that year on a train trip, I met a historian Eve Rosenhaft who teaches at the University of Liverpool, and who has become a friend through this project. She and I, we talked about the history of the black diaspora, the Earth diaspora in Germany and eventually, during this trip she asked me, would you like to teach at a summer school for graduate students that she was planning in 2015, two years later. I said, "I don't know anything about black musicians and this is a new topic for me." She said, "You have two years you can work yourself into the fields, no problem." And so- Jolie Sheffer: It became a new challenge [crosstalk 00:06:00] Dr. Arne Spohr: But also that this amazing scholar who I really admire, trusted me that I could do this, and expected the best from me was really a very positive thing as a very positive challenge. So I did and in 2015, the summer school happened, and I had really worked my way into the field. I taught this class with amazing students who came from various different universities from North America and Europe, and had different academic and racial backgrounds also. And so that was a big, big insight for me that one's own positionality. Where do you come from and what questions that structures the questions that you have- Jolie Sheffer: And that as we change our insights change. Dr. Arne Spohr: Yeah. Jolie Sheffer: Like this is why scholarship is so exciting is that it's always evolving and we're always evolving with it. Dr. Arne Spohr: It was a very interdisciplinary setting. So most of my colleagues were historians, one lead scholar, and some of them, they have really supported my research and read drafts of a journal article. I'm in constant contact with them. They know that this is going on here at BGSU. They're excited about the performances and want to hear the music. This has been a really great experience. Jolie Sheffer: So your scholarship is about kind of recovering some of these figures and their music, right? Dr. Arne Spohr: Yes. Jolie Sheffer: Who have sort of dropped out of our conceptions of the classical tradition, that sort of white western classical tradition. How did you see your research changing that familiar, mainstream narrative, which we've learned is a white male tradition? What does your research tell you differently? Dr. Arne Spohr: Yeah, this is also... This is a very, very good, very broad question. Let me start with an example. Again, there's a visual image that I connect I saw as a PhD student a long time ago that is displayed in the museum of Hamburg history in Hamburg Germany, which shows three famous German composers at the musical gathering. They usually talked about and... But in the center of the painting, you see a young black man who offers one of those famous composers a bowl of grapes, and this person is never talked about. So I want to bring Black Africans like him, who are shown on many, many paintings actually, of the time, and whose lives are still hidden in archives into our conversation about European classical music, and more specifically into music history scholarship and teaching. Jolie Sheffer: So part of what you're saying is these people are hidden in place. Dr. Arne Spohr: They're hidden. Jolie Sheffer: They're there in front of us, but we have stopped seeing them. Dr. Arne Spohr: We have stopped seeing them and I think it's also not generally known that far a greater numbers of Black Africans lived in early modern Europe than is generally thought today. For instance, in 16th century, Lisbon, about 20% of the population was black. That is not present and common knowledge. And so the significant presence of Afro Europeans and their contributions to European culture has not been... It's been mostly ignored by historians. Dr. Arne Spohr: You see that when you look into, for instance, the music history textbook, or local a history of local music, you hardly find any reference to black performers or composers and the music that they played and created. There's a lot of questions that still need to be explored and asked, and I can only like contribute a little bit to that. But, for instance, those people who came from Africa, were trafficked from Africa and were slaves in Portugal and Spain and they brought the music and musical traditions from Africa and ethnomusicologists and music historians have only recently investigated the African roots of musical genres that have for a long time been thought to be essentially European, such as the flamenco and certain court dances such as the shaquan. Jolie Sheffer: Again, these things that we tend to think of as being sort of purely European only now beginning to recognize that they have African roots. Dr. Arne Spohr: Yeah, yeah. And there were also composers of western classical music who were black and these are the composers I'm mainly focusing on. So and they're only few of them that are known, but these few composers have actually contributed significant aspects to the history of Western music. For instance, Vicente Lusitano was a 16 Century Black composer from Portugal was one of the first Portuguese composers to publish motets. It's a popular, then popular, genre of sacred vocal music. He won a public debate on the issue of music theory. Another black composer, the Chevalier de Saint-George was one of the first French composers to publish string quartets in 18th century France, and so on and so on. So I think these composers have contributed to the history of Western music. I think that needs to be highlighted more. Dr. Arne Spohr: Back to the question, how does my research change the mainstream narrative? You said in your question, it's a general assumption that western classical music is entirely white and male domain. And I hope through my research, that I can create awareness that European culture has actually been much more diverse than we generally assume as the current political climate sees a renaissance of nationalist thoughts and politics. And also revisionist kind of thinking that very much reminds me of the national thinking of the 19th century in the racism of the 1930s. And just what doesn't want to need to with the writers, political groups, and Europe, that they claim a white Europe that has never existed. Jolie Sheffer: Yeah, well and we've seen that there have been some really interesting work by art historians looking at statuary from ancient Greece and ancient Rome. We think of that as the beautiful white marble and in fact, those were highly painted and sculpted to represent racially diverse people. But we have sort of deliberately forgotten that history. So your work is part of that tradition of kind of revealing the white washing of the past. Dr. Arne Spohr: Revealing the white washing of the past and shedding light on the diversity that exists in Europe and for the aspect of teaching in the area of teaching, I strive to create a inclusive curriculum, in which I address both music that has been part of the musical canon but also by composers my students have never heard of, for instance, women composers, black composers, and Jewish composers to illustrate the actual diversity of Western music history. I also address issues such as colonialism, the history of slavery and racism to illustrate the background of black composers and performers. But ultimately, I think it's not just about being more diverse or inclusive. But also it's about reflecting critically how music histories are told in general. Through my scholarship and teaching a challenge the general assumption of the canon of musical masterpieces that we have inherited from the 19th century and the notion of classical music as a collection of masterworks that exists beyond time and space. Jolie Sheffer: Only that's one of the contributions of musicologists and music historians is to say that we think we already know that history and to say there's always ways of going back and rediscovering things that have been forgotten. Dr. Arne Spohr: Yeah, yeah. Jolie Sheffer: Great. Dr. Arne Spohr: My research specifically centers on black performers in 17th century Germany. For me, it's very important to just see ideas of race before they know the actual term race existed, practices of race, meaning practices of differentiation, and discrimination arise in 17th century Germany. And so through the study of those musicians or performers, and their experiences in social experiences, and their legal situation in 17th century Germany, I hope to also shed light on the history of race formation in an early modern Europe before the advent of the pseudo scientific race theories in the late 18th century. Jolie Sheffer: I have another question for you. How is your work interdisciplinary? What have you gained by kind of combining different approaches in your work? Dr. Arne Spohr: Let me first say that it is significant that I mostly talked to historians during my research project. They're really excited about this because they always say, "Well, we don't know anything about music." "We don't know anything about music." Why are all these performers and composers and why is that a specifically what is his field in which black Africans have excelled or specialized in? They really set me on the track of exploring this and I've been in touch with them ever since. I have to say that archival research by definition is interdisciplinary. You have to read some manuscript as written in a really, really difficult almost indecipherable fashion, in the form of language that doesn't exist anymore or it's a different language. You have to understand that. And then understanding what you find in archival document needs a lot of contextual knowledge. Dr. Arne Spohr: So you need to understand legal history of somebody who was black in 17th century Germany, for instance, you need to understand the symbolism of violence. One of the performers I've been studying investigating was almost killed in the middle of the night in 17th century Stuttgart and the attackers who were like white young men of the lowest social position, they intended to destroy his face, and his eyes and his nose. That seemed to have been really intentional. I have to understand what that means in a society that was centered on honor and respectability and privilege. I have to understand in what that symbolism of violence means. So that is an interdisciplinary, highly interdisciplinary question. Yeah, I have to be part time historian and that is beautiful, exciting and also sometimes very frightening. There's a lot to know and there's a lot that is still unknown. I'm not claiming that my research delivers perfect answers for all times, or rather hope to start a conversation and that others will continue. Jolie Sheffer: Right. What is the relationship you see between your research, your teaching, and the training of musicians? Dr. Arne Spohr: Well, the joy and responsibility of a music history professor is to share a musical and more broadly intellectual discoveries with my students and make them curious about things. I'm also blessed with colleagues in the performance department who are likewise open minded, and are open to trying out new repertoire with their students and colleagues who are willing to come to a rehearsal share their opinion, and with whom I can cooperate in a project. I've talked to my colleague, Caroline Chen, who's Professor of violin here at BGSU to do a program with works just per the Chevalier de Saint-Georges next year, Berlin concerti at chamber music and actually go on a tour that is hopefully a project that will materialize through collaborations with the performance area. Jolie Sheffer: So you're talking about how your scholarship can communicate among researchers instead of change the narratives we have. Dr. Arne Spohr: Change the narrative. Jolie Sheffer: But you're also training performers to learn this music and get it out there as part of this expanded repertoire. Dr. Arne Spohr: Yeah, and it can happen you walk through the hallway and you see, for instance, a flute student who said, "That was a really beautiful Sonata by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, I'm really interested in playing that on my recital." Then these moments make me really excited and to see that actually there is an intersection between music history, research and performance, that it can widen the experiences that students make with performances and also making more exploratory or curious about other repertoires have never tried out. Yeah, and some other students that share their discoveries with me. For instance, Anthony Yeomans, who was a piano performer has premiered and studied piano concerto by an African American woman composer Florence Price recently, and he's shared that with me so that he's going to ask, sorry, respond in the Q&A today so. Jolie Sheffer: It's okay great. We are going to take a quick break. Thanks for listening to the Big Ideas podcast. Today I'm talking with Dr. Arne Spohr about his research on Black musicians and composers in Europe in the 15th through 18th centuries. Arne can you tell us about some of the music that your students will play for us give us some information about the composers and what you learned about their lives? Dr. Arne Spohr: Yeah. One of the pieces that we will perform today is the motet Beati omnes by the black Portuguese composer, Vicente Lusitano. It is contained in manuscripts that is kept and the State Library of Gothenburg and Stuttgart and stated 1562 and has to my knowledge never been edited or performed in modern time. So- Jolie Sheffer: So this is very special audiences you get to be first. Dr. Arne Spohr: So, I sat down and it took me about two weeks to put this in modern notation, and it was not always easy. So, what I learned, I learned a lot from that process. It's a great sublime work of renaissance culture, and it's very, very dignified and expressive. There are six individual voices in this piece that Lusitano keeps constantly busy, creating a texture of great complexity. The text is taken from Psalm 128. The Beati omnes and English translation is blessed all day that fear the Lord and walk in His ways for thou shalt eat the labors of the enhance, et cetera, et cetera. As it was common in the music of the time, each verse or half verse of this piece gets its own the subtext gets its own musical motive, audible in the separate entries of the individual voices. Dr. Arne Spohr: Now it is very speculative, but I wonder if the text that Lusitano set the music had some personal significance for him. Sometimes texts of such musical work served as a personal message to a patron, in this case, the Duke of Gutenberg and the parallels between this text and the situation in which he was and his life at that point. They seem pretty noticeable. Dr. Arne Spohr: Lusitano he had converted to Protestantism in Italy, he had worked as a singer in Italy. He converted to Protestantism for a reason we don't know. He moved to Germany to North's completely different country. He didn't have a job. He applied for a position at the court of Gutenberg. And so one could understand the phrase, he eats the labors of his hands as a reference to his own biographical situation, and then he moved there with his wife and his children, and he hoped that his family would thrive there and the new high marks and the new home country. Dr. Arne Spohr: And that you are the pieces that we performed today were composed 200 years later, and they communicate a very different sound world that of 18th century cortinas, playfulness and sensibility and there by Joseph Bologne the Chevalier de Saint-George who I mentioned earlier, during my talk today, he was one of the most renowned violin virtuoso of his time, a famous fencer who would be seen in public fencing matches. His adventurous life has been made the subject of 19th century novels and plays. He was born as a son of French plantation owner and a black slave on the Caribbean island of Guadalupe, and was brought to France at a very young age, where he received an excellent education. Dr. Arne Spohr: He became the concert master of one of France's leading orchestras that premiered Joseph Haydn's Paris symphonies for instance. He composed opera songs, string quartets, and piano music and became a celebrity in Paris society and was eventually nominated as director of the Paris opera, a position that he was however, eventually denied because of racist bias. During the French revolution, he fought on the side of the revolutionaries, and was eventually incarcerated during Robespierre regime of terror. After his release from prison, he said to have supported the slave rebellion in Haiti. We present two works today by the Chevalier that reveal different sides of his musical personality, playful violin duet that showcases his abilities as a virtuoso, violin virtuoso and an adagio for solo piano that expresses profound deep melancholy. And one wonders what kind of experiences this piece might reflect. Jolie Sheffer: We now have the pleasure of hearing members of the BGSU early music ensemble play some of the music by these rediscover composers. Please enjoy. Jolie Sheffer: Today I'm talking with Dr. Arne Spohr about his research on black musicians and composers in Europe in the 15th through 18th centuries. We'll now turn to our studio audience for some questions. Eunice,: Hi, I'm Eunice, Aya Delhi. I am a Master's student in the Vocal Performance program. My first question to you would be, when researching a lot of these composers, you find that they grow up very isolated in a white environment. As a black person myself, it's interesting to know if you find any of their music has been influenced by maybe some of the exoticism that was happening around them from their white counterparts. Or if you found that they really kind of draw from themselves on their own experience when it comes to the music that they write. Dr. Arne Spohr: That's an excellent question. Thank you, Eunice. Yeah, absolutely true. Would you say about the isolation I mean, except for composers in Britain, I think there was a larger Black population in London 18th century. There's one composer. I haven't talked about before that's Ignatius Sancho he was also writer and he got to England as a slave and eventually fled from his situation from the household where he was slave and became a servant in a noble household and they gave him an education and he eventually had a grocery store in London and he was the first Black Britain to vote and parliamentary election. His music is decidedly British. He writes folk like music like country dancers and songs and the style of the mid 18th century. That shows how he wants to demonstrate that he belongs to the society that he wants to. He also subverts that expectations somehow by naming a song after a slave character that he might have represented on stage in London. Dr. Arne Spohr: He wants to show that he belongs to British society, and that he's able to write music in that style that this has become his home. And that is indirectly also a statement against racism and to actually say, I can do this I'm as good as other white composers of the time. So not sure if that answers your question, but that's his way of negotiating his position in British society at that time. For Chevalier de Saint-George it's been said that his music has echoes of his Caribbean background. So melancholy longing sounds of course that's also true of much of the music of the time. But there's a certain melancholy quality that is in his music in hearing his music and I wonder... And he's also somebody who I don't know about his sexual orientation, but he never married so and a lot of his songs actually about relationships that don't work and he wrote an opera l'amant anonyme which is also about relationship that doesn't work out. I wonder if that is also one of his experiences that he perhaps wanted to marry and he couldn't because people thought he wasn't at their societal level. Dr. Arne Spohr: That might also be reflected in his music. That experience. Yeah. Eunice,: That was my next question to you. Dr. Arne Spohr: Oh, so sorry. Eunice,: About Chevalier because missing a few pieces from Chevalier myself, I found that there is a very lonely quality to a lot of his love songs and a lot of unique qualities to his love songs. I was wondering if you feel that his relation to his race, I find that a lot of black people at that time had trouble marrying because many of their white counterparts didn't want to marry their daughters to what they consider to be black men, even if they were a mixed race. And so I wonder if you find that in just Chevalier songs or do you feel that you find that in some other composers songs where their fight with their daily live show up also in the music? Dr. Arne Spohr: I did research on also performers, who were not composers, but who were for instance, trumpeters and trumpeters had a high status at the time associated with the prestige of princes. I worked in a case of 17th century German black trumpeter who had we don't know the reasons he had a fortune he was wealthy. He wanted to marry a woman from in a smallish town, the daughter of a civic city council member. That was in the 17th century. Her family was violently opposed to the marriage even though he was wealthy. And so they never said, all right, but it must have been his blackness, that was the reason why they opposed it so badly even though they would have benefited, oh, they benefited in fact, because they did get married eventually from his wealth. Dr. Arne Spohr: But you can see strategies of making that marriage impossible. So it is true that black composers and performers did marry but some of them had to overcome a lot obstacles. In the case of German, black musicians, it's interesting to see that they're often married daughters of families where the father had died before. So you know there was no resistance to be expected. The family of the wife had already been, "weakened." And so that's a pattern that I found. Yeah. Anthony Humans: Hi Dr. Spohr. My name is Anthony Humans. I study Music Education, Piano an organ here. I was wondering what challenges have you faced presenting this research, collecting this research and presenting this to an audience? Dr. Arne Spohr: The couple of research-related challenges that I encountered, for instance, I'm grappling and other scholars are also grappling with the question what actually is slavery. The reality of slavery in the Holy Roman Empire now the Holy Roman Empire was the patchwork like multi ethnic complex of states that preceded modern day Germany. So just as a side note. The official line of research is that there was no slavery in the Holy Roman Empire because there was no official legislation regulating slavery. Dr. Arne Spohr: Historians have said, "Okay, slavery happened somewhere else, happened in the colonies, never in Europe or never in the Holy Roman Empire." Colleagues of mine have been finding more and more instances of actually enslaved people trafficked and enslaved people in the Holy Roman Empire. The point is that those cases only come to the surface when there's a conflict and there are some lawsuit. Usually those... So there's a lot of I would call it undercover slavery going on. That makes it of course harder to understand the legal situation of these musicians investigating. So what were they, were they free, were they in some form of dependency, were they actually officially enslaved? In each case you have to really look for like signs, sometimes you look at a painting or you look at an archival document that says that someone carried a sword. So a sword would be a sign of legal freedom. So we have to look very specifically for the symbols that express legal freedom or on freedom. Dr. Arne Spohr: Then a similar issue is race. When I look in 17th century documents when I try to understand the concept of race in Germany in the 17th century, in the early 18th century, a lot of colleagues say well, there was no race at the time. It was all about class and it was a religion and so race didn't really matter because those pseudo scientific race theories that were developed in the 18th century that came much later that did not affect those people. I'm saying, okay, well, but they were still treated differently. Why was that? Why were they treated differently? Why was it discrimination? What was that prejudice? Why did this black trumpeter in Northern Germany have problems marrying? You know, you have to tease it out from the documents, you have to really understand what is going on even though there wasn't a concept of race, like as a word, they're still a difference in treatment and you have to understand that. That's another tricky ground. Dr. Arne Spohr: And then a lot of that information is scattered all over so many archives you have to travel a lot which I like you know, I like traveling, but it's also very costly and you have your network of friends and colleagues who tell you actually there is a document here, there's a document there. Then that's how you make discoveries and further discoveries. But there's digging and you start digging, there's a lot of pieces of evidence that are scattered over, literally, hundreds of archives. And so at some point, you have to say I have to make a cut and work with material that I have. Dr. Arne Spohr: Another challenge. I mean, that only happened once. Usually, the reactions from colleagues are very positive, and they say, "That's awesome." "That's fantastic." Very important. One person said to me, "Oh, now you stop working on important things." And that was a bummer. That was a really it was a shocking moment when I thought okay, there is some reservations to say it very mildly about the research I'm doing most reactions have been really, really positive. Anton Hairston: Hello, Dr. Spohr. My name is Anton Hairston and I'm a student here at Bowling Green State University studying Music Education with the coral emphasis. To continue on focusing on your research, I would like to know how you felt when you started this process when you started your research project. I would like to know how your research findings have affected you personally over time. Dr. Arne Spohr: I think that's a very wonderful personal question. Okay, I think I've sort of continued certain personality, my own personality, as scholar as I've come from Germany, with the spirit of discovery with a spirit of discovering music that has been forgotten, and that is exciting. And then now, seeing this music in a wider context of the context of race, and colonialism and injustice and oppression and sort of that tease me out from a position of being an objective musicologist and into a more political position to also learn more about the situation of black people in the United States and learn about racial injustice. I think that has most profoundly changed me as a political being and as a human being. Yeah. Jolie Sheffer: Thank you to Dr. Arne Spohr and members of the BGSU early music ensemble. Our producers for this podcast are Chris Kuvera and Marco Mendoza. Special thanks to the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Musical Arts. Research assistance for this podcast was provided by ICS interns Olivia Davis, Strati Moustakeas, Mr. Ks, Elisa Parks, Sarah Schaller and Melanie More.  

Is Blue Story a "Bad Story" for the Black Community? Or is it "Just Art"in an in depth discussion about Black Britain with well rounded British African Actor Adam Courting @AdamCourting we discuss what our responsibilities are as actors, Film Makers and general content creators and how these role choices effect our everyday lives.Let's Talk more on the 12th Episode of ‘Your Favourite ideas Podcast’ KWAKU DREAMING on Spotify, iTunes, or ANY of your favourite podcast Platforms.Find Out More on this Episode of 'Your Favourite Ideas Podcast' KWAKU DREAMINGHope you enjoy and appreciate.FOLLOW @JAKEJONMUSIC INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, LINKEDINYOUTUBE (KWAKU DREAMING &/OR JakeJonMusic Channel)BOOK ME TO TALK, PERFORM OR LECTURE jakejonmusic@live.co.uk Photography Artwork by Martin Adlam at http://MartinAdlam.comListen to more episodes at KwakuDreaming.comContact: KwakuDreaming@mail.comFor More on Jake Jon go to: http://www.JakeJon.comSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/5LC5qpPZxmhYTsTQoPLzQ8iTunes - https://itun.es/gb/DlKpib Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5LC5qpPZxmhYTsTQoPLzQ8SounCloud - https://soundcloud.com/jakejonmusic/sets/the-wake-up-call and all major online retailersAll Songs were Written, Produced, Performed, Recorded, Arranged, Mixed, Mastered by Jake Jon YeboahSome songs were arranged, performed, co-mixed & recorded and produced by BisaNationFeatured artists; Rai 'Reigny' Yeboah (Vocals), Ben Tompsett (Saxophoneon Golden Stars), & BisaNation (Vocals. Writing)BisaNation writing Credits include; Fallin For Your Love, What You waiting For? and All We Need Is LoveSession CreditsLive Guitar on All We Need Is Love - Performed by Calum MunroLive Bass on All We Need Is Love - Performed by Dan PaveleySong Playlist What You waiting For (Outro) - Jake JonThe Wake Up Call (Intro) - Jake JonThe Arrival (Intro) - Jake JonThinking Of You - Jake JonBlackOnBlackCrime, BlackBritain, blackbritainonfilm, blackbritannia, BlackBritish, bluestorymovie, Akala, Podcast, Spotify, iTunes, wordtothewise, WordisBorn, WarAgainstRacism

“Black People in Britain are often referred to as a minority. Yet the media and the government love to amplify our influence when it’s negative”With Movies like ‘Blue Story’ coming out. Along with the negative press. its easy to forget ‘The Truth’ is; with Black people only making up around 12.25% of the UK it would be IMPOSSIBLE for black people to be involved with the majority of Killings in the UK. But IT’S ALL MARKETING. And people of Colour are losing this marketing game in the UK. It’s gonna take strategy and and mindfulness to win the war against racism. Come and listen more tomorrow on the 11th Episode of ‘Your Favourite ideas Podcast’ KWAKU DREAMING on Spotify, iTunes, or ANY of your favourite podcast Platforms.Find Out More on this Episode of 'Your Favourite Ideas Podcast' KWAKU DREAMINGHope you enjoy and appreciate.FOLLOW @JAKEJONMUSIC INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, LINKEDINYOUTUBE (KWAKU DREAMING &/OR JakeJonMusic Channel)BOOK ME TO TALK, PERFORM OR LECTURE jakejonmusic@live.co.uk Photography Artwork by Martin Adlam at http://MartinAdlam.comListen to more episodes at KwakuDreaming.comContact: KwakuDreaming@mail.comFor More on Jake Jon go to: http://www.JakeJon.comSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/5LC5qpPZxmhYTsTQoPLzQ8iTunes - https://itun.es/gb/DlKpib Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5LC5qpPZxmhYTsTQoPLzQ8SounCloud - https://soundcloud.com/jakejonmusic/sets/the-wake-up-call and all major online retailersAll Songs were Written, Produced, Performed, Recorded, Arranged, Mixed, Mastered by Jake Jon YeboahSome songs were arranged, performed, co-mixed & recorded and produced by BisaNationFeatured artists; Rai 'Reigny' Yeboah (Vocals), Ben Tompsett (Saxophoneon Golden Stars), & BisaNation (Vocals. Writing)BisaNation writing Credits include; Fallin For Your Love, What You waiting For? and All We Need Is LoveSession CreditsLive Guitar on All We Need Is Love - Performed by Calum MunroLive Bass on All We Need Is Love - Performed by Dan PaveleySong Playlist What You waiting For (Outro) - Jake Jonspoken Word/Rap from’A Beautiful life (out 2020)The Wake Up Call (Intro) - Jake JonThe Arrival (Intro) - Jake JonFalling For - Jake JonAlone Sometime - Jake JonEyes On You (Outro - Unreleased) - Jake Jon

It was a pleasure, earlier today, to speak to Jeremy Black, professor of history at the University of Exeter, about his new book, Britain and Europe: A Short History (Hurst, 2018). Jeremy is one of the best-known and certainly the most prolific of British historians, and his new book demonstrates both his extraordinary range and his compelling arguments. Beginning in the iron age and concluding in the present, Britain and Europe traces relationships between territories and cultures that change and conflict even as they participate in the construction of each other. The current debate about Brexit has shown how important historical arguments can be in public discourse, as well as how frequently these historical arguments can be abused. Grand in scope, and always accessible, Britain and Europe challenges lazy political appropriations of a difficult and rewarding past. Crawford Gribben is a professor of history at Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests focus on the history of puritanism and evangelicalism, and he is the author most recently of John Owen and English Puritanism (Oxford University Press, 2016). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was a pleasure, earlier today, to speak to Jeremy Black, professor of history at the University of Exeter, about his new book, Britain and Europe: A Short History (Hurst, 2018). Jeremy is one of the best-known and certainly the most prolific of British historians, and his new book demonstrates both his extraordinary range and his compelling arguments. Beginning in the iron age and concluding in the present, Britain and Europe traces relationships between territories and cultures that change and conflict even as they participate in the construction of each other. The current debate about Brexit has shown how important historical arguments can be in public discourse, as well as how frequently these historical arguments can be abused. Grand in scope, and always accessible, Britain and Europe challenges lazy political appropriations of a difficult and rewarding past. Crawford Gribben is a professor of history at Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests focus on the history of puritanism and evangelicalism, and he is the author most recently of John Owen and English Puritanism (Oxford University Press, 2016). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was a pleasure, earlier today, to speak to Jeremy Black, professor of history at the University of Exeter, about his new book, Britain and Europe: A Short History (Hurst, 2018). Jeremy is one of the best-known and certainly the most prolific of British historians, and his new book demonstrates both his extraordinary range and his compelling arguments. Beginning in the iron age and concluding in the present, Britain and Europe traces relationships between territories and cultures that change and conflict even as they participate in the construction of each other. The current debate about Brexit has shown how important historical arguments can be in public discourse, as well as how frequently these historical arguments can be abused. Grand in scope, and always accessible, Britain and Europe challenges lazy political appropriations of a difficult and rewarding past. Crawford Gribben is a professor of history at Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests focus on the history of puritanism and evangelicalism, and he is the author most recently of John Owen and English Puritanism (Oxford University Press, 2016). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was a pleasure, earlier today, to speak to Jeremy Black, professor of history at the University of Exeter, about his new book, Britain and Europe: A Short History (Hurst, 2018). Jeremy is one of the best-known and certainly the most prolific of British historians, and his new book demonstrates both his extraordinary range and his compelling arguments. Beginning in the iron age and concluding in the present, Britain and Europe traces relationships between territories and cultures that change and conflict even as they participate in the construction of each other. The current debate about Brexit has shown how important historical arguments can be in public discourse, as well as how frequently these historical arguments can be abused. Grand in scope, and always accessible, Britain and Europe challenges lazy political appropriations of a difficult and rewarding past. Crawford Gribben is a professor of history at Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests focus on the history of puritanism and evangelicalism, and he is the author most recently of John Owen and English Puritanism (Oxford University Press, 2016). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was a pleasure, earlier today, to speak to Jeremy Black, professor of history at the University of Exeter, about his new book, Britain and Europe: A Short History (Hurst, 2018). Jeremy is one of the best-known and certainly the most prolific of British historians, and his new book demonstrates both his extraordinary range and his compelling arguments. Beginning in the iron age and concluding in the present, Britain and Europe traces relationships between territories and cultures that change and conflict even as they participate in the construction of each other. The current debate about Brexit has shown how important historical arguments can be in public discourse, as well as how frequently these historical arguments can be abused. Grand in scope, and always accessible, Britain and Europe challenges lazy political appropriations of a difficult and rewarding past. Crawford Gribben is a professor of history at Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests focus on the history of puritanism and evangelicalism, and he is the author most recently of John Owen and English Puritanism (Oxford University Press, 2016). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was a pleasure, earlier today, to speak to Jeremy Black, professor of history at the University of Exeter, about his new book, Britain and Europe: A Short History (Hurst, 2018). Jeremy is one of the best-known and certainly the most prolific of British historians, and his new book demonstrates both his extraordinary range and his compelling arguments. Beginning in the iron age and concluding in the present, Britain and Europe traces relationships between territories and cultures that change and conflict even as they participate in the construction of each other. The current debate about Brexit has shown how important historical arguments can be in public discourse, as well as how frequently these historical arguments can be abused. Grand in scope, and always accessible, Britain and Europe challenges lazy political appropriations of a difficult and rewarding past. Crawford Gribben is a professor of history at Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests focus on the history of puritanism and evangelicalism, and he is the author most recently of John Owen and English Puritanism (Oxford University Press, 2016). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, I sat down with Cephas Williams, the founder of 56 Black Men, a platform on a mission to change the damaging and outdated narrative of Black Britain. Through networking, events and digital content, Cephas has quickly generated an audience and network ready to be a part of the movement --- TOPCHAT is a platform on a mission to document the rise of leaders from humble beginnings to the top of their game, in the hopes of inspiring the audience to take action and do the same. --- Website: www.topchatshow.com/ Soundcloud: @topchatshow Instagram: www.instagram.com/topchatshow/ Medium: medium.com/@topchatshow Twitter: twitter.com/topchatshow Podcast: www.topchatshow.com/listen --- Hosted, produced & edited by @topsytaiwo

I sat down with Candace Oxley, the Founder of In Other News In other news is an online platform dedicated to sharing inspiring stories and reporting positive Black British news. We discussed everything from how to discover & pursue passion to establishing your "why" to changing the narrative of Black Britain. Listen & enjoy. Check out the platform at https://www.inothernews.uk/ --- TOPCHAT is a platform on a mission to document the rise of millennial leaders from humble beginnings to the top of their game, in the hopes of inspiring the audience to take action and do the same. --- Website: www.topchatshow.com/ Soundcloud: @topchatshow Instagram: www.instagram.com/topchatshow/ Medium: medium.com/@topchatshow Twitter: twitter.com/topchatshow --- Hosted, produced & edited by @topsytaiwo

On Episode 1 of their AfroVibes Radio show Yusuff and Gina discuss, UK and US slang, Bria Myles, Their 2018 goals, New Years Eve, American misconceptions of Black Britain, Nigerian vs Ghanaian Jollof, Sensitive people, UK and US rapper comparisons, Random things about themselves and more. INFO Meet Us After 7: Karaoke & Games Night (Karaoke, Ping Pong, Cards, Board Games and more.) Date: Sunday 4th February 2018 Time: 7:00pm - 12:00am Location: Sink, 4 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4JH. Tickets: https://shoobs.com/events/24974/meet-us-after-7-karaoke-games-night HOSTS Yusuff Twitter: @bigmanyus Instagram; @bigmanyus Snapchat: biggmanyus Email: bigmanyus@gmail.com Gina Twitter: @just_geen Instagram: @just_geen Snapchat: justgeen Email: info@justgeen.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX4om9JCBaCsEaVGD8PMOfQ Podcast Twitter and Instagram: @meetusafter7 Dilemmas, questions and to get in touch with us: meetusafter7@gmail.com

Welcome to the Rice At Home Podcast!Where we discuss all this Business, Finance, Entrepreneurship and current affairs. Ama is in the process of flipping an iPhone Travis is still making money Michael is making some headway in property This is our BLACK HISTORY MONTH EPISODE! We break down our history prior to slavery and our economic history due to the effects of slavery. We give an overview of Black America, Black Britain, The Caribbean and of course the motherland Africa! We discuss how much progress needs to be made in the black communities around the world we have so much potential for prosperity! Part 2 is a must so watch out for that next time Rice and Stew for this week: Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice by Kimbro, Dennis, Hill, Napoleon (1992) Mass Market Paperback https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00M0D7O2W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Vb67zbHKMX03JBlack America, Inc.: A Trillion Dollar Nation https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1537790781/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Jc67zbNX0NRVRThe Wealth Choice https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1137279141/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_id67zbF55Q52BThe Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1101903619/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Md67zb4XWH3XHUse the hashtag #RAH to communicate with us on twitter about the show or about anything related to our podcast. Also feel free to email us about any speaking engagements you think are best suited for us! If you want to be in the segment #BrokeStories please use the hashtag on twitter or email us: riceathomepodcast@gmail.comFind us:Twitter @RiceathomepodMedium#RiceAtHomeAma Instagram & Twitter - @Amaa__OfficialTravis Twitter & Instagram - @Tee_Major7Michael Twitter - @MM_1__Instagram - @mm_gs1MCM Magazine weekly financial segment - @Online_MCMLIKE, COMMENT and REPOST us Soundcloud or SUBSCRIBE, RATE and REVIEW us Apple podcasts. Much appreciated!If you can't buy it twice...#RAH

In conversation with Dr Zoe Norridge and Marsha Hutchinson, Bernardine Evaristo reads from and discusses her remarkable verse novel, The Emperor's Babe (2001), which tells the story of a African girl growing up in Roman London in 211 AD.

In conversation with Dr Zoe Norridge and Marsha Hutchinson, Bernardine Evaristo reads from and discusses her remarkable verse novel, The Emperor’s Babe (2001), which tells the story of a African girl growing up in Roman London in 211 AD.

Artists Sonia Boyce, Isaac Julien, Eddie Chambers and Harold Offeh talk to Anne McElvoy about their art and the influence of the British Black Art movement - which began around the time of the First National Black Art Convention in 1982 organised by the Blk Art Group and held at Wolverhampton Polytechnic.Eddie Chambers has written Roots and Culture: Cultural Politics in the Making of Black Britain and Black Artists in British Art: A History Since the 1950s. He teaches at the University of Texas, Austin. Sonia Boyce is Professor at Middlesex University, a Royal Academician and will also have a solo show at the ICA later this year. She is one of the recipients of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award. She is also the Principal-Investigator of the Black Artists & Modernism project. Isaac Julien is showing Other Destinies at the Royal Ontario Museum from January and shows at Victoria Miro Gallery. Harold Offeh is an artist, curator and senior lecturer in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University. His work Covers will feature in Untitled: art on the conditions of our time.Nottingham Contemporary's The Place Is Here brings together around 100 works by over 30 artists and collectives spanning painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video and archival displays from the 1980s. It runs from 04 Feb - 30 Apr 2017New Art Exchange's exhibition, Untitled: art on the conditions of our time, runs from 14 Jan - 19 Mar 2017 and features 12 British artists each with ties to Africa.Producer: Karl Bos Editor: Robyn Read

The TV Collective was joined by media mogul and Executive Editor of the BBC One Show, hosted by Ria Hebden for a TV Collective Master Class. The BBC One Show has been on our big screens for the last ten years and still remains to be one of the BBC’s flagship shows. The One Show is a prime time magazine programme, which is aired everyday on BBC One at 7pm. Covering a range of topics from current affairs, serious segments and light humour. Sandy Smith, who is a twice BAFTA nominee, is no stranger to the BBC. He has produced various documentaries such as Black Britain, Undercover World and a Panorama special of the July 7th Bombings. Before working on the One Show, Sandy was the editor of Panorama the BBC’s front runner for current affairs until 2006. And has been the Executive Editor of the One Show for the last six years, being able to grab the attention of five million viewers. Sandy Smith, after having a conversation with presenter and broadcaster Ria Hebden, who was awarded best online presenter by the Digital In Media Awards; told Ria how difficult it was to find diverse content. She approached the TV Collective, looking to solve Sandy’s dilemma and the event was held. Ria Hebden has interviewed the likes of Idris Alba, John Boyega on the red carpet at the MOBO awards for ITV2 and Sir Lenny Henry for MOBO TV. She has also worked with the BBC on the BAME Expert Voices initiative, which she hosted, coordinated and was involved in the planning. Ria is ardent about covering shows that celebrate diversity, empower women and give inspiration to the younger generation. The TV Collective created an informal environment to ask questions and pick the brain of a BBC executive editor. The master class, held at the Ugli Centre in White City, gave the opportunity to those eager to pitch ideas to only Sandy himself, with first hand expert knowledge of how to do so. Throughout the event, Sandy explains the process from initial the pitch to deciding whether or not it hits the big screens. He gives the names of key personnel who one could possible pitch to and who is active in the decision making process, but ultimately the final decision lies with Sandy. Sandy spoke about the importance of packaging and idea, ensuring it is well thought out, encasing the essential elements. He calls these the “three T’s” - “timing, treatment and talent.” One must ensure the timing is right, how is the story going to be told - the treatment and who is going to tell it - the talent. “Don’t pitch me a story that you think is important,” Sandy warns. The One Show being a magazine programme that covers a range of content for large demographic and audience. As an editor Sandy is on the hunt to deliver new content. Sandy admits, although he is proud of the content The One Show produces, “there is very little ground we can’t cover.” “One of my frustrations,” he says, “is that we don’t break enough stories.” Not only is Sandy looking for new content, but also diverse content. Sandy sees diversity on the show as very ‘high up our [the show’s] order of priority.” He wishes to create content that will portray the Britain of today and create shows that will become the history of the future. @victoriapennant A twenty something year old, opinionated freelance writer and journalist.

Freelance journalist and broadcaster Henry Bonsu shares his experiences studying Modern Languages at Magdalen College and offers an insight into what it was like to be a black student at Oxford in the late eighties. Bonsu started his career as a journalist with BBC radio in 1990, working on programmes such as Today, World at One, Public Eye, and Black Britain, before establishing himself as the anchor of the Drivetime programme on BBC London 94.9 FM where he would interview prominent celebrities and politicians. After famously being axed from the BBC for being “too intellectual”, Bonsu went on to be director and presenter of Colourful Radio, a digital station aimed at Europe's African and Caribbean communities. He has also written for The Times, The Mail on Sunday, Daily Express, and the London Evening Standard. In this podcast, Bonsu reflects on his time at Oxford and why he wrote an article during his studies on ‘being black in the ivory tower,’ as well as offering advice to black students who might not think that Oxford is for them.

In 1985 Loose Ends performed on Soul Train and just like all other performers who graced the stage, Don Cornelius strolled up with a mic and a series of music journalistic questions. When guitarist Carl McIntosh opened his mouth to discuss how the band met, I experienced my first ever encounter with Black Britain. With a precious amount of naiveté my nine-year old mind asked, “So Black people exist outside of America and outside of Africa?” As far as I knew we were between those two places and those two places only. Prior to discovering their British voices my family had Loose Ends “Hanging on a String (Contemplating)” on repeat. It was a new soul classic, #1 on the US R&B charts, and I couldn't get enough. After their Soul Train appearance, I went through my sister's tapes to conduct a proper review of their discography, which at the time consisted of two albums (1984’s A Little Spice and 1985’s So Where are You?). I did everything I could to find out what their experiences were with love, joy, soul and pain. I read liner notes in search of clues and discovered that a few members of the band were responsible for arranging and producing material for the group Five Star, who I had no idea was Black and British as well. Amused by my obsession, my mom said with little fanfare, 'yeah, Sade is from over there too.' What? Now you playing! Pretty ass, heartbroken ass, emotionally brilliant ass Sade is Black British too? I'm sold and possibly down for life. And now that I think about it, I’ve been digging in the crates for three decades strong. My digging is what led me to 'Keep on Movin' by Soul II Soul and shortly following that single the group hit us with the monstrous 'Back to Life' track in 1989. They, too, appeared on Soul Train and at the end of the performance I heard the same British accent falling from their lips of African descent. By this time my questions were more refined. How did the Black British community come to be formed? What is their parent’s history? What do they eat? I knew that most of my family was from Louisiana, Texas and Missouri and landed in Cali by way of migration. Were there places where people travelled from to be in the UK? A hostile home they escaped by the thousands to feel ‘The Warmth of Other Suns?’ Isabel Wilkerson I see you. Grandma and them were part of the 1950s crew who packed cold fried chicken and biscuits for the train from Mississippi heading west to the left coast. Inherent to DJ culture is research and my travels today can be traced back to questions I began to ask in the late eighties. I kept my ear to the streets of Black British music and by the mid-nineties I was knee deep in UK Soul and Acid Jazz. The Brand New Heavies, D'Influence, The Rebirth of Cool series, Massive Attack, and Omar were but a few of the folks who put me on to new parts of myself. See that's the thing, these people were me, but at the same time not, and while the similarities between our music and theirs, our social lives and theirs were in some ways parallel, there was a wealth of information to be found in the distinction of our experiences. That said I committed to learning what makes communities of the African Diaspora unique; that feels like the respectful thing to do. White supremacy teaches us to shun difference, as opposed to use it as a tool to cultivate humanizing curiosity. Checking for the lives of Black folks around the planet matters because it's an extension of self-love and a way to strengthen voices of resistance. In 1998, I left the country for the first time to travel to Brixton and Bristol. This was my first experience with a Black global community and it was electronic music that pulled me in. When in grad school, I learned of an opportunity to attend a summer program at the University of Liverpool to study the influence of Black American Blues on the Beatles sound. I jumped on it and from there took my ass to a San Francisco post office to gets, and I do mean gets! My passport. I arrived in the UK with what I thought would buy me the world. Here is where I was introduced to the powerful pound. Damn, it was true the sun never sets on her empire. All I knew was that I couldn’t leave without books about Black British culture and history (Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall stand up) and a commitment to Manchester record shopping (Joan Armatrading on vinyl, I love you). I also found it important to find the people and build community with artist folks who could show me around town. This is the beginning of what I call “International Localism.” My developing transnational lens and love for Black folks earned me valuable cultural capital, and I was often times welcomed into places and spaces where the making of culture happened. I, DJ lynnée denise am an International Local. International Localism took me to Ghana where I discovered Highlife and kenkey, to South Africa where I investigated kwaito while eating braai, to Montreal to spin with Haitian DJs, to the Caribbean to teach music to Aruban youth, and yeah to DC where them American Black folks created the African percussion based Go-Go sound. Fela Kuti’s travels to London, as well as the under-discussed fact that he died of AIDs will take me to Lagos with questions about Afrobeat and his feminist activist mama, Funmilay Ransome Kuti. The history of Detroit’s techno sound sparked my interest in German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk. In fact, this mix is the second to be released from a four-part series recorded live in Germany titled The Berlin Sessions. I started these liner notes from an airport in Italy on my way to attend the “Black Portraitures II: Imaging the Black Body and Re-staging Histories,” conference hosted by NYU in Florence. I was inspired by the fact that a large number of the diaspora's brightest thinkers, writers, artists and scholars would be traveling from different corners of the world to “explore the impulses, ideas, and techniques undergirding the production of self-representation and desire, and the exchange of the gaze from the 19th century to the present day in fashion, film, art, and the archives.” Please accept my contribution to the conversation and move to the sounds of a Black global analysis, my Black global imagining. I feel deeply connected to my people and the music on this volume of the series was inspired by my focused nomadic journey. Come with me.

Drum and Bass is Black Music… On the 30th anniversary of the 1981 Brixton riots, a historic reaction to the hostility and xenophobic environment that informed the policing of African and Caribbean immigrants, I examined the ruthless desire to keep Britain White. I pulled from Sam Selvon’s 1956 novel “The Lonely Londoners,” which tells the story of the Caribbean community’s communal response to the English brand of white supremacy and their cultural preservation as a means for survival. Additionally, I sought the political, social, and musicological context of a sound that takes root in Sly and Robbie’s Reggae Music—Drum and Bass. Inspired by these histories, I’ve created a musical essay that epitomizes my long-term relationship with Black Britain and the parallel strategies of resistance that Black Americans have employed to attain basic human rights. Shout out to drum and bass pioneers Roni Size, Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Kemistry and Storm, Krust, and all the other sons and daughters of “The Lonely Londoners.” I'm excited to introduce a new series of liner notes. As a part of the WildSeed Cultural Group Independent Artist in Residency program in Atlanta, Georgia (2011-2012), I will be working with my favorite thinkers, writers, cultural critics and scholars to help contextualize my mixes. The first to launch the series is Esther Armah, a fierce Black British writer, speaker, moderator and leader in the emotional justice movement. Thank you Esther for being willing to participate in this project and for helping to make "Entertainment with a Thesis" a reality. DJ lynnee denise (feel free to repost and pass on) Liner Notes by Esther Armah* We made it. Not bodies. They were battered, bruised, brutalized, buried. The drum beat landed. Intact. Slipped unnoticed between bodies, souls, minds carried from West Africa’s shores via the West Indies. Landed unbent and unbroken in this new land - West London. We were the language left when mother tongue was dragged screaming from its source, we were the unshed tears of the middle passage. Company came. Sought us out. Hands grabbed at us from Empire Wind-rush bodies, carried to this place from Caribbean islands. A new language, new accent from this new nation called England. Black backs bent and shaped by British labor, sweat collected from a generation invited and despised in the same breath. Our mamas and daddies, silent and deadly. That racism DNA pounded and flattened, birthed into frustrated beats and a new generation. Defiance became the breath of those born to these Caribbean bodies mangled seeking refuge from racist rants. This was now Black Britain. Sound changed. Started to gather new notes from new generation. April 1981. Brixton streets, injustice exploded, caught fire, consumed and cleansed. Remnants of those unshed tears from that middle passage put the fire out on the streets, left it burning within Black Britain. Fragments of rage wrapped in that drum, dirt from boots pounding those streets caught between notes. Fragments, pieces, floated, landed. Sound from snatched pieces of leftover 1960s signs that screamed: ‘No Niggers, No Dogs, No Irish’, sound dragged from police officers’ brutal batons before they rained rage on nappy heads, sound from untold injustice - all fashioned into language. Called it bass. The sound from an unwelcome land. The double consciousness in the mirror whose reflection you couldn’t see. Mangled beauty drenched in righteous rage. Drum n bass. 30 years on from Brixton; bodies, boots, batons echo, haunt, haint. Now. Press play. So honored to write these liner notes. Drum n bass are the fragments of us blown across waters and oceans, drum n bass was for the journey where it all got too much, where there was no voice, it is the emotionally unspeakable - the soundtrack of diasporic journeys. Love, love, love this Ms Lynnee... Esther Armah is a Black British award winning international journalist, an author, playwright, radio host, company director and public speaker. She has worked in the US, UK, Africa. She is the founding director of Centric Productions, a multi-media production and creative marketing company based in New York, London and Ghana. In the UK; she has worked in print, radio and television. In print, she has written for 'The Guardian' newspaper, 'New Nation' newspaper, and in 'Pride' magazine. In radio, she has worked right across BBC radio as a documentary maker, an investigative reporter and a radio host. In tv, she has appeared on Sky Television and BBC television.