Black History Month
From Al
“My favourite Black artist has to be Zanele Muholi. They are a photographer, best known for their black & white self-portraiture using household objects. Their work represents and tells the stories of Black LGBT+ people within South Africa and beyond. They had an exhibition in Tate Modern last year, which was amazing!”
From Sally
“Yinka Shonibare – There are some wonderful examples of his work on his website yinkashonibare.com“
“One of my favourite pieces is called ‘The British Library’, thebritishlibraryinstallation.com This is an installation celebrating the diversity of the British population. As it is described on this site “It consists of an installation of thousands of books covered in the artist’s signature Dutch wax printed cotton textile. On the spines of many of these books are printed the names of notable first and second generation immigrants and incoming migrants to Britain who have moved here throughout history.”
“I visited this piece at the Tate Gallery in 2021 where it took up a whole room and it was beautiful – I spent ages looking at it!”
From Valerie
- Atlantics: a Senegalese/French/Belgian movie and hypnotic love and ghost story set in Dakar, which also gives a good feel of what life is like is Senegal’s capital for young people + the movie director was the first Black woman to be selected for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes movie festival in 2019 (it’s available on Netflix)
- We are black and british, a two-episode documentary on the intersectional experiences of Black people in the UK – a good reminder that “being Black” cannot be reduced to a stereotypical experience (available on BBC iPlayer)
- Americanah, Chimamanda NGozi Adiche’s book, which gave me a sense of the multiple ways racism is enacted + it’s a striking love story.
- TW: Racism and upsetting scenes – I also would like to recommend the documentary below, about the intersectional experience of a gay black cop in the Met, who tells his journey to empowerment, BUT it comes with a trigger warning: his testimony doesn’t shy away from the violence of racism and several scenes are upsetting to watch. www.girlsinfilm.net/videos/the-black-cop
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