DTA LIVE

DTA connect with Patrick Vernon to discuss the 100 Great Black Britons peoject. From abolitionists and Industrial Revolution-era social reformers to pioneers of modern nursing, beloved children's authors and recipients of the Victoria Cross, 100 Great Black Britons celebrates the many ways in which Black Britons have challenged and overcome racial barriers to make notable advances in their fields.

Acclaimed Dance Writer Charmaine Warren talks cultural legacy, dance and how movement translates as an archive for modern healing and learning.

Lead From The Land was a collaborative research project between Zambian artist Banji Chona, currently located in Rome, and Nigerian artist Yadichinma Ukoha-Kalu, who lives in Lagos. Their correspondence took the form of a six-week-long residency built on an understanding of food creation and consumption as a ritualistic practice that fosters earthly and ancestral connections. Through their correspondence with each other and curator Beulah Ezeugo, they trace personal acts of resistance to the colonisation of indigenous food practices. This work is grounded in exploring the archival nature of the seed, the crop, and the recipe; the cross-generational transmissions that occur when we cook; and their capacity to transmogrify according to our own understanding of our identities and localities. The resulting archive - composed of audio, video, and text - records the potential for our foodways to become a tool to map an ecosystem, one that symbiotic threads taste to place, ritual to invention, and exploitation to exchange. In this podcast, DTA catch up with Banji, Yadichinma and Beulah to explore the process behind the work.  Bios Yadichinma Ukoha-kalu - Artist Yadichinma Ukoha-Kalu is a self-taught multimedia artist based in Lagos. Her practice centers on explorations of line, form and boundary which she expresses through a variety of media including painting, drawing, sculpture and film. Ukoha-Kalu often creates landscapes on paper made with a combination of abstract elements and textures. Her work sometimes exposes the skeletal process of creating, where the audience is invited to witness and explore with her. Banji Chona - Artist Banji Chona is a Zambian artivist and artchivist whose work manifests across the artistic and cultural spectrum. Banji’s work channels the visceral need to bring to life accessible spaces dedicated to fostering nuanced artistic and cultural dialogue. Her mission is the deconstruction and reconstruction of orthodox archetypes and normative ideologies through the use of dynamic multidisciplinary art, which has great potential to shift paradigms and inspire children of the Zambezi to live and express their truths which exist at the intersection of historical and contemporary happenstance. Beulah Ezeugo - Curator Beulah Ezeugo is an Igbo curator and researcher, whose current work investigates the collective memories embedded within internets, bodies, and ecosystems. Her practice is informed by a Social Science background from University College Dublin and an MLitt in Curatorial Practice from Glasgow School of Art and the University of Glasgow. She is interested in using archival interventions to collaboratively map new openings and overtures towards a Black postcolonial future.

Sir Hilary Beckles is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission. In this episode,  he goes in deep on the role of African women in resistance to enslavement, reparative justice, the post-independence political landscape of former colonies, and how institutions are now reckoning with their ugly pasts.

Connie Bell and world-renowned Maroon expert, Dr. Michael Siva discuss the history of the Jamaican Maroons, exploring how Africans in Jamaica resisted enslavement by the British and Spanish, establishing their own sovereign nation.

For far too long, resistance has been an unavoidable part of our lives. We want to celebrate resistance to the oppressions we have faced, but It is more important that we can learn the lessons of the struggle and avoid repeating past mistakes. In this episode Connie Bell connects with Dr Geraldine Frieslaar to discuss our future as Africans at home and in the diaspora - revisiting archive collections as part of a process of strategic self development.

Connie Bell and world-renowned Maroon expert, Dr. Michael Siva discuss the history of the Jamaican Maroons, exploring how Africans in Jamaica resisted enslavement by the British and Spanish, establishing their own sovereign nation.

Voicing the Legacy of Olive Morris is a new DTA Radio Podcast series with host Chloe Tayali which communicates Olive Morris's legacy through the lens of contemporary activists who are working tirelessly to empower Black communities in Britain and taking matters into their own hands when failed by the governing system. Episode 1 looks at Yasmin Begum's trailblazing work.

Relaxation is part of our repair. The 'Pause & Breathe' Experience, led by @lillianlartey_ is a mindfulness method that offers professionals the opportunity to ‘pause’ from the business, stress, and demands of work and life. Using a few, simple techniques, 'Pause & Breathe' helps you ease anxiety and to breathe deeply, de-stress, quiet the mind, relax the body; be present, rest in stillness, restore calm, balance, inner peace, and energy.

In March 2022, the Black Cultural Archives will be launching the Melba Wilson Collection, as part of their project to catalogue Melba Wilson’s papers. The collection spans over 40 years of her work in national and regional mental health programmes, policy units and services, including grassroots and community activism alongside formal policy work and leadership. DTA spent some time with Melba to discuss her work and the importance of it being archived as a resource for now and tomorrow.

Listen to Toyin Agbetu talk interdependence and imaginaries in the context of his pioneering work with Pan African, human rights organisation Ligali on behalf of the global African family.

Archives are fundamental in transforming our relationship to where we are now and how we got here’ Honoured to have Collections Assistant Rhoda Boateng on this week’s Community Spotlight. Rhoda has been doing amazing work caring for the collections at the Black Cultural Archives. There are very few archivists of African heritage in the UK - it’s vital we celebrate us so we can grow.

DTA talk to Pan Afrikan Society Community Forum member Dirg Aaab RIchards about the history and work of the PASCF, an important, African-centred organisation based in Brixton, South London.  

Haitian Professor Bayinnah Bello speaks on the Haitian Revolution of 1791, reframing the narrative surrounding the events that led to the first successful revolution of enslaved Africans in history.

Writer, Poet, and Professor of Criminology & Sociology Professor Lez Henry continues his reflection on his experiences growing up in inner city London - drawing parallels between past and present and documenting crucial parts of the so-called ‘Black-British’ experience in the process. #livingthearchive #blackarchives

Writer, Poet, and Professor of Criminology & Sociology Professor Lez Henry reflects on his experiences growing up in inner city London - drawing parallels between past and present and documenting crucial parts of the ‘Black-British’ experience in the process. #livingthearchive #blackarchives

DTA's Connie Bell and Publisher Tanya Batson Savage pay tribute to Una Marson, a pioneering journalist, poet and activist. Una Maud Victoria Marson (6 February 1905 – 6 May 1965)was a Jamaican feminist, activist and writer, producing poems, plays and radio programmes. She travelled to London in 1932 and became the first black woman to be employed by the BBC during World War II. In 1942 she became producer of the programme Calling the West Indies, turning it into Caribbean Voices, which became an important forum for Caribbean literary work.

Writer and narrative consultant Evan Narcisse (Rise of the Black Panther) talks to Connie Bell; sharing his take on preserving cultural integrity in a white industry and the theory of 'chronospatial displacement' that underpins some of his work developing Black characters. This conversation was recorded as part of Counterpoint Art's and OKRE's 'Pop Culture Meets Social Change' retreat.

Professor Verene Shepherd is a Social Historian and current Director of the Centre for Reparations Research at The University of the West Indies. In this show we connect with Prof Shepherd to understand the case for reparations from an Africa-Caribbean perspective.  

Part two of our conversation with reparationist @mzxosei as she helps us understand the history and the future of the reparations movement and what each one of us can do to get involved.