There’s plenty to see and do this year for culture vultures. Take your pick from the list below for events during the next few months.
April
Small Island
Thu 24 February 2022 – Sat 30 April 2022
Tickets: National Theatre
The acclaimed, five-star production of Andrea Levy’s prize-winning novel that brings to life the complicated history of Jamaica and Britain,
Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica, Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer and Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots.
Following their lives through the Second World War until the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush at Tilbury, hopes for the future soon meet the stubborn reality of post-war Britain.
Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical
20 March 2022 –
Tickets: London Theatre, Lyric theatre
A musical is honouring the universally loved Jamaican reggae superstar Bob Marley, whose indelible songs and rebellious spirit continue to inspire millions around the world. Featuring all the big hits, including “No Woman, No Cry,”
The show is directed by Clint Dyer, deputy artistic director of the National Theatre, and stars Arinze Kene as Bob Marley. Kene was Olivier Award nominated for his play Misty and his performance in Death of a Salesman, and played another iconic musician, Sam Cooke, in the play One Night in Miami.
Mdou Moctar
6 April 2022
Where:
Komedia
44 Gardner St, Brighton
Tickets: www.seetickets.com
Tuareg guitarist and songwriter Mdou Moctar boldly reforges contemporary Saharan music and “rock music“ by melding Eddie Van Halen pyrotechnics, full-blast noise and guitar shredding, field recordings, drums rhythms, poetic meditations on love, religion, women’s rights, inequality and Western Africa’s exploitation at the hands of colonial powers.
ONLINE EVENTS
The amazing history of Black people in London before 1948
2 April 2022
Tickets: register here
A presentation by Black History Studies focuses on the hidden history of London and the contributions made by people of African and Caribbean descent to London in the areas of Literature, Politics, Music and Entertainment, Sport and Health & Welfare before 1948.
Many believe that Black people only came to the UK in 1948. The truth is that Black people have lived in Britain since Roman times. Moors were a common sight in Elizabethan England. There were great Black personalities in 18th and 19th century Britain. This presentation tells their story.
Black Ancestry | The Truth About What’s in a Name?
Saturday 30th April 2022
Tickets: register here
More information: www.paulcrooks.info
British and North American descendants of ancestors once enslaved, often assume their surnames are a legacy of slave ownership. Some Black and mixed-Black descendants reject their ‘slave name’. For others, the ‘slave name’ may be their only link to a history that has been intentionally erased.
In this masterclass, African Caribbean genealogist Paul Crooks will reveal new insights into names and naming practices within North American enslaved societies. The focus will on Jamaica, as a proxy for what was happening in other parts of North America once colonised by slave owners and administrators, mainly from England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Bob Marley One Love Experience, Saatchi Gallery
Until 18 April 2022
Where: Bob Marley One Love Experience, Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, London SW3 4RY
Tickets : register at bobmarleyexp.com
See never-before-seen photographs and memorabilia from Marley’s life, including original handwritten lyrics and guitars. There are immersive aspects to the exhibition – be transported to Jamaica in the One Love Forest – while the music takes centre stage at the Soul Shakedown Studio.
May
African Concert Series
Two of the most talked about and celebrated names on today’s music scene Rebeca Omordia and Gabriel Prokofiev are to collaborate for their next enterprise – a two day Festival ‘Nonclassical X The African Concert Series‘. Rebeca Omordia, the founder of the African Concert Series and Gabriel Prokofiev founder of the independent record label and night club Nonclassical, are joining up to celebrate the diversity of musical styles across the African diaspora, challenging how we define ‘classical music’ and the whole Eurocentric narrative of the genre.
4 May 2022, 8.00pm, Iklectik Art Centre
Where: Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, London SE1 7LG
Tickets: https://bit.ly/3iAWoDr
The first of these collaborations will take place on May 4th, presented jointly by Rebeca and Gabriel, and will feature a series of solo, collaborative and electronic sets. Piano works intertwined with field recordings will feature alongside a solo set from kora player and cellist Tunde Jegede, who will be joined by the Nigerian sound artist and violist, Ibukun Sunday for a new collaboration in electronics, and the night will end with a live electronics set/DJ set.
8 May 2022, 3.30pm, Africa Centre
Where: 66 Great Suffolk St, London SE1 0BL
The second event on May 8th kicks off with a panel discussion at the Africa Centre. This will be followed by a performance by percussionist Bex Burch on the Gyil, a West African percussion instrument, playing her own compositions alongside Dagaare music from Ghana. The two day festival will conclude with the rising stars of the world music community, the Krar Collective, a trio showcasing the traditional Ethiopian krar lyre, with the group’s unique take on Ethiopian music.
The African Concert Series will continue with already familiar names from the series, Leon Bosch’s ensemble Ubuntu, and Rebeca Omordia herself in a special concert for the young plus a solo concert of Afro/American music:
12 May 2022, 7.30pm, The Africa Centre
African Art Music for Strings – Leon Bosch, double bass and Ubuntu Ensemble
Tickets: https://bit.ly/3tFDVMs
The programme will feature string quartets by African composers from Mali, South Africa and Nigeria and new commissioned works for The South African Double Bass.
TALKS
An afternoon with David Olusoga – Black and British
23 May 2022
Where:
Cheltenham Town Hall
Imperial Square
Cheltenham GL50 1QA
Tickets: register here
David Olusoga, historian, broadcaster and film maker will speak about his career & the challenges he has faced and take a Q&A session.
David is a British-Nigerian historian, broadcaster and film-maker. His most recent TV series include Empire (BBC 2), Black and British: A Forgotten History (BBC 2), The World’s War (BBC 2), 3 seasons of A House Through Time (BBC 2) and the BAFTA winning Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners (BBC 2).
David is also the author of Black & British: A Forgotten History which was awarded both the Longman-History Today Trustees Award and the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize. In addition, he contributed to the Oxford Companion to Black British History. His most recent book Black & British: A Short, Essential History is a bestseller.
June
Young People’s Concert
4 June 2022, 11.30am, The Africa Centre
Free entry
Rebeca Omordia (keyboard/presenter), Julian Rodriguez (violin), Moussa Dembele (kora/balafon). The concert will also feature performances of piano music by African composers performed by students from Piano Maestros music service.
July
7 July 2022, 7.00pm
St. Olave’s Church, 8 Hart Street, London EC3R 7NA
Chamber Music by African-American Composers
Free entry
Featuring Florence Price’s Piano Quintet (with Rebeca Omordia piano) and Lawrence Brown’s ‘Five Negro Folk Songs’ (transcribed for double bass and performed by Leon Bosch).
For more information:
https://theafricanconcertseries.co.uk/
16 July 2022
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre
Jazz Legends
The Jazz Cafe and the Southbank Centre present a pantheon of cosmic and spiritual jazz musicians, including Sun Ra Arkestra, Norman Connors, Jean Carne & Gary Bartz.
17 July 2022, 1pm – 5pm
“Walk with Nelson Mandela” (a birthday tribute) from the South Bank through Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square.
United Nations Green All are welcome to join ‘Party on the Green‘. It’s free! Watch the dove release – listen to the music – taste a slice of the United Nations Green birthday cake – see the world’s largest UN75 Flags of the United Nations display – try some Limbo dancing – the kids can play Global Warming hopscotch (it’s too hot!)- and over a cup of tea reflect that it was here that the United Nations met for the first time, in January 1946.
20 July 2022, 7pm
An Evening with Reni Eddo-Lodge
‘The debate on racism is a game to some and I don’t want to play.’ – Reni Eddo-Lodge
In June 2020, as the murder of George Floyd and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement reverberated around the world, one book stood out as a way to make sense of the moment. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge became a lightning rod for a national conversation about racial inequality and why we need a better understanding of Black history.
August
31 August 2022, 9pm
Les Filles De Illighadad
Les Filles de Illighadad are a Tuareg band founded by Fatou Seidi Ghali in Illighadad, a village in the Sahara Desert in Niger. Ghali, it is claimed, is the first Tuareg woman to play guitar professionally.
September
4 September 2022, 2pm
Tsitsi Dangarembga: Black and Female
This paradigm shifting collection weaves the personal and political in an illuminating exploration of the acclaimed novelist’s complex relationship with race and gender.
29 September 2022, 7.30pm
Sheku Kanneh-Mason Plays Haydn
Superstar cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays the first of his concerts as the Philharmonia’s featured artist for the 2022/23 season.
Until 16 April 2023
Africa Fashion Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Spanning iconic mid-20th century to contemporary creatives through photographs, textiles, music and the visual arts, Africa Fashion explores the exraordinary global impact of Africa’s burgeoning fashion scene.
October
8 October 2022
Africa Fashion Week London 2022 – The Best In African Fashion
For more details please contact ticket-info@africafashionweeklondonuk.com
Africa Fashion Week London, is the largest annual “African fashion catwalk” in Europe. The event promises to showcase African fashion and design talent and will be held at the Freemasons Hall In Covent Garden, London.
Anyone can join the Afwl Masterclass And Hybrid Event, network with fashion pros and catwalk shows where you’ll see vibrant, striking design collections from around the world.
15 October 2022
Hair Stories by CURLYTREATS Festival
A family-friendly event to celebrate Black hair and its evolution. This year’s theme is Black Hair Stories, which will explore the history of afro hair and its evolution from the Windrush Era until today.
23 October 2022
Soweto Gospel Choir (Birmingham)
Winner of the 2019 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for their latest album Freedom, a collection of songs which celebrate and commemorate South Africa’s democratic movement’s struggle for freedom, Soweto Gospel Choir now bring their Freedom concert to Town Hall Birmingham on Friday, 23 October 2022.
And Elsewhere…
Italy
22 – 25 June 2022
This year’s African Diaspora Cinema Festival will be held in Florence at the magnificent Villa Romana.
The theme is #African Cinema, one that draws on the principle that being African is “a bond that goes beyond geography, birth or lineage; as people of African origin are spread across the globe..
Africa has been able to capture the world’s attention through its ancient cultural heritage and beginnings of civilization. With films it will have the power to connect people from around the world.”
Dakar, Senegal
From 19 May – 21 June 2022
One of the largest events in the African modern art world, the Dakar Biennale in Senegal, has returned for its 14th edition, after a four-year gap because of the Coronavirus pandemic. The main exhibition is at the Ancien Palais de Justice in Dakar and boasts 59 artists from nearly 30 countries. Take a look at some of the exhibits here.
Washington DC, US July 2022 –
Works of artists from Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean from the 17th through 21st centuries are on display in the exhibition “Afro-Atlantic Histories,” the most comprehensive look at the interplay of art between Africa and the Americas ever held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington:
