Wednesday 2 May 2018 – Wednesday 30 May 2018
FILMS: RETURNING THE COLONIAL GAZE (THE BARBICAN, LONDON)
“With a focus on Francophone African and French cinema, we present work by bold filmmakers that reverse the ‘colonial gaze’ and interrogates the former occupying nation from new perspectives. This five-part season focuses on the relationship between French and Francophone African cinema and includes work by Moroccan, Mauritanian, Senegalese and Nigerien directors from the 50s through to the 70s. After years of simply being represented or ‘spoken for’ by Western directors, these African filmmakers asserted the right to represent themselves and reclaimed control of their own images. Their ‘coming to voice’ was a disruption, and an act of liberation. This season is part of our 2018 season The Art of Change, which explores how the arts respond to, reflect and potentially effect change in the social and political landscape.”
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Until Saturday 5 May 2018
STAND UP COMEDY: ANUVAB PAL – THE EMPIRE (SOHO THEATRE, LONDON)
“One of India’s top stand up comedians is on a journey to understand why he has no country of his own.The British came and gave him a colonial accent, British values, decorum, all that and left. He lives in contemporary India – a billion confident humans fed on social media, American consumerism and way past their colonial hangover. How does this man still under the influence – the British influence – survive in ‘New India’? Nobody knows, the least of all him. Yes, the British came to India, they saw, but who conquered? Nobody knows. The quest for Empire and The Empire striking back is the journey of this stand up special. Who says the tragedies of history aren’t comedy? Everyone. Oh well, too late.”
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Until Thursday 5 May 2018
EXHIBITION: SHOWCASE ON ASIAN RADIO IN LEICESTER (BBC RADIO LEICESTER)
“The important role played by BBC Radio Leicester in the development of Asian radio in Britain is being showcased at an event in the city. From 29 April to 5 May, the station in St Nicholas Place will offer visitors the chance to learn more about the history of Asian programming and provide feedback. In October 1976 the station became the first in Britain to offer a five-nights a week Asian programme, the Six O’clock Show. Broadcast for four nights a week in English, it was designed in part to tackle the poor race relations in the city at the time and played an important, but unrecognised, part in the success story of Leicester’s multi-cultural present and the corporate history of the BBC. Within weeks of launching the new programme, two thirds of the Asian community in the city were regular listeners, a figure that would rise to over seventy per cent in the mid-1980s. The Six O’clock Show is a direct forerunner of the current BBC Asian Network. The Six O’clock show exhibition will show newly discovered films about the show, the opening of BBC Radio Leicester in 1967 and a weekly Asian Soap opera, Kahani Apni Apni that ran in the 1980s. There will be two listening points at which visitors can listen to complete editions of 1970s and 1980s Six O’clock Shows. Printed displays will track the development of the programme, revealing new research and visitors will have an opportunity to share their memories about the programme as part of new research at the University of Leicester. Midlands3Cities PhD researcher Liam McCarthy said: “The new research into Asian programming across BBC local radio in the 1970s and 1980s has emphasized just how important BBC Radio Leicester is to the story. The Six O’clock Show became a cultural icon and as part of my research I am looking to capture the memories of listeners to the programme. This exhibition will show newly discovered film of Asian programmes at BBC Radio Leicester and complete editions of the radio show that have been lost for forty years.”
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Until Saturday 12 May 2018
THEATRE: RASHEEDA SPEAKING (TRAFALGAR STUDIOS, LONDON)
“Tanya Moodie (Trouble in Mind) and Elizabeth Berrington (Absent Friends) star in the UK Premiere of Joel Drake Johnson’s tense workplace drama ‘Rasheeda Speaking’, also featuring Bo Poraj (Miranda) and Sheila Reid (Benidorm). In one of Chicago’s wealthiest hospitals, a white doctor tries to remove a black receptionist by enlisting her colleague as a spy. The women’s friendship quickly deteriorates and a chilling power struggle ensues. With the office becoming a battleground of passive aggression and paranoia, things spin wildly out of control. Joel Drake Johnson’s incendiary new play examines underlying racism in the workplace, white guilt and the manipulation of women by men in power. ‘Rasheeda Speaking’ is a shocking dark comedy that keeps you in its claustrophobic grip until the final moment, proving that nothing in Middle America is ever truly black or white. Directed by Jonathan O’Boyle (Hair, Dear Brutus) and produced by ‘Troupe’ (‘Dear Brutus’, ‘The Cardinal’– The Telegraph Critics’ Choice), who make their debut at Trafalgar Studios.”
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Thursday 3 May 2018 – Sunday 29 July 2018
EXHIBITION: ASIAN YOUTH CULTURE: EXPLORING THE HERITAGE & HISTORY OF YOUNG BRITISH ASIANS IN BIRMINGHAM (BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM & ART GALLERY)
“This exhibition explores the heritage and history of the lives and contributions young Asian people have made across three distinct periods: the 1950s-60s, 1970s-1990s, and 2000 to the present day. Asian Youth have played a huge role in shaping the social, cultural and political life of Birmingham and wider Britain. Discover objects, stories and lived experiences from South Asian people growing up in Birmingham in an exhibition covering arts and culture, sport, politics, community archives, diversity and divergence. The exhibition showcases and celebrates the untold stories of Asian Youth Culture in the city, including archive film, photographs, oral histories, original TV sets, records and scripts. The project hopes to shed light on the journey of Asian youth, looking at what Asian youth are doing now and why, and pointing to the unique yet everyday stories that lie behind those faces and features, colours and sounds, to arrive at actual experiences, motivations and their and everyone’s humanity. For more information on the project, see the Asian Youth Culture project website.”
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Friday 4 May 2018 – Sunday 8 July 2018
EXHIBITION: ANDREW JACKSON – FROM A SMALL ISLAND (MAC BIRMINGHAM)
“Award-winning photographer, Andrew Jackson has been commissioned to create a new series of work exploring identity, migration, memory and family. Following a visit to Jamaica in 2017, he investigates the identities of Jamaican Diaspora since the post-war migration to Britain, and the lives of second and third generation migrants born here. ‘No one on that ship…thought we’d be leaving home forever, but when my father hugged me on the dockside, for some reason, I knew I’d never see him again as I had never seen him cry before. I still see my father; you know, in my mind at least… after all these years…but I can’t see his face. No matter how hard I try… I never see his face.’ Amy Jackson, Artist’s Mother.“
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Friday 4 May 2018 – Sunday 6 May 2018
BRITISH ASIAN FESTIVAL 2018 (WATFORD PALACE THEATRE, LONDON)
“Rifco Theatre Company and Watford Palace Theatre bring you three days of British Asian arts and culture.”
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Friday 4 May 2018
TALK: WASAFIRI LAUNCHES ‘REFUGE’ ISSUE, GUEST-EDITED BY BIDISHA (TATE MODERN, LONDON)
“Join Wasafiri, the Magazine of International Contemporary Literature to celebrate a special ‘Refuge’ issue, guest-edited by writer and journalist Bidisha. In a time of inflammatory headlines and damaging political rhetoric, this issue brings together a powerful roster of writers and artists to counter the populist narrative. Read more.”
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Friday 4 May 2018 – Saturday 2 June 2018
THEATRE: 1. RANDOM / 2. GENERATIONS (MINERVA THEATRE, CHICHESTER)
“1. Random: This blistering play, told through the eyes of a young woman, explores the unbearable sense of loss felt by a family faced with a catastrophic and random act. 2. Generations: In the cradle of their South African family, Boyfriend and Girlfriend are beginning their lives together, just as Mama and Dad, and Grandad and Nana, did before them. Until, one by one, family members start to disappear. Fierce, warm and funny, these two short and haunting dramas examine love, life and loss through the lives of two families on two continents. ‘Random’ is an extraordinary play for one actress, whilst the ‘Generations’ company includes a South African choir. A playwright, screenwriter and director, Debbie Tucker Green is one of theatre’s most original and internationally acclaimed voices. She won the Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer in 2004 for born bad, and the 2012 BAFTA Award for Best Single Drama for the television version of random. Both plays are directed by Tinuke Craig. Winner of the 2014 Genesis Future Director Award and Associate Director at the Gate Theatre 2015-2016, her credits include Debbie Tucker Green’s ‘Dirty Butterfly’ at the Young Vic.”
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Friday 4 May 2018
TELEVISION: THE JAZZ AMBASSADORS (BBC4 TV)
“In 1955, the African-American congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie announced a new Cold War weapon to combat the Soviet Union – America’s iconic jazz musicians and their racially integrated bands would cross the globe to counter negative propaganda about racism in America. Over the next decade, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck would tour the world in service of US Cold War interests. But the unfolding Civil Rights movement back home forced them into a moral bind; how could they promote a tolerant image of America abroad when racial equality remained an unrealised dream? This is the story of how the state department unwittingly gave the Civil Rights movement a voice on the world stage when it needed one most.”
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