Spray painted on the base of his Parliament Square statue in London, the new epitaph reads: “Churchill was a Racist.” The words were known to us but never spoken in wider society. It took George Floyd being murdered by Minneapolis state police and over two months of worldwide protests for us to reach this point. …
#BLM, Arts, Venue
The unheeded Black muses of art history
Black subjects in fine art have often been overlooked by art historians’ Eurocentric focus on White subjects. In Western art, Black figures integral to our history have been grossly underrepresented. The descriptions of paintings which do feature Black subjects often outrageously belittle their significance, and sometimes even leave them unidentified. Black subjects have also historically…
#BLM, Comment
Tearing down statues is the right thing to do
Protests erupted throughout the United States and countries across the world as a result of the senseless killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd on May 25th. Some protesters resorted to defacing and removing historical statues as a clear message of intolerance towards racism within our society, beginning in Bristol on June 7th with the…
#BLM, TV, Venue
The History of Race through Television
The first time I was ever exposed to the Black Lives Matter movement and related activism was at the end of the fourth season of Orange is the New Black. The murder of Poussey Washington (Samira Wiley), an incarcerated Black woman, by a white male prison officer in a prison uprising, sparked riots and uproar…
Arts, Venue
What I’m looking forward to seeing in theatres
After social distancing, and when the theatres open again, I’m looking forward to seeing ‘Six: The Musical’. I was originally meant to see this show on April 7, but luckily, it has been postponed, rather than cancelled. ‘Six’ tells the well-known, bloody, church-reforming tale of the six wives of Henry the Eighth, from their perspective,…
Film, TV
My Favourite Horror: (The Haunted Place) 1963
It is near impossible to declare a favourite in a genre so heterogenous. Does one choose an example of body horror, or celebrate the nostalgia of slasher films? Should we recognise a cult classic, or applaud the slew of modern horror reclaiming some seriousness? I feel inclined to give the vied-for-top-spot to 1963’s ‘The Haunted…