Left footprint, Barbados 2005. Right footprint, Cornwall 2010. Never take your own footprints for granted. The turning of dates on a calender is an artificial structure to make sense of nature’s very real cycle of seasons. Some people say they can’t wait for this year to be over, as if the year label has any…
I’ve been reluctant to post this for ages as it’s a picture of me, but the fact it’s by a talented colleague has (eventually) overruled that decision. The portrait is by Chris Webster, who runs the animation course at UWE. We started teaching at UWE on the same day in 2002. Met at an induction day…
I have to speak up and say I find this anonymous art installation pretty offensive. Without the words I feel this would be a perfect response to the Colston statue, the shadow cast as a slave ship. With the words however it’s problematic. There is no comparison between the workers mentioned in the art piece,…
Nostalgia is a thief emotion. The best days are in front of us. Shawn Sobers 21 October 2018
[This was originally written as a response to a friend’s Facebook post, which I felt rightly criticised an MP, for speaking up against Jamie’s Jerk Rice, but not other issues affecting Black people in the UK.] ———— This won’t be a popular view, so I’ll take cover… I think if we were confident as a…
Written on August 2nd 2018 Yesterday I was honoured to be a volunteer Steward for the fifth successful annual August 1st Emancipation Day march in London, from Brixton to Parliament, and back again. Thousands of Afrikan people marching peacefully, and that is why you didn’t read about it in the media. They would only report…
20 July 2018 – Bristol Cathedral (Photograph by Stella Quinlivan) Deputy Vice Chancellor, It gives me great pleasure to give this speech in the event of John Akomfrah being awarded an honorary doctorate, in acknowledgment of his services to film and the visual arts. With a career spanning over 36 years, from his award…
