wisdomdance

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SHADE SAIL <3

THE POETRY OF THOSE TWO WORDS - COMMUNITY GROUPS LIKE GOLDEN OLDIES PROVIDE SHADE SO THAT WE CAN SAIL IN HOSTILE WATERS <3

carefully cultivated clubs for specific communities are shade sails:

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CLUBLAND CONNECTIONS...

Those who have heard Sybil sing usually realise that she has a voice of some power and control and that she displays no fear in providing an appropriate rendition to illustrate her point. As a trained classical singer, Sybil travelled from Guyana to America to sing with international orchestras and it was this and the opportunity to work as a youth worker that started and sustained to this day her involvement and commitment to the Methodist Church. Trained at 18 years as a youth worker by the British Council of Churches, Sybil also worked as an Assistant Minister in Clubland, Georgetown Guyana, which was run by the Methodist Church. Her church-based work and connections in Guyana provided useful links and on arrival in the UK, Sybil worked in Walworth Methodist Church which also had a Clubland, providing hostel accommodation for boys and young men as well as schooling and social activities which aimed to get boys off the street and into a recognised trade.

...Some of the many qualities that makes Sybil special, can be seen in her role as pioneer and an agent of change. From her famous ‘Yellow Paper’ that radically changed the understanding of and approach to Race Relations within the Methodist Church, to the building of the Pagnell Street Centre in New Cross, home to the Moonshot Youth Club and the first purpose-built black community centre in the UK. 

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The artwork - (The Peel, Islington. Showing until further notice)

Phoebe Collings-James celebrates the work of Valda James, the artist's grandmother and the first black woman elected to Islington council in 1986, before becoming Mayor of Islington two years later.

Part of the Windrush generation, Jamaican-born James came to England in 1961, where she raised her children alone – an experience that later informed her work on the Social Services committee. Collings-James' portrait represents not just her grandmother's career achievements, but also her perseverance in the face of the racism and sexism of the time and her own nerves in public speaking.

The photograph of the 91-year-old James is taken in her Islington home, alongside text from an interview. “I remember her telling me that even when she was in that privileged and well-earned position of Mayor, she didn't believe she deserved to be in the room,” says the artist. “It is an important reminder to me as a black woman artist to always have the confidence to know that I deserve to be heard. I want that message to be heard by many.”

The location

Collings-James' piece celebrates the cultural impact left by James on the Borough and is located close to the estate where she lived all her life. It’s emblazoned on the exterior of The Peel, which is home to a charity dedicated to building a connected community in Clerkenwell since 1898, running activities for adults, children and young people, as well as mental health awareness projects. 

With thanks to The Peel for the site.

The artist

Phoebe Collings-James creates work in different media that explores the poetics and emotional detritus of violence, identity and desire. Grown in London via Jamaica, her practice is intentionally sprawling, focussed on the process of becoming bodied. Her work has featured as installations at the Studio Museum Harlem, Palais de Tokyo, Arcadia Missa and Wysing Arts Center.

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CARNIVAL / wisdom dance

Aisha mentioned Igbo roots of carnival....

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MAKE SOME SPACE

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RUSSELL PROFITT - Golden Oldies Chair...

Russell Profitt MBE

Continuing our celebration of the lives & work of some extraordinary #Southwark community activists, this month we’re showcasing the amazing Russell Profitt, Chair of @walworthgoldenoldies

Originally from Georgetown, Guyana, Russell travelled alone when he was just 13 to join his mother in London, she was part of the #Windrush generation. Life was tough & the move traumatic.  Living in a multi-occupancy house, with several other families, Russell’s mother worked all hours of the day in her 2 jobs & Russell was often asked to help out.

Encouraged by his mother who believed strongly in education & self-development, Russell did really well at school, & against the odds, became one of the first ever Black students at Goldsmiths University. There he hung out with ‘many colourful people’ including the likes of Malcolm McClaren & when he became the first Black Vice-President of the National Student Union, Jack Straw. This was the start of an extraordinary life characterized by engagement with (touchpoints to some of) some of the most significant and tragic events affecting the Black community in the UK – The Lewisham riots (1977), the New Cross fire (1981), and the murder of Damilola Taylor (2000).

In his various positions as teacher, deputy-head, Lewisham councillor, & Deputy Director of Education in Southwark, Russell has championed the right of people to speak up for equality and justice. He was honored with an MBE (2009) for services to the community.

Russell considers one of his greatest achievements to be the role he has played in improving Black representation in politics and challenging racial discrimination and disadvantage ‘which still stains the character of our society’.

His lessons to the younger generation are “From humble origins you can make a difference and in order to do this, you have to be consistent and bloody minded – don’t take the easy route!”

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I took so many turns when not listening to myself...

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“People always think if you are a Black visual artist, that your stuff is supposed to be in some ways relatable or palatable — I call it after-school special,” Mr. Jafa said. “I do what I want to do. I’m not interested in white folks telling me what to do. But neither am I interested in Black people telling me what to do." a shot of Arthur Jafa

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INSPIRATIONS:

ALISHA B WORMSLEY

"project blackness as a site of possibility" - Ekow referencing the Black Fantastic exhibit, where I first saw this work... hmmmm

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INSPIRATIONS:

LYNETTE

“One of the things I always destroy in the work is anyone that I think looks passive. In part, this is because they’re black, and in part because I don’t want them to like anyone has taken anything from them. I don’t want them to be victimized basically, or to look that way. It’s as much about avoiding certain tropes in the work as anything else”. By avoiding the victimisation of the black body, perhaps Yaidom-Boakye pulls off a style of realism which asserts her own value to the ongoing narrative of black bodies in art. For her the black body can cease to be a spectacle, a token figure or a subversive message. Therefore her message of normality, relatability and tranquillity adds a sense of peace to a typically animated dialogue on race.

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INSPIRATIONS:

AZU:

 My feeling is that we must regenerate ourselves otherwise you play into this post-colonial mentality, in which black curators are constantly insecure and competing against each other as if there is only room for one superstar curator. I call it postcolonial cannibalism – this sense that you are made to feel so exceptional that you don’t want to let other people in. There is no real future in that. The only way forward is to bring people in with you.”

Everything Precious Is Fragile emanates from a deep exploration of Yoruba Gė lė dė traditions, addressing the contemporary world’s fragility marked by ecological challenges, conflicts, and social inequalities. In collaboration with Benin’s traditional rulers, the curatorial team shaped the pavilion’s concept, humbly embracing fragility and the ephemeral nature of existence — for humans, plants, animals. Gė lė dė philosophy unveils ecological, political, cultural, and social dimensions, celebrating indigenous wisdom’s resurgence and highlighting women’s vital role. Artists Hazoumè, Quenum, Akpo, and Bello embody Beninese ethos, advocating regeneration and [re]matriation, the return to the mother. Benin’s historical legacy and recent restitution of cultural artefacts shape the exhibition. The pavilion envisions a compassionate future and challenges perceptions of fragility and strength. The Arsenale’s pavilion includes a library on colonial legacy, Indigenous knowledge, African representation, and biodiversity loss. It proposes urgent questions on the material and philosophical nature of fragility. Is fragility a strength or a weakness?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gẹlẹdẹ

The blackness presented in The Medium is the Message is authentic, quiet and confident.

The exhibition rejects the lazy depictions of blackness as majesty or misery (with very little gradation between the two). The work unveils many facets of black existence: including play, solitude and contemplation; it is a collection of work that spans the entire canopy of human emotion without kowtowing to exoticism.

In letting the medium take centre stage, these artists are deploying painting as a meditative form of self expression – highlighting the process’s calming nature, and its ability to act as a contemplative release.

“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” – Frantz Fanon

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PARTY BAGS

distributed in the local shops

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002976196168.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.17.7d884b77UEow91&algo_pvid=4a2df44a-6dea-4361-9289-c8215f59fba0&algo_exp_id=4a2df44a-6dea-4361-9289-c8215f59fba0-8&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21GBP%21336.41%21289.32%21%21%21423.53%21364.24%21%40211b812f17210461323242814e1f36%2112000038967002539%21sea%21UK%210%21AB&curPageLogUid=UvEXvD4L63bE&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002981787760.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller.2.637dnkzgnkzgzP&gps-id=pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40050.354490.0&scm_id=1007.40050.354490.0&scm-url=1007.40050.354490.0&pvid=798ac2d0-006f-415a-a90e-c85e1f27d2e6&_t=gps-id:pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.40050.354490.0,pvid:798ac2d0-006f-415a-a90e-c85e1f27d2e6,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238107%231934&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21GBP%21312.21%21268.50%21%21%21393.06%21338.03%21%402103864c17210463274663347e9890%2112000038069443801%21rec%21UK%21%21AB&utparam-url=scene%3ApcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller%7Cquery_from%3A

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print <3

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we have reason to celebrate

and there are ways of telling (without telling)

one thing leads to another

and

any way

is a way

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https://www.discwizards.com/lenticular-printing.htm

dynamic + rooted