Roots & Culture: Cultural Politics in the Making of Black Britain - Talk

How did a distinct and powerful Black British identity emerge? In the 1950s, when many Caribbean migrants came to Britain, there was no such recognised entity as "Black Britain." Yet by the 1980s, the cultural landscape had radically changed, and a remarkable array of creative practices such as theatre, poetry, literature, music and the visual arts gave voice to striking new articulations of Black-British identity. This new book chronicles the extraordinary blend of social, political and cultural influences from the mid-1950s to late 1970s that gave rise to new heights of Black-British artistic expression in the 1980s. Eddie Chambers relates how and why during these decades "West Indians" became "Afro-Caribbeans," and how in turn "Afro-Caribbeans" became "Black-British" - and the centrality of the arts to this important narrative. The British Empire, migration, Rastafari, the Anti-Apartheid struggle, reggae music, dub poetry, the ascendance of the West Indies cricket team and the coming of Margaret Thatcher - all of these factors, and others, have had a part to play in the compelling story of how the African Diaspora transformed itself to give rise to Black Britain.

Author: Dr. Eddie Chambers

Associate Professor Eddie Chambers joined the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin in 2010, teaching African Diaspora art history. His education includes a Fine Art (Honours) degree from Sunderland Polytechnic (1983) and in 1998 a Ph.D. in History of Art from Goldsmiths College, University of London, awarded for his thesis ‘Black Visual Arts Activity in England Between 1981 – 1986: Press and Public Responses’.

Since the early 1980s he has been involved in organizing and curating a considerable number of artists' exhibitions. In addition to his exhibition work, he has written extensively about the work of artists in the United Kingdom and other countries, including Australia, Jamaica and the US. His articles and other texts have been widely published in magazines and journals such as Third Text, Visual Culture in Britain, International Review of African American Art, and Wasafiri. He was for nearly two decades a regular contributor to Art Monthly (London). 

Read full bio here.

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Discussant: Richard Hylton

Richard Hylton was born in London, England. Between 1987-1990 he studied BA (Hons) Fine Art at Exeter College of Art and Design. In 2000, he was awarded an MA in History of Art from Goldsmiths College, London, where he is currently a PhD candidate in the department of Visual Cultures.

Since the early 1990s, he has been actively involved in the visual arts sector, primarily as an exhibition organiser, working for a number of different public and independent organisations including Oldham Art Gallery, University of Bradford, Autograph (Association of Black Photographers), London Metropolitan University and the London School of Economics. He has devised, organised and facilitated the production of numerous national and international exhibitions involving a wide range of artists.

Hylton has over the past decade also produced a substantial number of publications and commissioned new writing for exhibition catalogues, brochures and monographs such as The Best Janette Parris and Doublethink: The Art of Donald Rodney. In 2002, after seven years of production, he co-produced with Virginia Nimarkoh, The Holy Bible: Old Testament, David Hammons’ first artist’s book.