Diaspora Dialogs [.com]

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New World Imagery

Jamaica's hybrid culture is reflected in its patois, flavoured with words and meanings from so many languages. Similarly, the imagery of its artists is eclectic and multi-referential, struggling to communicate something unique to the island. The works shown [in this exhibition] are typically expressionistic, with colour, collage and series predominating. The found object as fetish, blood, clay and mud all figure in their surfaces. Most of this work has been created in the past ten years, often in response to, or at least with an awareness of, the Caribbean's controversial celebration of the five hundred years since its 'discovery' by Europe. Nostalgia and a growing regional awareness have stimulated an interest in the culture of Jamaica's original Arawak people, the Taino Indians, firing the imagination of many artist to represent a history they can only sense rather than prove...[more]

Rethinking Family in Black and White: Black Immigration in 1950-70s Britain

I am recovering from a serious illness that kept me on life support for weeks and sent shock waves through my family as they considered the possibility of my death. I was in a coma, so these anxieties were unknown to me. Instead, I was in another place of indescribable time and space conversing with angels who determined my fate.

In the real world there were other conversations. Mobile phones in Jamaica, the USA, Canada, New Zealand and the UK rang incessantly, linking family groups with each other. Faster than CNN, friends, personal and professional, shared news of my illness. In the ten days I “slept”, my life conflated from a loose global network into a tight village of friends and family who referred to each other with ease, as if they had known one another all their lives. I was filled with tubes and needles in the intensive care unit, while these people gave another type of life support – praying, negotiating and fighting for my survival....[more]

The right mix?

Jackie is the grandmother of my son's mixed-race schoolmate, Stefan. She's working class British but knows about life 'upstairs' because for many years she cooked for an English Lord. For this reason, she believes in private education and pulled Stefan out of state school so that he would not be disadvantaged as a black youngster raised in London. Kim, her daughter has had on-going health problems, so Jackie has been the main provider for this second generation single parent family since Stefan's birth.

Jackie prides herself on the food she prepares. Over the years she's gathered many recipes, although recently she's gotten lazy and buys ubiquitous 'ready meals'. But at Xmas she pulls out all stops, basting and baking and providing the trimmings that her daughter and grandson have come to love and take for granted....[more]