History, Her Story, Their Story, Our Story
Introduction to the project
“When was the first time you saw a black person?” What would the oldest person in your family say in answer to this question? Is your answer the same? Is it the same as your next-door neighbour or the people living in the next street?
In this project, Gloucestershire Archives worked jointly with Fresh Air Foundations, City Voices (now Voices Gloucester) and renowned photographer Vanley Burke as well as local artists, schools and members of the community to use community answers to this question to build our black history archive and inspire creativity. By collecting stories and oral histories and inspiring creative responses by local artists and communities, this project further enabled us to meet the needs of the wider community and continue to grow the trust we have built amongst local people. As with our previous art projects, we proved that the arts can be a very successful way of involving communities in their heritage.
The project launched during The Gloucester History Festival Spring Weekend 2021 with an interview with Vanley Burke and local creative Rider Shafique, one of the artists involved in the project. Culminating in both physical and online exhibitions as well as a Spoken Word event, the project participants collaborated in the creation of a series of artworks exploring Gloucester’s communities.
The project was co-curated by Jacqui Grange and Raston Williams and involved four Gloucester artists - Rider Shafique, Thembe Mvula, Chantelle Bry Thomas and Phil Campbell who were mentored by Vanley Burke. The artists led school workshops at Sir Thomas Rich’s School and Denmark Road High School and community workshops at The Venture: White City before creating their own work. In addition, each artist chose a piece from Vanley Burke’s iconic portfolio relating to their practice, which then featured in the final exhibition and event at the Museum of Gloucester during the 2021 Gloucester History Festival, and in a limited-edition publication for the participants and permanent preservation in the Archives.
Quotes from project participants and audience members:
“We have been to the museum to see dinosaurs, science and important things, and now my [Black] children can see themselves in these spaces.”
“In the barbers … he turned to me and said they don’t put images of us, people like us, in museums. And it was then I thought I want to literally put US in mUSeum, you know.”
“Working with Vanley Burke, somebody who is a bit older than my parents, and seeing his journey and seeing his documentation of Black life in the UK, and having him as a mentor… I’m living the dreams of my parents…”
“Conversations with Vanley have been thought provoking and helpful for generating ideas on how to approach and showcase work in ways that I wouldn’t have before considered. Vanley’s vast experience on exhibiting his work has been a valuable source of knowledge.”
History, Her Story, Their Story, Our Story was kindly supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Vanley Burke
Role in project: Artist & mentor
Vanley Burke (born 1951) is a British Jamaican photographer and artist, who has been described as "the Godfather of Black British Photography", with his body of work "regarded as the greatest photographic record of African Caribbean people in post-war Britain” (Vanley Burke, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 9 November 2018.) His first notable exhibition, Handsworth from the Inside, was held at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, and then the Commonwealth Institute in London in 1983. Since then his work has been exhibited extensively at venues including The Light House, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, The Black Arts Gallery in London, Cornerhouse in Manchester and Walsall Museum and Art Gallery, and he has held solo exhibitions abroad in New York City and Mali. He has also purposefully exhibited his work in locations more easily accessible to black audiences such as community centres, clubs, pubs, churches, pool halls and schools. As an avid collector, Vanley continues to connect histories through his substantial archive housed at the Library of Birmingham.
Vanley launched the History, Her Story, Their Story, Our Story project with his interview with Rider Shafique at the Gloucester History festival Spring event.
As the lead artist taking part in the History, Her Story, Their Story, Our Story project, he will mentor the four local artists as well as contributing to the final exhibitions and events. Each of the other artists will select one of his works that relates to their practice to contribute to their exhibition or event at the culmination of the project.
Local Artist Profiles
Artist: Rider Shafique
Website: https://www.facebook.com/ShujaaRiderShafique/
Rider Shafique is a lyricist, poet, MC and recording artist from Gloucester. He is a prolific and versatile MC at both live events and recording, with countless features across dub, dancehall, hip hop, dubstep and drum & bass. He is also a photographer, and has produced the I:Dentity series for City Voices, creating images of BAME communities across Gloucestershire as well as a pair of films detailing the “Firsts” of Gloucester’s Black community. Rider Shafique lends his lyrics and flow to the music of the most well-known producers and record labels in the electronic music scene, including KojeyRadical, D Double E, Kahn, Swindle, Submotion Orchestra, Author, J.Sparrow, Sam Binga, Gantz, O$VMV$M, Ishan Sound, Deep Medi, Critical Music & NavyCut. His work has been described as ‘a clear response to the divisive, race-baiting politics of our times... Shafique presents an ice-cool yet impassioned dissection (of) his thoughts in a rooted, low-key style that resonates with the delivery and impetus of classic dub poetry from Linton Kwesi Johnson and Mutubaruka. Highly recommended!”
Rider has delivered the introductory film interview with Vanley Burke, and will lead the participatory project at Sir Thomas Rich’s School. He will share his response to the project, either in spoken word or photography or a combination of both.
Artist: Thembe Mvula
Website: https://www.thembemvula.com/
Thembe Mvula is a South African writer and poet. She is an alumna of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective, Barbican Young Poets, and the inaugural Obsidian Foundation retreat. Her poetry often celebrates, unpacks or laments all that is tied to home, relationships and self. Thembe has headlined nationally and internationally, including at the Tate Modern, Oslo Afro Arts festival and has featured at Latitude festival. Her TEDx talk on The Power of Poetry and Vulnerability has been translated into Mandarin and Cantonese. Thembe’s debut poetry pamphlet, We that Wither Beneath, was self-published in March 2019 and listed in top 52 books of the year by the Poetry School. She has recently had work published in The Black Anthology and Magma magazine and is currently undertaking a masters in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford.
Thembe will deliver the participatory projects at Denmark Road High School, and will share her response to this and to Vanley’s photographs in spoken word.
Artist: Phil Campbell
Website: https://www.instagram.com/dr_keys_65/
Phil Campbell will co-lead the community participatory project at The Venture: White City with JPDL.