CITY AIR MAKES ONE FREE
Tell us about your experience of the city and share your ideas for how you would make your city better.
In 1958 vicious race riots erupted across London with violent attacks on newly arrived migrants throughout the summer – the culmination of a decade of escalating racial tension.
In January of the following year, a community ‘Mardi Gras’ event took place in St Pancras Town Hall – the brainchild of Claudia Cumberbatch Jones. She saw the carnival as a unifying force of hope and reconciliation, its joyful spirit captured by the slogan that decorated the hall: ‘A people’s art is the genesis of their freedom’.
Claudia Jones was a feminist, a black nationalist, political activist, community leader, communist and journalist – and was later to become known as the Mother of Notting Hill. This passionate civil rights activist turned her community leadership skills towards improving race relations and working with London’s Afro-Caribbean community. She founded the West Indian Gazette in 1958, Britain’s first black weekly newspaper.
The 1959 carnival was the first step in Claudia Jones’ vision and the event grew over the next few years until in 1964, with the efforts of local social worker Rhuane Laslett, the first outdoor carnival laid its roots in Notting Hill. The history of the carnival is by no means an easy one, marred by violence and clashes with the police in the 1970s. Today however, Notting Hill Carnival is a symbol of London’s diversity and one of the most multicultural carnivals in the world, bringing together traditions from the Caribbean, South America, Asia and Europe.
Images:
‘Notting Hill Carnival 2011 [7]’ by Valters Krontals, flickr, Creative Commons license
‘Notting Hill Carnival 2011 [57]’ by Valters Krontals, flickr, Creative Commons license
‘Caribbean Carnival’, 1959 event brochure and ‘In memory of Claudia Jones poster’, 1965. Reproduced with permission from Marika Sherwood, author of ‘Claudia Jones: A biography’ (2000)
This post is an excerpt from The City Speaks exhibition.
Between 1994 and 2008, a trio of mural painters painted a total of 12 murals stretching the entire length of Rossville Street in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland. With art supplies donated by local residents, the 12 murals – which they named The People’s Gallery – depicted the events surrounding sectarian violence and civil rights protests in Northern Ireland during the time known as ‘The Troubles’.
The Bogside area of Derry was a focal point for key events during The Troubles, including the Battle of the Bogside and Bloody Sunday in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, when Kevin Hasson and brothers Tom and William Kelly began The People’s Gallery, there was still no end to the conflict in sight. It wasn’t until 1998 when a peace agreement was finally reached that the process of reconciliation could truly begin.
The murals depict the violent reality of The Troubles, yet also capture the spirit of hope for peace and reconciliation. For the trio, the murals were created to give a voice to the community.
Kevin, Tom and William continue to spread their message and have travelled to cities across the world to paint their murals of peace and reconciliation. They also continue to run art workshops with local Catholic and Protestant children in Derry, promoting cross community understanding.
Images:
Bogside Artists, ‘Peace’, 2004. This mural was completed on July 30, 2004 and was unveiled by the then Mayor of Derry. It is situated on Rossville Street in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland.
Bogside Artists, ‘Rioter’, 2001. This mural was started in August 2001 and is situated on Rossville Street in the Bogside area of Derry. The scene depicted is typical of many riots that happened in Bogside from 1969 and throughout the early 1970s.
This post is an excerpt from ‘The City Speaks’ exhibition.
We built the city and the city built us
In July 2012 ‘The City Speaks’ will open in the city of Maribor in Slovenia, the first of many cities across at least nine countries to host the exhibition. Maribor is the European Capital of Culture 2012, and the exhibition takes place alongside a vast celebration of culture and creativity.
‘The City Speaks’ – the second partnership between Maslaha and the British Council’s Our Shared Europe project – explores how individuals and communities have been inspired by cities and how they, in turn, changed the spaces in which they have lived through different forms of creative expression.
Over the past year Maslaha has worked with a wide range of collaborators to bring the grit and romance of the city to life – from street artists Candy Chang and JR to renowned academics Richard Sennett, Doreen Massey and Ricky Burdett; to local theatre practitioners, graffiti artists, art historians, archivists, comic illustrators, architects and many more.
Renowned exhibition designers Lucienne Roberts and John McGill have developed a dynamic 3D design to the exhibition which allows it to be built anywhere, and its towers capture the looming intensity of the city. The accompanying soundtrack, produced by composer Dave Randall (who has worked with Faithless, Dido and Slovo), is a beautiful ode to the sounds of the city, articulating the soul of the urban organism as it sprawls across a timeless palimpsest.
The City inspires, it remembers, it provokes and it empowers. Here are many reasons how and why, a tribute to the achievements of the humanity that survives and thrives both because of and despite the conflict and challenge of urban life.
Over the next few months, this blog will be tracking ‘The City Speaks’ as it travels across Europe, passing through many cities, and gathering more examples and inspiration from each city it touches.
You can also submit your ideas, and tell us how your city speaks to you.
Image by Ricardo Cabral, City Stories 2010
