Words of Colour Productions

25/03/2025

In Search of Common Ground

Marking the Stuart Hall Foundation's 10th Anniversary with a year of critical conversations

The Stuart Hall Foundation has announced its 2025 programme, In Search of Common Ground - a year of critical conversations that invite us to consider Stuart Hall's thinking on difference, and how we can forge a collective politics to confront our present conjuncture.

Marking the Stuart Hall Foundation's 10th anniversary, the programme brings together leading thinkers, including Prof. Françoise Vergès, Houria Bouteldja, Gary Younge, Keeanga-YamahttaTaylor and more, in a dynamic series of public events, workshops, community film screenings, and conversations dedicated to deepening our understanding of solidarities, how they form across differences, the creative possibilities they hold, and the work needed to build a collective identity that challenges oppressive forces.

In Search of Common Ground opens with the 8th Annual Public Conversation on Saturday 17 May Conway Hall, London, where writer and activist Prof. Françoise Vergès will deliver the keynote There Will Be No Future Without Seizing the Present.

From June to September, the programme continues with Reading the Crisis - an online conversation series with Gary Younge, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Lola Olufemi, and more, considering Hall's dialogues with Edward Said, CLR James and bell hooks - and special screenings of Frantz Fanon: Yesterday, Today, directed by Hassan Mezine.

Explore the full programme and register for events at https://bit.ly/InSearchofCommonGroundSHF

08/03/2025

On International Women's Day we'd like to remind you of Women Speak Volumes Between Generations' In Conversation series, a partnership between .volumes, Words of Colour and histed by .

On Wednesday 19 March 2025, from 7.00-8.30pm, will be in conversation with award-winning photographer Dr Ingrid Pollard.

Over 50 years, this groundbreaking multimedia artist has carved out a space in the white, male-dominated world of art, making the invisible visible and revealing ‘what we always knew was there’.

Born in Georgetown, Guyana, Ingrid came to London at a young age. As a teenager she used her father’s camera to take pictures of the river Lea for a school geography project, foregrounding some of her interests seen in later compositions.

Trained in printmaking, film and photography, Ingrid’s work centres on community arts, using portraiture and photography and challenging traditional notions of landscape imagery to explore social constructs such as Britishness or racial difference.

She was one of 20 founding members of Autograph ABP (the Association of Black Photographers) in 1988. Some of her well-known works include Pastoral Interlude (1987–1988), Seaside Series (1989) and Self Evident (1995), which explore the presence of black people in the English landscape. Ingrid’s work has been widely exhibited, from Tate Britain to the National Art Gallery of Barbados.

Among her many awards, Ingrid received the Royal Photographic Society Centenary Medal 2024 and the 2024 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography, considered the most prestigious in the world, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the art of photography.

Book your £5 ticket - link in bio.

28/02/2025

Come and hear about the life and work of Dominique Le Gendre, a pioneering composer and classical gutarist who has changed the face of classical music through her Caribbean heritage.

Born in Trinidad and Tobago and living in London since the late 1980s, Dominique is a groundbreaking composer who went from playing in church and composing calypsos as a teen to training as a classical guitarist in Paris. 

She has worked with theatre companies and film collectives and, with her arts charity StrongBack Productions, combines literature and music in innovative projects. Her music commissions includes writing pieces for the BBC Radio 3 Proms to Canterbury Cathedral, from the Ensemble Du Monde (USA) to the Coro De Madrigalistas (Mexico). 

Dominique has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including directors .andoh and at . In 2022, she co-wrote the music and lyrics for 's reboot of Mustapha Matura’s play The Pl***oy of the West Indies, hailed by the Guardian as a ‘bright calypso musical’ with ‘sweet duets’.

This incredible artist will be in conversation with our very own .

Part of Women Speak Volumes Between Generations, led by .volumes in partnership with Words of Colour and . Funded by .

Book here: https://bit.ly/DomLeGendreWSV

23/01/2025

URGENT. Dearest followers. Please check that you aren't 'unwittingly' following J D Vance, US vice president, without your permission after automatically being made to follow him and / or Trump. Unfollow and block, unless you do want to follow them.

20/12/2024

19/12/2024

And that's a wrap! 📸 from our Conversations with Baldwin Wrap Party at The Ministry 🎊

Last Friday we celebrated a fantastic year of Conversations with Baldwin: Celebrating 100 Years of James Baldwin, surrounded by friends old and new.

Actor and director Anton Phillips spoke with Dr Deirdre Osborne (co-convenor of the MA in Black British Literature) about staging Baldwin's play The Amen Corner, its place in the history of black theatre in Britain, and gifted us with some beautiful memories of Baldwin in his final years.

Festival curator Heather Marks gave a speech that looked back on the festival's impact over the last two years, and toward the heart of Baldwin's radical optimism.

And Words of Colour's own Joy Francis hit the decks as DJ Hybrid J, spinning magic on the dancefloor with a set inspired by the records Baldwin had in his house and those he might be dancing to today.

You can view the full gallery on the festival's website in January, but for now - warm wishes and have a restful festive break! 🎄🎄🎄

📸 Paul Ochen-Lamolony

10/12/2024

These photos of the legendary were taken on my phone in March 2024 . She was funny. Present. A presence. Sharp. Generous. An activist and literary titan through and through. Full of rich stories and histories peppered with other legends, including James Baldwin. 🙏🏾🕊️

04/12/2024

🎉 You're invited to the Conversations with Baldwin Wrap Party | Fri 13 Dec 7pm .london

Conversations with Baldwin is coming to an end! To say thank you to all of you who came to the festival this year, we want to invite you to our wrap party! 🎊

There'll be music, tapas, drinks aaand Anton Phillips - one of the few directors to bring Baldwin's plays to the British stage - will be chatting to Dr Deirdre Osborne (co-convenor of the MA in Black British Literature) about James Baldwin and Black British Theatre.

👉 Comment below with the event you attended and we'll DM you with an RSVP for you and a friend 💌

✨ Conversations with Baldwin Wrap Party
📆 Friday 13 December, 7pm - 10pm
📍 The Ministry, London

21/11/2024

Words of Colour's and .volumes' Sharmilla Beezmohun will be hosting a virtual Information Session on the new hybrid 'Women Speak Volumes Between Generations' programme for budding young Black women archivists, curators and entrepreneurs on Wednesday 27th November from 12pm to 12.30pm on Zoom.

You can book your place via the link in our bio.

The programme will centre and amplify the voices of older Black women artists and creative entrepreneurs whose contributions need to be preserved, highlighted and celebrated. the older Black women in their lives and their communities.

Women Speak Volumes Between Generations is supported by Coastal Carolina University and 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning Ltd.

The project is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

09/10/2024

🎤 Bristol artists of the Global Majority, this one's for you! 🎤

Take to the stage on Wednesday, October 16th at Easton Community Centre for a night of spoken word and live storytelling.

Conversations with Baldwin: Open Mic is part of our collab with Raise the Bar and after their stellar 10th anniversary celebration, we're opening up the stage for you to take the mic and share your writing, your sound, your vibe!

Compered by RTB's Saili Katebe, your headline act is writer and historian Edson Burton, supported by rapper and beatmaker iAM13E. There are only 6 spots left so whether you’re a poet, musician, or writer, sign up via the link below! 🎶✨

📍 Easton Community Centre 🗓️ Wednesday, October 16th 🎤 Doors open at 7PM

🔗https://hdfst.uk/e110623

Let’s light up the mic—Bristol style. You in? 👊🏾

01/10/2024

Thank you Glasgow! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🙌🏽 What a treat to watch James Baldwin and his literature on screen with you last week at for Conversations with Baldwin: James Baldwin on Film 🎬

💐 Thank you to GFT and season programmer

💐 Thank you to Tomiwa Folorunso , Dr Churnjeet Mahn , and for bringing their brilliant thoughts to the panel following our screening of 's Baldwin's N*****, Terence Dixon's Meeting the Man, and 's From Another Place!

It was a packed crowd and discussion, and we left the cinema not only thinking about Baldwin's politics of hope but those large, expressive eyes of his so beautifully captured on film.

👉🏽 If you're in , join us on Wed 16 Oct for our Conversations with Baldwin Open Mic featuring Edson Burton and - sign ups via the link in our bio!

27/09/2024

Last night's screening for Conversations with Baldwin at was a dream.

So good to see 's If Beale Street Could Talk up on the big screen again, but also Love too - the number of times the words 'I love you' are said in this film, the frequency of touch, the camera's gaze that takes its time and frames its subject with such light and presence 💞

There's still time to grab a ticket for Saturday's screening where you can watch the man himself, James Baldwin, in three compelling short films that include rarely seen film from the Yale Archive.

📆 Saturday 28 September, 2.30pm

🍿 Baldwin's N***** by Horace Ovè
🍿 Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris by Terence Dixon
🍿 From Another Place by Sedat Pekay

🎟️ More info via the link in our bio

23/09/2024

"The place in which I'll fit will not exist until I make it."

Watch James Baldwin in Sedat Pekay's luminous short film From Another Place (1970) - with rarely seen outtakes from the Yale Archive.

Presented with GFT as part of Conversations with Baldwin, this is a rare chance to see three short films featuring Baldwin after he'd spent a decade as the voice of the civil rights movement: Baldwin's N*****, Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris, and From Another Place.

🗓️Sat 28 Sep, 2.30pm
🎟️http://bit.ly/CWBBaldwinonFilm

19/09/2024

Three under-seen short films present an intimate portrait of James Baldwin in London, Paris, and Istanbul at the turn of the 1970s next Saturday, 2.30pm at Glasgow Film Theatre

🎬 Baldwin's N*****, Horace Ové
Listen to Baldwin at his sharp-witted best in a meeting of radical West Indian Students in London. Filmed by Horace Ové, who would go on to become the first Black director to make a feature film in the UK.

🎬 Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris, Terence Dixon
Tense, combative, discursive: a meeting with James Baldwin doesn’t quite go according to plan for a group of presumptuous white filmmakers in this rarely seen, Paris-set short film. An illuminating snapshot of Baldwin’s intellectual worldview that bristles with friction and ideas.

🎬 From Another Place, Sedat Pekay
Walk with James Baldwin through the streets of Istanbul as he expounds on his privacy, sexuality, and desire to be a witness in Sedat Pekay’s luminous short film, featuring rarely seen outtakes from the Yale Archive.

📍 SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER, 2.30PM | GLASGOW FILM THEATRE

🎟Tickets here: https://bit.ly/CWBBaldwinonFilm

18/09/2024

"... If You Trusted Love This Far, Don't Panic Now. Trust It All The Way."

Join us next Thursday at for a special screening of Barry Jenkins' sensuous adaptation of James Baldwin's fifth novel, If Beale Street Could Talk.

With the poetic style and cinematography that won him an Oscar for Moonlight, Jenkins' adaptation of Baldwin's novel about a young couple fighting false imprisonment is a dreamy, sensuous and stark experience.

🍿 If Beale Street Could Talk - Thursday 26 September, 8pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3-L3HFC0NY

🎟 Grab a ticket here: https://bit.ly/CWBBaldwinonFilm

In UK & Irish Cinemas from 8th February 2019Learn more: https://bit.ly/2DfJM2M Academy Award-winner Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) brings his highly anticipated n...

17/09/2024

🍿Conversations with Baldwin: James Baldwin on Film | Thur 26 - Sat 28 September at Glasgow Film Theatre

Watch rarely seen footage in this season of films that present an intimate portrait of 20th century icon James Baldwin in Europe, plus an adaptation of his exquisite prose.

In rarely seen footage from the Yale Archive, walk with James Baldwin through the streets of Istanbul as he expounds on his privacy, sexuality, and desire to be a witness, bristle at the tension in Paris as he resists a presumptuous interrogation, keep up with Baldwin at his sharp-witted best in a meeting of radical West Indian students in London, then sink into the sensuousness of Barry Jenkins' award-winning adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk.

🎬If Beale Street Could Talk - Thur 26 Sep, 8pm

🎬Baldwin's N*****, Meeting the Man, From Another Place - Sat 28 Sep, 2.30pm

👉🏾More info: https://bit.ly/CWBBaldwinonFilm

'Conversations with Baldwin: James Baldwin on Film' is presented in collab with Glasgow Film Theatre.

11/09/2024

We are pleased to announce that the wonderful, talented, dynamic and poetry legend that is .booker will be co-hosting the Poets of Colour Incubator showcase AI, HOME, SLEEP and ME this Thursday . She will also perform a poetry reading to round up the show.

Malika, the first woman to win the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem - twice, has been an adviser to the Incubator and the Incubator Collective poets and programme.

You can still get tickets - £5 (£3 concessions). Book here or via our bio: bit.ly/AIHomeSleep

See you there!

.makoha .ibrahiim .femi

06/09/2024

📣Calling all you poets, rappers, storytellers, lyricists, and songwriters - The Conversations with Baldwin Open Mic is back with a new date!

Open to Global Majority performers, the Conversations with Baldwin Open Mic is an opportunity to showcase your skills and share your verses with a live audience.

There are 8 places available so sign up quick - it's first come first served!

Tickets are Pay What You Can: £5 / 7 / 9 (£4 concessions)

🗓 Wednesday 16 October 2024
🕢 7.30pm - 9.30pm (doors open at 7)
📍 Easton Community Centre, Bristol

Presented in partnership with Raise the Bar, and supported by Bristol City Council and Arts Council England as part of Conversations with Baldwin - the festival celebrating James Baldwin's centenary.

🎟 https://bit.ly/CWBOpenMic