Word, Renaissance One and BrightSparks present:
Caribbean Woman: A Tribute Through Poetry, Words and Song
Attenborough Arts Centre, Lancaster Road, Leicester, LE1 7HA
3.30pm-5pm
£5/£8
An afternoon of spoken word, art, conversation and music that marks and showcases the power and creativity of Caribbean women in the UK arts scene, inspired by the powerful poem ‘Caribbean Woman’ by the late Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze MBE.
Featuring poetry by Valda Jackson MBE RWA (award-winning poet, sculptor, fine artist & designer of the Royal Mint 50p coin commemorating 75 years of Windrush), music and song by award-winning calypsonian Tobago Crusoe (Calypso Monarch and featured in Paddington movies) and multidisciplinary word & sound artist, Mellow Baku (“A must for all’ Courtney Pine OBE).
With co-hosting performances by Melanie Abrahams FRSA Hon FRSL and Kamisha Hawkins. Co-curated by Lydia Towsey and Melanie Abrahams - the event features outstanding British Caribbean artists who elevate ideas and encourage us to unwind and to respond.
If you would like to share something as part of the open mic, please email
[email protected]. Work exploring black history and culture and/or by people of African Caribbean origin is particularly invited.
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ABOUT THE LINE-UP
MELANIE ABRAHAMS (Co-Host) has been
instigating and creating spoken word and literature for over 20 years,
as a curator, producer, mentor, and a speaker. She has brought artists
and speakers over to Leicester and the UK including Gary Younge, Jean
‘Binta’ Breeze, Bernardine Evaristo and John Agard. She consistently
pushes for greater diversity in the arts through events, limings and
spaces for wellbeing.
KAMISHA HAWKINS (Co-Host) is a
local poet who runs a yearly African Caribbean Poetry Honouring at
Spinney Hill Park, at the Oscar Frank Memorial bench. Kamisha wrote
her first poem at school at 8 years old, which she still has, but her
poetry journey really began in 2021, attending Poetry events such as
Word! and Pinggg...K!Kamisha has headlined at a number of venues and
events, including The Y Theatre and Get Mouthy. Her work ranges from
the self reflective to self empowerment, as well as poems about her late
father and the Ancestors.
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TOBAGO CRUSOE is a calypsonian, composer and performing artist. Known for unique and witty compositions, he has performed around the world including Madison Square Garden, Turin, Barcelona and Germany.He was the Calypsonian-in-Residence at Renaissance One's London Is The Place For Me Caribbean festival at the British Library and appeared in major films Paddington, Paddington 2 and the titular CD. His musical collaborations include sharing stages with legends Mighty Sparrow, Calypso Rose, Singing Sandra and more. In 2011 he was awarded a position in the Sunshine Awards Hall of Fame for his contribution to Calypso. Nowadays, he is the lead singer of Calypso outfit ‘Tobago and D’Lime’. He is performing courtesy of Renaissance One.
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MELLOW BAKU. Antidisciplinary artist and charismatic live performer, Mellow Baku has performed throughout the UK and internationally.Hailed ‘a must for all’ by Courtney Pine OBE, Mellow draws on her African-Caribbean heritage and folk, with word play, acoustic guitar and live vocal looping. Mellow’s poetry, plays and music have been commissioned for performance at venues such as Kings Place London, Vault Festival, Curve Leicester, Manchester theatres, Nottingham Libraries and internationally, including in New York, Switzerland, Copenhagen and North Sea Jazz Festival. Her 2022 theatre show for children, Mmm Ahh Whoosh toured nationally, including at London Southbank, Opera North and The Gulbenkian.
In 2023 she performed spoken word at Buddhafield Festival, Somerset. Her original music has received national airplay on BBC Radio.For over 15 years, Mellow has facilitated a wide range of creative writing and music workshops; in public groups and for Black History events, for NHS Partnerships funded Word! and Bright Sparks Arts in health; in schools and exclusion units, in nurseries and Methodist chapels, on Dementia A&E and mental health wards, yoga spaces and live streaming, at home wherever creativity is welcomed.
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VALDA JACKSON is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, and a writer. Valda explores the psychology of migration, identity, and loss. She makes work about our human existence and survival – themes which extend themselves into her public art commissions.
Designer of the Royal Mint coin commemorating the 75th anniversary of Windrush generations, released in 2023, Valda was also shortlisted for the prestigious National Windrush Monument commission in 2021. Her large-scale billboard, Still Holding On (3), commissioned by the RWA, Bristol, was exhibited in the Arts Council, Collection Exhibition: Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City 2023.
Valda’s untitled manuscript, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Bath Spa Prize 2021 by Janklow & Nesbit. She is a Hawthornden Literary Fellow – with short stories appearing in anthologies including The Book of Bristol, Comma Press (2023), online MMXX, Bath Spa University (2022), The Peepal Tree Book of Caribbean Short Stories (2018), Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories (Peepal Tree Press 2015).
Valda’s long- term collaborative public art practice, Jackson and Harris, is currently commissioned By Peabody at St Johns Hill in Clapham, London, for a series of public sculptures integrated into the architecture. Phase one, completed in 2017 won the Public Sculpture and Statues Association (PSSA) Marsh award for excellence in public sculpture.
