We're celebrating our six anniversary with The Real McCoy!

We’re celebrating our sixth year at our home, 1 Windrush Square by hosting an exclusive online event celebrating the return of the legendary comedy series, The Real McCoy.  Broadcast live from Brixton, The Real McCoy: Revisited will include conversations with the cast and crew from this ground-breaking show.

Audiences will watch an exclusive interview with The Real McCoy producer and director Terry Jervis, a media entrepreneur and the man ‘Behind the Scenes’. An award-winning producer and director, Terry Jervis has gone on to receive critical acclaim internationally, working across the entertainment industry including being headhunted by Clarence Avant (The Netflix ‘Black Godfather’) as the first person outside of America, to set up a division at the legendary Motown label with the likes of Diana Ross, Gladys Knight and Boyz II Men. He has also worked with Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Tim Burton (Batman), Spike Lee, Will Smith, Queen, Madonna, Elton John, Natalie Cole, Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross, The Rolling Stones, The Williams Sisters. Also launching channels with TRACE TV (with features on Beyonce, Rihanna, Def Jam) and SKY Sports (Specials on Venus & Serena Williams, Rio Ferdinand, Lewis Hamilton). In the business and civic arena he has worked companies and institutions such as the office of the Prime Minister at Number 10, Buckingham Palace, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin and the Royal Air Force.

Hosted by television talent maverick Michelle Matherson and award-winning Cultural Producer Tobi Kyeremateng, the evening will give an unprecedented look into the making of The Real McCoy, with those involved sharing their real-life accounts of bringing this historic show to the small screen.

Following years of requests and campaigning by the Black communities, the Real McCoy will make its way back to our screens again through BBC iPlayer. From Wednesday 29 July 2020, a whole new generation of viewers will be able to discover and fall in love with this seminal show.

“It makes absolute sense for this event to happen at BCA which is the home of Black British history," says BCA Managing Director, Arike Oke, “As we approach our 40th birthday next year, this event is a reminder of the vision left behind by one of our co-founders, Len Garrison. He wanted us to be a place of learning and celebration of our contributions to this country.

“The Real McCoy is such an iconic show and so beloved by the community. It was one of the few times that Black people would be able to see themselves in lead roles on-screen during the 90s. As a keeper of African and Caribbean histories in this country, hosting this event at BCA is one of the many ways we're capturing our stories and making it available to the world. There are very few productions like The Real McCoy in British television history. We at BCA are proud to be a part of celebrating its return”.

Alongside the online event, special edition bundles will be available to buy with proceeds donated to the BCA. Viewers will be able to own signed goodies, copies of Terry Jervis' book ‘Spirit of the Pharaoh’ and special edition BCA collectables.

Tickets start from £10 and are available here

Re-opening our building - An update

We are getting ready to re-open our building, 1 Windrush Square, so that we can get back to sharing, promoting, teaching and learning about Black British history in our building, and hosting our Windrush Compensation Scheme surgeries.

We are mindful that the Covid19 pandemic is ongoing and that our communities are one of the most at-risk. We are therefore making changes to our building that will make it ‘COVID secure’ and safe for everyone to work in and to visit.

With help from our supporters, we have expanded our work online. Over the summer you’ll see events, discussions, and creative presentations through our website, YouTube and other social channels that explore the diasporic experience of being Black.

Please keep an eye on our website and social networks for more information about our opening date in the coming weeks and in the meantime continue to be safe.

If you would like to support our programme and our re-opening, we welcome donations to our independent charity through our JustGiving page or by texting BACKBCA to 70970 to donate £5

Idris Elba donates 100% of his royalties from his new single to BCA

BCA Patron Idris Elba unveiled his anthemic new single, ‘One Fine Day’, today and is donating 100%. of the royalties to Black Cultural Archives.

Released via Idris’ London based label 7Wallace, the single features New York electro-pop producers The Knocks, and Tanzanian-born, South-London bred producer and rapper Tiggs Da Author. It’s described as ‘a high-octane injection of optimism’.

Of the donation, BCA Managing Director, Arike Oke, said “We are delighted that our patron Idris Elba has a new track out and even more pleased that he's using the track to support Black Cultural Archives. 

“We'll be putting Idris' contribution towards our education programmes and will also be using it to help us continue to collect and preserve the histories of people of African and of Caribbean descent.

“We have a new call out to document the current Black Lives Matter activism. Idris' support will mean that we can collect and share this history in the making.”

Idris Elba founded his 7Wallace imprint in 2015 with the aim of breaking boundaries in dance and hip-hop. Artists who’ve released on the label under various collaborative projects include Toddla T, Kah-Lo, Q-Tip, Little Simz, James BKS and Cypress Hill.

‘One Fine Day’ is available on all popular streaming platforms

Celebrating Olive Morris

Today, we are celebrating the 68th birthday of Olive Morris, the pioneering community activist who fought for racial, gender and social equality. 

Olive was a community activist in South London and Manchester in the 1970s. Through her activities organising the black community and feminist activism, she left behind an extraordinary legacy. Tragically, she died of cancer aged just 27.

There has never been a more timely moment to commemorate Olive’s life. We hope that by recognising and celebrating her today, we can inspire others to keep pushing for change.

Visit our special digital exhibition of artwork by Linett Kamala, inspired by the activism of Olive Morris and in partnership with Google Arts and Culture.

STATEMENT: BCA invited to join Windrush Cross Government Working Group

Black Cultural Archives has been invited by the Home Secretary to join the new Windrush Cross Government Working Group.

We have accepted the invitation as part of our commitment to using our active voice for positive change in the spaces we occupy for our community. We will be represented by BCA’s Managing Director, Arike Oke. We receive no payment for participating in the group.

The Working Group brings together stakeholders and community leaders with senior representatives from across the government. We have been called upon to:

• Be a part of supporting and advising the government on the Windrush Scheme and associated work

• Provide feedback and insights from our communities

• Use our expertise and experience to assist in developing and delivering practical solutions

• Engage in an open and honest dialogue on the issues impacting on our communities

• Work in partnership to co-design and deliver an action plan setting out agreed programmes and projects, with clear outcomes.

We welcome the intention of the working group to hold government to account in implementing the recommendations of the reports and inquiries it has commissioned. This includes the Windrush Lessons Learned report, which makes recommendations for the reform of the Home Office processes and culture.

BCA’s involvement in the group is founded on the principle of positive action for change at policy level. We are optimistic that the working group will have the power to influence and that government will listen.

We are hopeful that the formation of this group is a positive step forward to a more just and equal society.

 Dawn Hill, CBE, Chair of the Board of Trustees.

---ENDS---

Happy Birthday Len!

Today we remember the life of the pioneer Len Kwesi Garrison, (13th June 1943 – 18th February 2003) our co-founder of the Black Cultural Archives.

He was known for being an Educationalist, Historian, Poet and Photographer, whose work involved the catalogue of the development of the Black British identity and its history to promote the works of young Black writers and education for children.

His legacy continues to live on through the Black Cultural Archives.

NOT MY CHILDREN

I am a Black man

I demand the rights of all mankind that you strive to deny me

I want only to let my children live a life I was not afforded

Yet I knew was mine.

My toil and blood built this civilisation

I suffered in those fields of human misery

I demand for my children the peace of mind to exist without misery.

I am human and won’t stand any more humiliation for me nor my children

I am in no mood to wait any longer for my patience is at an end.

By Len Kwesi Garrison , Beyond Babylon Collections of Poems , (1972 -1982)

Document! Black Lives Matter

We are creating a new archive collection to capture the historic activism of 2020.

2020 is the year when everything changes. The murder of George Floyd in America was the final injustice against people of African descent that the public could take. Centuries after the invention of racism it has become entrenched into every layer of Western society. The Black Lives Matter movement rallied protests around the world, including in the UK.

What will the future generations remember of this time? We are building a new archive of this moment.

Covid19 restrictions mean that it will be difficult to collect physical material. We’re asking you to donate your digital photographs, videos, artworks, petitions, articles, poems, and more to create the Black Lives Matter archive at BCA.

Please do not send material that identifies individual protesters or organisers.

Dame Jocelyn Barrow (1929 - 2020)

Image description: Drawing of Dame Jocelyn by Grenadian artist Gordon de la Mothe, 29th March 1995. Over the course of his career in the UK, Gordon de la Mothe drew portraits of many Black personalities. His archive is housed at BCA, and a number of his works are exhibited on the Google Arts and Culture platform.

It is poignant that we remember Dame Jocelyn Barrow today. The world has spent the last week actively campaigning against the injustices that happen against Black people all over the world in the wake of the murder of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis. As family, friends and associates gather online for Dame Jocelyn’s Memorial Service, we remember a woman who was and is regarded as an elder stateswoman of the Black community, Dame Jocelyn Barrow dedicated her life to fighting for racial equality in the UK. We are proud to have had her as our Patron and will continue in the values we all share, to champion our history and achievements.

Dame Jocelyn was a founding member and later general secretary of the Campaign against Racial Discrimination, known as CARD. A meeting with Martin Luther King during his visit to London in 1964 helped formulate CARD’s main campaign objective – the outlawing of the colour bar.

The Race Relations Act of 1965 was a significant step forward but it had no real teeth as the two biggest areas of discrimination – employment and housing – were outside of its remit. CARD lobbied for more robust legislation and this led to the Race Relations Act of 1968 entering the statute book.

During its passage through parliament, Dame Jocelyn recalls being asked to join a discussion group about the Act on a BBC magazine programme, Enoch Powell, one of the panellists, refused to be interviewed in the same studio as her. The MP had just made his infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech and his attitude ‘clearly showed him to be a racist coward and he knew that he would lose any argument on why he was wrong regarding the Bill and his speech’, she said.

Dame Jocelyn went on to be appointed to a number of key roles, becoming the first Black person to serve as a governor of the BBC. She was also founder and deputy chair of the Broadcasting Standards Council, a governor of the Common­wealth Institute and of the British Film Institute. She was the first patron of Black Cultural Archives and contributed to the establishment in 2007 of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool.

For her outstanding service to education and community relations, she was awarded an OBE in 1972. In 1992, she received the DBE, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Biographical text derived from 70 Windrush Pioneers & Champions courtesy of the Windrush Foundation www.windrushfoundation.com

A Statement from BCA: Black Lives Matter. It's Time For Change

We, Black Cultural Archives, are deeply saddened and enraged by the death of Belly Mujinga after being spat on at work in London, the murder of George Floyd last week in Minneapolis, USA, and the deaths and mistreatment of many more Black people at the hands of racists.

We stand in solidarity and sympathy with our brothers and sisters across the world who have lost their lives to police brutality and systemic racism. We also want to take this moment to remember those who we have lost here in the UK.

Since 1990, BAME people die disproportionately as a result of use of force or restraint by the police, raising serious questions of institutional racism as a contributory fact. They too have names and include:

Sarah Reed.
Mark Duggan.   
Sheku Bayoh.    
Christopher Alder.          
Smiley Culture.
Jimmy Mubenga.
Michael Power.
Cherry Groce.
Kingsley Burrell.
Joy Gardner.
Sean Rigg.

We name only a few.  

Their deaths are unacceptable.

Black Cultural Archives has its roots in the rejection of injustices against Black people in the UK. We exist to use our histories, our stories of courage and resistance, to give strength and inspiration to our people and to make a better future society.

For almost forty years, we have been committed to our educational mission. The narrative of Black people experiencing injustice and abuse is far too common.

We demand change because Black Lives Matter.

We demand the right to more than just living and breathing. We demand that Black lives thrive and flourish. Black people have the right to be heard – whether they are protesting in our streets or sitting directly across the table from policymakers.

We want our government, policymakers, the justice system, and individuals across the nation to take action to end systemic racism for all areas of society. We call on the British government to make a stand for equality. We call for the British people to stand in solidarity. 

We want to remind our community and the wider world that Black people have also been a part of a change for the better. We’ve been part of this country’s greatest moments. We have resisted, reinvented, and innovated not only within our culture but to the benefit of those we live and work with regardless of their background.

We can vouch for this because our collections hold the evidence of Black excellence alongside stories of our struggle. Today, we have an opportunity to be a force of change once more.

We can do so whilst holding onto the memory of heroes like Olive Morris and Amy Ashwood Garvey who fought for change. We remember Olaudah Equiano, the British Black Panthers, the Mangrove Nine, Darcus Howe and Len Garrison.

The list of names of Black people who have stood up to fight inequality and racism is immense, and it keeps growing. The movement is ongoing. It is time for the rest of society to mobilize in support. 

As an organization, we take pride in actively holding space for the Black community and preserving our story with the aim to be that foundation that future movements are built on.

As we move towards the future, we demand

No more systemic or institutional racism.

No more murders.

No more injustice. 

BCA's Public Meeting: the 2030 Strategy

BCA recently held a public meeting to present our 10 year strategy and to begin the conversation about how we work collaboratively to get to 2030.

We’re giving a huge thank you to all who attended. The discussion was impassioned and informative.

Our online meeting was attended by over 200 people (500 people had registered). The evening was hosted by Sabrina Clarke-Okwubanego (Niche on Demand) in conversation with BCA Managing Director, Arike Oke.

In the coming days we will post a round up of the questions that were asked, including those that we didn’t have time to answer in the meeting.

Today we are sharing the 2030 strategy document with you and encouraging you to join, collaborate with, and promote BCA.

By 2030 we’ll:

• Be resilient, flexible and entrepreneurial

• Use our active voice to make a difference

• Make teaching and learning about Black history available to everyone

• Share our collections in person, touring, and online

• And extend our workforce development programme internationally

Arike said “This is an event I have wanted to have since I started at BCA over a year ago. Conversations with community are important, as holding a space for our community is BCA’s core purpose.

“As we anticipate celebrating our 40th anniversary next year,  we want to build on the legacy of our founder Len Garrison, all those who came before us and those who work alongside us now, to make sure BCA continues to fulfil our potential as the Home of Black British History.

“I’m so excited about what we can achieve together when we reach 50 years of BCA.”

View or download the 2030 Strategy using the button below.

BCA Public Meeting: Securing the Future of Black British History

Black Cultural Archives invites you to our digital public meeting on Wednesday 20 May 2020 at 7pm. We would like to share where we’re going in the next ten years.

Our Managing Director, Arike Oke, will be sharing a preview of BCA’s new 10-year strategy via a meeting on Zoom. The conversation facilitated by Sabrina Clarke-Okwubanego, co-founder of Niche On Demand will be followed by a Q&A session

As the Home of Black British History, BCA uses Britain’s shared histories to inspire and give strength to individuals, communities and society. 

We collect, preserve and celebrate the histories of people of African and Caribbean descent

By 2030 we’re aiming to:

• Be resilient, flexible and entrepreneurial

• Use our active voice to make a difference

• Make teaching and learning about Black history available to everyone

• Share our collections in person touring and online

• And extend our workforce development programme internationally

Help us think about how to get there.

We know the decisions we make today secures our shared legacy, so your contribution is vital. We hope that you can join us on the day

To register your attendance, please register on our Eventbrite page.

NB: This meeting will be recorded so that It is available to watch for people who are unable to attend. If you would like not to be featured in the video, please switch off your video during the meeting.

People of BCA: Meet Volunteer Manager, Karis Morris-Brown

We continue our look behind the scenes at BCA by speaking with our Volunteering Manager, Karis Morris-Brown and find out more about her favourite books, what BCA means to her and the fact about BCA she wishes you knew.

What’s your role at the BCA?
I’m the Volunteer Manager

What does a typical workday look like for you?
Reviewing volunteer applications, interviewing prospective volunteers.

Why did you join the BCA?
I have always had an interest in Black history and more generally the welfare and development of Black communities. I didn’t know how I would be able to put my interest and work experience together and then one day I saw the role of Volunteer Manager shared on BCA’s twitter page.

What is your favourite part of your job?Meeting new people, hearing their stories. It’s lovely seeing the passion people have for BCA being used to support its mission.

What does the BCA mean to you? What place does it have in the future of the Black British community?
It’s a place that values knowledge and it doesn’t hold that information for just the elite. We encourage the community to think about the importance of their personal archive, aim to inspire school children through our workshops and present Black history, culture and contributions in fresh ways through our exhibitions.

What should people know about BCA that they don't already?
Strangely many people know we have a café but they don’t know we have a reference library that is open to everyone! Wednesday to Friday 10am to 4pm!

A little birdy told me that you’re an avid book lover, what’s the best book you’ve read this year and why? What book would you recommend to someone who wants to start reading more?
How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs

If your best friend had to describe you in three words, what would they say?
She’s amazing 😃

What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Open doors, if you are in a room close the door behind you!

What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever received?
Long cut draw sweat, short cut draw blood – Jamaican proverb

Tribute to Dame Jocelyn Barrow OBE DBE

It is with deep sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Dame Jocelyn Barrow on Thursday 9 April 2020. Our deepest condolence go to her family at this difficult time.

Dame Jocelyn was our first Patron and the first of many things in her illustrious life as an Educator, Campaigner, Leader and Friend of BCA. 

She was the first black Governor of the BBC, also the founder and Deputy Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Council and it was around that time she had a key influence in the founding of Black Cultural Archives. Also known as the African People’s Historical Monument Foundation, Dame Jocelyn recognised the need for a national monument like BCA to educate future generations.

She was a driver for positive change throughout her life and made a huge impact on countless generations within her community.

As a teacher, she quickly mobilised the community around her to find positive ways to combat racism faced by pupils in the education system. She set up the "Each One Teach One" campaign to address the need for more tutoring and support for local parents. 

Dame Jocelyn was tireless in championing the cause for a better Britain,  maintaining that it was the key reason to wanting to travel to the United Kingdom as a Windrush pioneer, to join in the collective rebuild of the "mother country". 

Dawn Hill CBE,  Chair of Black Cultural Archives, said "Dame Jocelyn was a great pioneering spirit and was a true champion of racial equality and our history and culture. We will miss her very much..."

Update from Black Cultural Archives

A personal note from Arike Oke, our Managing Director:

I want to thank everyone for your support of BCA, and of each other in the current uncertainty caused by the Coronavirus. At BCA we have been carefully monitoring the situation and government guidelines around the Coronavirus or COVID-19.

With our visitors and staff safety in mind, we have decided to temporarily close Black Cultural Archives' 1 Windrush Square building from 18:00 on Wednesday 18th March 2020. We will regularly review advice and guidance from the government and health bodies to determine our re-opening date.

Though the building will be closed, our staff will be working from home and can be contacted via email, social media and by telephone on 0203 757 8500. We have a lot of exciting projects planned for 2020, so over the closure period we plan to reveal details via our newsletter, social networks and website.

You can still experience BCA 24 hours a day by using our online archives on Google’s Arts and Culture’s website.

In this period our Windrush Compensation advice surgeries are suspended. Please send us an email at info@bcaheritage.org.uk or leave a voicemail on 0203 757 8500 with your contact details if you would like to be added to the list for when they re-open.

BCA is a charity. We depend on donations to create and maintain our work. If you can, please consider making a donation to ensure that we can keep up our work during the closure of our building. Please share our JustGiving page and consider supporting us with a donation however big or small. 

Black History Month is every day of the year for BCA, so expect us to be sharing content to keep you entertained and educated during this closure period.

In the meantime, we encourage everyone to continue to be safe and look forward to welcoming you back through our doors soon. Thank you for your support of BCA, and of my first year in the role of Managing Director. 

From me and all of our family at BCA, we wish you good health.

IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM BLACK CULTURAL ARCHIVES

We have been carefully monitoring the situation and government guidelines around the Coronavirus or COVID-19.

Over this period, we put precautionary measures in place to ensure the safety of our staff and visitors. This includes extra cleaning of the building using anti-bacterial products and providing additional hygiene products such as hand-sanitizing gel to help create a safe environment.

It has become evident that in order to continue protecting our visitors and staff, we will need to gradually introduce social distancing measures to Black Cultural Archives.

Our staff will be working from home and can be contacted via email, social media and/or by telephone on 0203 757 8500.

Our exhibition Stories of Black Leadership II: Breaking Barriers will still be available to view in our gallery. Please be advised that the rest of the building will be closed to the public.

You can still experience BCA by exploring our online archives on Google’s Arts and Culture’s website.

We will continue to monitor government guidelines to inform our future decisions and will be keeping you updated on the status via our newsletter, social networks and website. 

In the meantime, we encourage everyone to continue to be safe.

New round of Windrush Surgeries announced by BCA

Black Cultural Archives (BCA) has announced a new round of surgeries for those affected by the Windrush Scandal.

These are the second set of surgeries hosted by BCA. Their purpose is to give first step advice to those from the community who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and, in at least 83 cases, wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office.

The appointments will be led by immigration specialist legal firm, McKenzie, Beute, and Pope who have dealt with a number of these cases since the scandal erupted in 2018.

You can book your free surgery slot on the BCA events page, by calling the BCA Reception on 0203 757 8500 or simply dropping in.

The surgeries start on Wednesday 11 March and will run every Wednesday between 17:00 – 20:00 and Saturday morning, 10:30 – 12:30 until Saturday 25 April 2020.

This work is funded by Lambeth Council.

PEOPLE OF BCA: Meet BCA Learning Manager Ayshah Johnston

As part of our International Women's Day celebrations we've been speaking to some of the women who work behind the scenes at BCA. In this article we speak to Ayshah Johnston, BCA's Learning and Programming Manager.

What’s your role at the BCA?

I manage the learning programme. This includes structured workshops and talks, as well as more general public engagement, to all age groups, from infants to elders.

What does a typical workday look like for you?

I prepare for the school workshops, university seminars and other learning sessions that have been booked in. I also run them myself. Sometimes I brief volunteers who want to assist on the programme. I meet with individuals and organisations who want to partner with BCA on various projects. I conduct archival research to discover new material that will enable us to offer a broad range of learning opportunities catering to all interests.

How did you become a learning manager? I heard you’re completing a PhD, what is it about?

My career background is in publishing and adult education, and from there I went into museum education where I freelanced until this opportunity came up. My PhD is about the development of social assistance in the Caribbean, from emancipation to the labour unrest of 1938.

What are people most excited or surprised to learn about in workshops?

People are excited to uncover evidence of the long history of African peoples in Britain, and children most enjoy interacting with objects relating to life in the past.

Why did you join the BCA?

I believe in the ethos of the organisation. The work reflects my own personal interests, identity and experience. To be able to combine one’s career and personal interests is a rare opportunity.

What is your favourite part of your job?

Talking! I like sharing information about the history of BCA and the collections which I find inspiring. I like it when visitors are enthusiastic and find some personal connection to an item or topic that we have discussed, or that they have learnt about or seen at BCA.

What should people know about BCA that they don't already?

That we’re here to stay! That we aim to document and celebrate the histories of ALL African and African descended people in the UK. Not all people know about our archive and library, which they can make an appointment to visit. The archive and the valuable historical information it contains is at the heart of our organisation, but we also host exhibitions and get involved in numerous community events.

What’s your favourite piece in BCA’s collection?

Everything! You’ll have to come back to me on that one.

QUICK FIRE ROUND 

What’s your favourite book, film and song?

Songs: I’m going through a bit of an 80s revival, so the song of the moment is ‘More than This’ by Roxy Music.

Films: Spaghetti Westerns like ‘For a Few Dollars More’, and the modern send up of the genre ‘The Quick and the Dead’.

Books: Absolutely any historical novel, regardless of time, location or quality. I enjoyed the series of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s books. 

What’s an annoying habit that you have?

I don’t know because it probably doesn’t annoy me. Best to ask one of my colleagues.

Which three people, dead or alive, would you invite over for dinner? What would you cook for them?

I would pick from among the ancients and prophets because to learn directly from them would be more worthwhile than anything else I could imagine. I’d cook vegetarian food and present it in a way that promotes sharing and informality.

You can find out more about our Learning offer in the Learning section of our website

JOY GREGORY SHARES INSPIRATION BEHIND LATEST BCA EXHIBITION, BREAKING BARRIERS

As we prepare for the launch of our new exhibition, Stories of Black Leadership II: Breaking Barriers, Curatorial Advisor Shasti Lowton sits down with Joy Gregory, the artist behind this latest collection to discuss her inspiration and visions for this beautiful series.

Shasti Lowton: Hi Joy, thanks for sitting down with me to talk about the Stories of Black Leadership project that you're working on for the Black Cultural Archives and JP Morgan. So firstly, what were the inspirations for this series of work?

Joy Gregory: I started off by thinking about how black people have been presented in the past. I've been looking at historical representation for a long time. I was interested in the idea of portraiture being something to show power, possession and status.

I spent quite a long time looking at portraits in the National Portrait Gallery from the 17th, 18th and 19th century, mainly of men, some of women. I found myself drawn to the figure of Elizabeth I and how she has been presented pictorially in paintings. I decided that I wanted to look at this way of representing these women because most of the people in these paintings were men.

Some of them were landowners, from the colonial periods -the 17th century through to the 19th century. I just thought I want to reclaim those poses and that confidence in a photograph. I spent a long time looking at the viewpoint of the audience and trying to replicate that in my photographs.

SL: That's very interesting. The work is a series of portraits but do you see each portrait as an individual piece or all together as one complete piece?

JG: I would think they could be either but would consider a series as being a complete piece anyway. I see it as it is a commission that's about bringing some very disparate things together. I think to try and do that pictorially, for example the locations in which we photographed people were all incredibly different.

All the women are immensely diverse. But it was what that thinking of how can I present it so it holds together as a single work. I thought to do the portraits, so one shot is close up and then other either full length or sitting as a way of carrying the theme through.

Now I've got most of the photographs back I’m actually looking at how we can work with that, with the colour. Again, going back along to the portrait of Elizabeth II and that very particular way of the colour actually being the thing that really zings out.

SL: Was there a specific portrait that you saw that spoke to you within the National Gallery’s collection?

JG: There were a number of them, but there were two specifically in terms of representation of women which became my touchstones. The sitters were both presented from a position of power, and they were contemporary women of the 21stC.

The first was a photographic portrait of the Malala Yousafzai taken by Shirin Neshat. I've known Shirin's work previously but never thought about her as a portrait photographer. I know of her earlier work where she wrote in text over portraits of herself. The way she presented Malala in this piece was striking -it is a close up portrait, so it's all about her face which is framed in her veil. She looks very powerful, very strong and she's looking directly at the camera. She’s also slightly elevated which gives her a position of power, she has full possession of herself and her position. I wanted to try and replicate that within my photographs.

The other image kept going back to was a painting of Elizabeth II by Pietro Annigoni. I think it's one of the most beautiful paintings of her I've ever seen. The main colours within it are blue and red but she looks very other worldly. Her body is actually positioned towards the viewer however she's looking slightly to one side. Again, she's in total possession of her power without abusing it, she is not pretending to be something other than herself, she's very comfortable in that space. I think it elevates her, it's very otherworldly and it made me make the decision to actually photograph in colour rather in black and white.

Stories of Black Leadership II: Breaking Barriers opens at BCA on Friday 28 February 2020

Learn more about Joy’s process producing Stories of Black Leadership II: Breaking Barriers in the official guide available at BCA and see more of her work at www.joygregory.co.uk and on Instagram @joygregory1

BCA STATEMENT ON GOVERNMENT DEPORTATION FLIGHTBCA STATEMENT ON GOVERNMENT DEPORTATION FLIGHT

Black Cultural Archives supports those who are due to be deported to Jamaica next week on a charter flight.

The flight should be cancelled.

The Lessons Learned Review from the Windrush Scandal of 2018 has not yet been published and evidence is emerging that the people on the flight are not in fact the criminals that they have been portrayed as.

The government's own Home Office has released data that its compensation scheme is not working for victims. The Home Affairs Select Committee has reported errors in judgement and practice.

This is not the time to deport vulnerable people.

The flight should be cancelled and a full review of the hostile environment should be undertaken.

Photo credit: The Guardian

BARONESS LAWRENCE, MAGGIE ADERIN POCOCK AND DR SHIRLEY THOMPSON AMONGST WOMEN FEATURED IN LATEST BLACK CULTURAL ARCHIVES EXHIBITION, BREAKING BARRIERS

Black Cultural Archives is proud to reveal the latest instalment of its Stories of Black Leadership series celebrating the achievements of Black British women in the UK.

Created by the artist, Joy Gregory, and sponsored by JP Morgan, Breaking Barriers follows on from last year's successful exhibition, Radiating Greatness. The second chapter of a three-year project, it aims to make visible the journeys of four pioneering Black British women who have overcome adversity to take their rightful seat at the table.

Dame Linda Dobbs DBE, Baroness Doreen Lawrence OBE, Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE, Margaret Casely-Hayford CBE and Shirley Thompson OBE have shared their personal experiences not only to demonstrate the excellence present in Britain’s Black community but to show others what can be achieved.

These inspirational and impactful women are at once daring, resilient, determined, brilliant and extremely talented women. They are role models for our times, for all ages, all races, all gender identities, and for future generations to come.

Drawing inspiration from the 16th and 17th century portraits of aristocrats that hang in our national collections, the body language of the subjects allude to the inner strength that each woman has summoned throughout various points along their life’s path. Gregory’s decision to photograph the women in colour was inspired by the rich hues of the oil paints that were historically used to paint people in positions of power.

Breaking Barriers opens at the Black Cultural Archives on Saturday 29 February 2020 until mid June.