News & Events

BBC reports: 'A new exhibition featuring work by black photographers and drawn from the Victoria and Albert's collection has opened at two venues - both at the V&A itself and at the Black Cultural Archive in Brixton. The pictures document the experience of black people in Britain from the end of World War Two through to the 1990s. Jamaican-born photographer Neil Kenlock contributed to the show, entitled Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s - 1990s, and spoke to the BBC about the images of hope, conflict, struggle - and the anticipation of a better life in the UK.' Video...


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The title Staying Power, attached to these two photography exhibitions on opposite sides of London, suggests endurance during the four decades of history covered by the shows. Among these plentiful narratives, street photography is hugely popular and Charlie Phillips, icon of Fifties and Sixties Notting Hill, combed the streets and includes pictures of mixed-race relationships. In contrast, Neil Kenlock shows indoors scenes of Seventies family life with great pride shown towards the decor. Read full Evening Standard review. View Kenlock’s photographs Exhibition: Staying Power: Photographs...


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Neil Kenlock gives us an intimate glimpse into the homes and psyches of 1970s British-Caribbean families, as they pose with their possessions for portraits often sent home to relatives – jubilant proof of a successful emigration. And further into the exhibition, ‘Okhai Ojeikere’s crisp, detailed images showcase the sculptural magnificence of the hairstyles and headties worn by Nigerian women. All of the images are beautiful; all arresting. But there is something more. Read full Telegraph article here. View Kenlock’s photographs Exhibition: Staying Power: Photographs of Black British...


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Kenlock arrived in Britain from the West Indies in 1963, working as a studio portraitist before becoming a staff photographer for West Indian World, one of the first black British newspapers. He chronicled the British Black Panthers in the early 1970s as well as everyday racism – his portrait of a young black woman standing by a door scrawled with the words “Keep Britain White” carries a charge to this day in its merging of the dignified and the obscene. (It is on show at the BCA exhibition in Brixton). More intimate, though, are his portraits of British West Indians at home, posing proudly...


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The Victoria and Albert Museum have released a preview of a new exhibition to explore and display the experiences of black people in Britain in the latter half of the 20th century. The exhibition – named Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience, 1950s-1990s – will commence on 16th February and last until 24th May 2015 presenting a display of over 50 recently acquired photographs. Read full Wiki article here. View Kenlock’s photographs Exhibition: Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s Date: 16 February 2015 – 24 May 2015 Opening times: 10am...


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Neil Kenlock and key members of the black community in Britain attended the grand opening of The Black Cultural Archives last week, which is located in the heart of Brixton, south London. Kenlock's work is amongst of the collection that tells the story of the African and Caribbean contribution to the UK, documenting important moments in history. To learn more about the BCA and or to view Kenlock's work, please visit The Black Cultural Archives.  


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When speaking of the Black Panther Party, this generally evokes images and stories of the black revolutionary socialist party based in America consisting of likes of Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, Angela Davis, George Jackson, Afeni Shakur and Eldrige Cleaver. Unbeknowst to most, there was a division of the Panthers that was based in Brixton, south west London formed to fight for equality and stand up against the racism during the late 1960's and early 1970's. To celebrate these freedom fighters, seldom celebrated for their contributions to our liberty, an exhibition presenting the legacy of the British...


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Everyone knows about the Black Panthers ‑ the militant wing of the American civil-rights movement, whose political activism still provokes strong emotions to this day. They made headlines only last week, with the news that 71-year-old Herman Wallace, one of the "Angola Three", who had been in solitary confinement for 41 years after being convicted of killing a guard in a Louisiana prison, died just three days after being released. Read the full  interview here.


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While, in the mid-1960s, the Black Panthers – the famous, American, shotgun-toting ones – were scaring the crap out of white America, the British Black Panthers (BBP) were educating their communities and fighting discrimination. Outrightly racist laws that threatened to repatriate entire swathes of the black population were being pushed into place, and sections of the white middle classes were resentful towards the black community. But the BBP – based in Brixton, south London – helped to change all that, educating British black people about their history and giving them a voice to speak...


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The impact of the American Civil Rights Movement on people of color around the globe cannot be overstated. Millions continue to commemorate the peaceful protests of organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), that eventually led to a modicum of social and economic equality. Fifty years after the March on Washington, Black Londoners; however, set out to acknowledge the leadership of a small British contingent of revolutionaries, who fashioned after America’s Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, tackled...


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