Children of the Ghetto: Black British Music

Kevin Le Gendre is a journalist and broadcaster with a special interest in black music, literature and culture. Since the late ‘90s he has written about soul, funk, jazz and hip-hop, as well as African and Caribbean authors for many publications, including Echoes, Jazzwise, The Guardian, The Independent, and Times Literary Supplement Online. He contributes to BBC Radio arts programmes and has presented several documentaries. His books include Hear My Train A Comin’: The Songs of Jimi Hendrix and two volumes of Black Music in Britain: Don’t Stop The Carnival and Children of The Ghetto.

Courtney Pine is a pioneering British jazz saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist who has transformed the UK jazz scene over the past 30 years. His 1986 debut album Journey to the Urge Within brought him mainstream attention, and he has since released 16 acclaimed albums and earned an OBE and CBE for services to music. A Mercury Prize nominee and Gold Badge award recipient, Pine continues to tour globally with his award-winning band. He has also presented major radio and TV programmes, including Jazz Crusade on BBC Radio 2, and was recently commissioned by Tate for a Matisse-inspired performance.

Dr Aleema Gray is an award-winning Jamaican-born curator, researcher and public historian based in London. She was awarded the Yesu Persaud Scholarship for her PhD entitled Bun Babylon; A Community-engaged History of Rastafari in Britain. Aleema’s practice is driven by a concern for more historically contingent ways of understanding the present, especially in relation to notions of belonging, memory, and contested heritage in the African and Caribbean diaspora. She was the Lead Curator for Beyond the Bassline: 500 years of Black British Music at the British Library and the founder of HOUSE OF DREAD, an anti-disciplinary heritage studio.

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