By Melissa Chemam 13th October 2022 A new installation of 140 blocks of wood summons up a forgotten history, writes Melissa Chemam. Laid out on the stone courtyard of London’s Somerset House, like the fossilised remains of a whale, there is the outline of a slave ship. Made up of 140 blocks of charred wood, it is O Barco / The Boat by Grada Kilomba, a…

Melissa Chemam In the after­math of the start of a hor­ri­ble war, and as this sit­u­a­tion has deeply dis­rupt­ed people’s life, work, thoughts and well­be­ing, this col­umn, orig­i­nal­ly planned to be ded­i­cat­ed to Beirut, shift­ed to Ode­sa. The city in South­ern Ukraine is part of the greater Mid­dle East, as one of…

We’re not going to pretend otherwise, these past 14 days have been difficult… Forced to read, mostly powerless, how the dangerous events have unfolded between Russia, Ukraine, the UK, the US and the EU, I felt a major empathy for the new refugees. I’ve been worrying 24/7 and a few…

Back in England, I’ve been reporting on too many issues to have time to post here… But here is one: On a day of seven protests, people of Bristol met in the city centre next to Watershed / The Fountain to show their support to refugees, in the context of…

05 Fest In Lewisham With Lewisham being the Mayor’s London’s borough of culture this year, the award-winning playwright and performer Inua Ellams has teamed up with creative’s and producers to offer a line-up of poetry and spoken word, in collaboration with We Are Lewisham. 05Fest is to be held from 10th to 19th March…

Melissa Chemam The oth­er day I was invit­ed by the Bris­tol Pales­tin­ian Film Fes­ti­val to see a short series of films, includ­ing Liwan, a doc­u­men­tary direct­ed by Doris Hakim, and co-pro­duced with Adam New­by, tak­ing place in Nazareth — the largest and most pop­u­lat­ed Pales­tin­ian city in Israel. It is, for a…

Five writers on looking at art, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Ways of Seeing — the 1972 TV series presented by John Berger, which was turned into a best-selling book. First broadcast in 1972 on BBC Two, Ways of Seeing was a collaboration between the writer John Berger and…

Melissa Chemam As I dis­cussed in my past two columns, tra­di­tion­al Arab music has nev­er stopped influ­enc­ing mod­ern and pop music, deeply impact­ing new musi­cal move­ments in the dias­po­ra, includ­ing dis­co, elec­tron­ic music, rock and oth­er gen­res. …

Personal stories inspired by Massive Attack’s breakthrough single, including a photographer whose work formed the backdrop to the song at the band’s 2016 show in Bristol. Personal stories inspired by Massive Attack’s breakthrough single. …