This October at Brighton Dome, we are marking Black History Month through an exploration of our musical history alongside enriching creative writing and inspiring spoken word. We are also proud to support Black History, Our History, a two-day event celebrating Black history, culture and community from BARCO - the Brighton & Hove Black Anti-Racism Community Organisation. Read on to find out more...
"We are so proud to partner with Brighton Dome and receive their support towards our Black History Month event this October. While from the outside this venue might look like an Ivory Tower, once you delve a little deeper, you begin to see how subversive it has been in terms of artists and programming throughout its history. One of our favourite facts is that Maya Angelou performed at Brighton Dome on her 70th birthday for the Brighton Festival in 1988. Our co-founder AFLO. the poet was very proud to perform on the same stage on the same date 27 years later, paying tribute to such an inspiring part of Brighton Dome's history."
In 1921, the US-based Southern Syncopated Orchestra became the first Black musicians to perform at Brighton Dome Concert Hall when they undertook a month-long residency at the venue. An early jazz group founded by African American composer, violinist and conductor Will Marion Cook, they introduced our audiences to the jazz era before its heyday and played a wide-ranging repertoire including spirituals, plantation songs, ragtime, blues, jazz and light classical pieces.
On Wed 14 Oct, join us in the Founders Room for a lunchtime talk to find out more about the Southern Syncopated Orchestra and the impact they had on both audiences and the development of popular music in Britain.
Brighton Dome continued to host performances from some of the most influential Black artists of the twentieth century. Singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson performed at the grand reopening of the venue in January 1936, following the transformation of the Concert Hall into the venue we know today and in the decades that followed, the stage hosted legendary figures from blues, jazz, gospel and soul, including Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe as part of the American Folk Blues and Gospel Caravan in 1964.
Ella Fitzgerald made several appearances, including a performance with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1967, while other celebrated visitors included Count Basie, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Mavis Staples and Miriam Makeba, who celebrated her 70th birthday with a performance at Brighton Dome in 2002.
Using Brighton Dome’s archive of programmes, photographs and film, Brighton-based writer-researcher and musician Dulani Kulasinghe will lead a two-hour creative writing workshop on Tue 13 Oct which delves into Brighton’s history as a home for global majority creativity. Held in Brighton Dome Founders Room, each attendee will have the opportunity to create their own work in response to the materials explored.
On Mon 5 Oct Brighton legend AFLO. the poet hosts a special Black History Month edition of her spoken word night with Dublin-born Nigerian poet and two-time National Slam Champion Maureen Onwunali headlining, alongside BARCO Bash Slam winner Mark ‘Mr. T’ Thompson.
Maureen’s work often blends sharp sociopolitical commentary with everyday acts of compassion. It has featured in music and on radio, with performances at the Hay Festival and Roundhouse in London.
With more than 30 years spanning performance, education and spoken word, Mark brings a wealth of experience to the stage. A performer at venues from the Hackney Empire to the Paralympics, and featured on BBC Radio 4 and international stages in Johannesburg, his poetry explores culture and identity.
Drawing on lived experience, AFLO. uses poetry to spark social change and open up conversations around racism and mental health and more. STATUS FLO is a regular fixture of Brighton Dome’s events programme and brings together award-winning poets and the city’s freshest voices for uplifting evenings that challenge the status quo with rhythm and flow.
