An exploration of race and politics via the dancefloor. Today my guest is the photographer and filmmaker Jermaine Francis. Jermaine and I discuss his recent film Lost in Music: A Post Industrial Dreamscape - an exploration of race and politics within a dancefloor context. This work was recently presented alongside a discussion with the writer Nathalie Olah and photographer Edward "Eddie" Otchere at Camden Arts Centre. His practice works within documentary & portraiture, in the format of pers...
May 22, 2023•41 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Snapshots: Caribbean Cinema Up Close at The Barbican. Today my guest is Patrice Robinson who talks about Snapshots: Caribbean Cinema Up Close, at The Barbican , her debut curatorial season. With interest in communities, community access to film and the intimacies of the human experience, Patrice is a film programmer and writer working in the intersection of audiences and cinema. We discuss Patrice's late entry into film following a change in career, and how the Independent Cinema Office’s FEDS S...
May 09, 2023•14 min•Season 7Ep. 2
PerAnkh – The June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive, now showing at Raven Row London. Today my guest is the film curator and archivist, June Givanni. June's new exhibition, PerAnkh: The June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive, is showing at Raven Row in London until 4 June 2023. The June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive (JGPACA) holds a unique collection of artefacts and archival material, which has at its core the interest of PanAfrican cinema and its relationship with Black British cinema and...
May 02, 2023•38 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Featuring Lou Mensah & Sunil Shah. Enjoy this bonus episode of my conversation with the curators of Tracing Absence, a Whitechapel Gallery exhibition opening at the Kistefos Museum in Norway on April 29th, 2023. The MA student curators of Tracing Absence re-imagine the show to respond to the local context. Episode 18 of Whitechapel Gallery’s Hear, Now podcast series was published in October 2022. It delves deeper into the themes that underpin the exhibition Tracing Absence. Students graduati...
Apr 28, 2023•44 min
Writer, researcher and independent curator: Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics and Contemporary Art. Dr Jareh Das is an independent curator, researcher and writer who lives and works between West Africa and the UK. Das’ academic and curatorial practice is informed by an interest in global modern and contemporary art with a specific focus on performance. In 2022, Das curated Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics and Contemporary Art an exhibition that spanned seventy years of ceramics and ...
Apr 03, 2023•36 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Curator and art historian specialising in modern and contemporary art and curator of Black Venus at Somerset House. *Please note that the sound quality in this episode is compromised due to an unstable internet connection between London and Lagos, where this conversation was recorded. However, Aindrea's insights are not to be missed! Aindrea Emelife is a Nigerian-British curator and art historian specialising in modern and contemporary art, with a focus on questions around colonial and decolonia...
Mar 31, 2023•24 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Bolanle Tajudeen founded Black Blossoms in 2015 to showcase the work of contemporary artists of colour. In 2020, Bolanle launched the Black Blossoms School of Art and Culture, an initiative highlighting the art histories and creative practices of artists from historically marginalised backgrounds. As an alternative art school, Black Blossoms offers short educational courses including Art and Revolutionary China, Black British Art, The Black Image in London Galleries, and Curating Black Art. Lou ...
Mar 21, 2023•16 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Associate Director Gagosian Gallery. Péjú Oshin is the Associate Director of Gagosian Gallery and curator of Rites of Passage the exhibition featuring work by nineteen contemporary artists who share a history of migration. Rites of Passage explores the idea of “liminal space,” a coinage of anthropologist Arnold van Gennep (1873–1957). It is structured in correspondence with liminality’s three stages: separation, transition, and return. Each of these phases addresses the act of movement, not only...
Mar 15, 2023•19 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Portals features the voice of Cassi Namoda who shares her reflections based on her practice and work titled ' Worship at Bar Mundo' (2022). View ' Worship at Bar Mundo' here whilst listening to Axel's sonic response throughout this episode. Cassi Namoda is a painter whose work interweaves the personal with the historical. Born in Maputo and having lived in several different countries throughout her life, Namoda’s nomadic lifestyle and multicultural identity has long informed her work. The dualit...
Nov 01, 2022•12 min
Mandala features the sounds of the artist Nnena Kalu creating an untitled work and the voice of ActionSpace Associate Artist, Charlotte Hollinshead. Nnena Kalu has created a vast body of sculptural and 2D artworks and developed a live, performative element to her practice. She is driven by an instinctive urge to build repeated marks and forms, creating intensely layered, visually impactful artworks with dense colours and compacted, flowing lines. Nnena has developed her artistic practice at the ...
Oct 25, 2022•7 min
Where the sun sleeps features the voice of photographer Ming Smith who shares her reflections based on her practice and work Circle of Life (Hakone, Japan 1985 ) . Ming Smith was the first female member to join Kamoinge, a collective of black photographers in New York in the 1960s, working to document black life. Smith would go on to be the first black woman photographer to be included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art. Smith has often described her work as ‘celebrating the struggle...
Oct 18, 2022•12 min
Dream Recurred features the voice of Amy Sherald who shares her reflections based on her practice and new work For love, and for country (2022) . 'For love, and for country' features in 'The World We Make' , Sherald's first solo show in Europe. In this new body of work, Sherald humanises the Black experience by depicting her subjects in both historically recognisable and everyday settings, at once immortalising them and reinserting them into the art historical canon. View ' For love, and for cou...
Oct 11, 2022•10 min
Forgetting Eden features the voice of Rahima Gambo who shares her reflections based on her practice and project Education is Forbidden and Tatsuniya. Rahima’s deeply layered mixed media engagement is about the aftermath of conflict, the nature of memory and the echoes and consequences of colonial education in north eastern Nigeria. Discover more of Rahima's work on her Instagram and her website . Interludes is a collaboration between Shade Podcast and Axel Kacoutié featuring six contemporary art...
Oct 04, 2022•10 min
Larry Achiampong is a British Ghanian, Jarman Award nominated artist. In 2020 he was awarded the Stanley Picker fellowship and in 2019 he received the Paul Hamlyn Artist award in recognition for his practice. Larry’s most recent solo exhibition Wayfinder showed this summer at the Turner Contemporary Gallery. He serves on the Board of Trustees at Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) and The Elephant Trust. Join Larry & I in exploring the impact of race on arts education and access t...
Sep 30, 2022•38 min
Drexciya features the voice of Phoebe Boswell who shares her reflections based on her practice and project The Black Horizon Do We Muse on the Sky or Remember the Sea? Discover more of Phoebe’s work on her Instagram and her website This episode also features a performance by Jazz Tenor Saxophonist JD Allen who collaborated with Phoebe Boswell on The Black Horizon project. His work is also available on all music platforms. Interludes is a collaboration between Shade Podcast and Axel Kacoutié feat...
Sep 27, 2022•13 min
Interludes is a collaboration between Shade Podcast and Axel Kacoutié featuring six contemporary artists: Amy Sherald, Ming Smith, Phoebe Boswell, Rahima Gambo, Nnena Kalu and Cassi Namoda. Framed by the question "What does healing sound like?", these podcasts offer a visceral connection with the artists' work. In each episode we weave the artists' reflections through Axel's original soundscapes, as a collaborative exploration of their creative experience. Interludes opens an alternative space. ...
Sep 22, 2022•2 min
In this episode I am in conversation with Ekow Eshun . Ekow is a writer and the curator of In the Black Fantastic , currently on show at the Hayward Gallery, London. In the Black Fantastic is a new exhibition of 11 contemporary artists from the African diaspora, who draw on science fiction and myth to question our knowledge of the world. Although the exhibition encompasses themes within Afrofuturism, Ekow and I discuss why and how he is drawing from ideas distinct from this movement. We explore ...
Jul 08, 2022•23 min
AWARD WINNER 'BEST ARTS & CULTURE' PODCAST - BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS 2021 In this episode I’m in conversation with Co-Editors in chief of Citizen , Henrietta Gallina & Danielle Powell-Cobb. In 2017, the idea for Citizen magazine was born out of the desire to see something that did not quite exist, an independent magazine documenting Black life and culture through the words of Black thinkers and the lenses of Black creatives, a beautifully designed record of Black life. Henrietta & Dan...
Apr 08, 2022•19 min
AWARD WINNER 'BEST ARTS & CULTURE' PODCAST - BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS 2021 Shade Podcast is back with ‘Shade Shorts’ the new series of conversations with the founders of some our most radical, Black led art & culture journals. These episodes will keep us connected and inspired between the main seasons of the podcast. We will explore the power that we all have when we focus on considered communication and building community. In this episode I’m in conversation with author of Afropean and Gu...
Mar 29, 2022•26 min
AWARD WINNER 'BEST ARTS & CULTURE' PODCAST - BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS 2021 Shade Podcast is back with ‘Shade Shorts’ the new series of conversations with the founders of some our most radical, Black led art & culture journals. These episodes will keep us connected and inspired between the main seasons of the podcast. We will explore the power that we all have when we focus on considered communication and building community. In this episode I’m in conversation with Jay Simple, founder of Th...
Mar 12, 2022•16 min
SHADE 'BEST ARTS & CULTURE' PODCAST - BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS 2021 Special edition from Shade at South London Gallery ‘Making Sense’ - a new digital resource that assembles people around ideas for structural change through creative practice. In this episode Lou Mensah speaks to Dr. Aminul Hoque about inclusive education and how our local community can support educators in achieving it. Dr. Aminul Hoque is a lecturer in the Educational Studies Department at Goldsmiths College London . Aminul's...
Aug 02, 2021•37 min
SILVER AWARD WINNER 'BEST ARTS & CULTURE' PODCAST - BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS 2021 Welcome to our third and final episode in this special series of conversations from Shade, supported by Hauser & Wirth, where we will be exploring ‘Unencumbered Voices in Curated Spaces: Inspired by the life & work of Sir Frank Bowling’ . Released throughout this summer, the series provides a collaborative platform for diverse perspectives investigating freedom of expression today and throughout art histo...
Jul 13, 2021•32 min•Ep. 3
SILVER AWARD WINNER 'BEST ARTS & CULTURE' PODCAST - BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS 2021 Unencumbered Voices in Curated Spaces: Inspired by the life & work of Sir Frank Bowling - a three-part summer podcast series, investigating freedom of expression today and throughout art history. This second episode in a special series of conversations from Shade, supported by Hauser & Wirth is with art historian Michael Ohajuru. Based in London, Michael Ohajuru is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Comm...
Jun 15, 2021•21 min•Ep. 2
SILVER AWARD WINNER 'BEST ARTS & CULTURE' PODCAST - BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS 2021 Unencumbered Voices in Curated Spaces: Inspired by the life & work of Sir Frank Bowling - a three-part summer podcast series, investigating freedom of expression today and throughout art history. This first episode in a special series of conversations from Shade, supported by Hauser & Wirth, is with Silas Munro —LA-based critic, writer and partner of graphic design studio Polymode. Silas Munro’s past coll...
May 18, 2021•31 min•Ep. 1
SILVER AWARD WINNER 'BEST ARTS & CULTURE' PODCAST - BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS 2021 Welcome to the final episode of the four-part series of conversations exploring anti-racism and the arts, co-curated by Shade and Convergence at the South London Gallery In this episode Lou Mensah is in conversation with Axel Kacoutié . Axel is is a multi-award-winning audio artist and poet. His work has featured on the BBC, Channel 4, NOWNESS and the Barbican. He is also the Sound Designer and theme composer for...
Apr 17, 2021•21 min
SILVER AWARD WINNER 'BEST ARTS & CULTURE' PODCAST - BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS 2021 Welcome to the third episode of the new four-part series of in-conversations exploring anti-racism and the arts, co-curated by Shade and Convergence at the South London Gallery Season Butler is a writer, performance artist and teacher. Season's debut novel ' Cynet' was published in 2019 by Dialogue Books in the UK and Harper Collins in the U.S. Season & Lou discuss Race, Character and The Racial Empathy Gap i...
Mar 20, 2021•18 min
Art futures & BLM in conversation with The White Pube The White Pube is the collaborative identity of art critics Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad. They return as guests to talk about the positive changes they saw and those they hope for in the Arts, as a result of the BLM uprisings. @tate_united @riotgames @mark.leckey @swarzymacaly @thewagaduchronicles @theresnosignal @creativedebuts @cubitt_gallery @languidhands I also share my thoughts on the season and our shared Shade communi...
Mar 01, 2021•30 min•Season 4Ep. 8
In this episode I take you through the origins and manifestations of the raised fist salute, which has more recently been associated with the BLM movement. We move on to my conversation with Nicola Green , the artist behind the work ‘In Seven Days’ - a series created from her unprecedented artistic access to Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign trial. Nicola Green is renowned for gaining access to iconic personalities from the worlds of politics, religion, and culture, including collaborati...
Feb 22, 2021•43 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Welcome to the second episode of the new four-part series of in-conversations exploring anti-racism and the arts, co-curated by Shade and Convergence. This episode is part of the South London Gallery's Convergence Community Film Festival on Saturday 20th February 2021. Our guest today is Courttia Newland. Courttia wrote the screenplays for Steve McQueen's BBC Small Axe 'Lover's Rock' & 'Red, White & Blue' films. Courttia grew up in west London and published his first novel, The Scholar: ...
Feb 20, 2021•27 min
With Guest Photographer Andre D Wagner Gordon Parks’ work was shared widely during the 2020 BLM protests, perhaps to share comfort, solace and act as a collective creative marker acknowledging that our civil justice work continues. My guest Andre shares the impact of Parks’ work on his own photography, his experiences of the protests, plus his working practice & life as a street photographer It's such a beautiful episode. Thank you Andre for the conversation Andre D. Wagner is a photographer...
Feb 15, 2021•27 min•Season 4Ep. 6
