Post by "Just Ask Eric Musgrave"

The new Victoria and Albert Museum East in Stratford, east London will open on Saturday (18 April) with The Music Is Black: A British Story as a very impressive first exhibition. This expansive multimedia show brings together more than 200 fascinating artifacts to help map the history of how Black British music has developed. It took me the best part of two hours to get round it on at the press preview and I could have stayed longer. In the simplest terms, this story relates how Africans were forcibly moved as enslaved people across the Atlantic, where they developed their own cultural styles on islands and on the mainland, and then brought those styles back across the ocean to the UK, where it continues to grow. It is odd and thought-provoking to realise there is a thread to be followed from King Charles II granting a charter in 1663 for his brother, the future James II, to control all the trade (including trade in people) from West Africa to Stormzy performing his socially-aware rap at Glastonbury in 2019 wearing a stabvest decorated with a hand-painted Union flag. Some of the exhibits are uncomfortable reminders of overt or casual racism directed at Black people, while others are just joyful memories of a juke box of brilliant music from the past 100-plus years. The exhibition is silent unless visitors wear Sennheiser headphones that relay a seamless soundtrack as they move round the exhibits. This works well and I'd say it is essential. For anyone interested in our own social, economic, religious, political, artistic and musical history, The Music Is Black: A British Story presents a very compelling narrative of a very worthwhile strand of modern British life. It is well worth a visit (or multiple visits). Congratulations to all involved in bringing this together. A special season of programming linked to the show is available on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds and from the dedicated webpage, https://lnkd.in/ekUvKN33