Motherland | Get Up, Stand Up Now

Legendary musician Dennis Bovell, writer Margaret Busby, and photographer Normski come together with Get Up, Stand Up Now exhibition curator Zak Ové and spoken word artist Joshua Idehen to explore the notion of ‘motherland.’ 

Stalag 17 - King Tubby and the Technique Allstars (Trojan Records)

After Tonight - Matumbi (Trojan Records)

The Shadow of Your Smile - Tommy McCook and the Super Sonics (Trojan Records)

Excerpt from Andrea Levy's Small Island 

Producer: Femi Oriogun-Williams

The series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House

An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer, composer and producer, Dennis Bovell has earned himself the reputation of Britain’s reggae maestro. He moved from Barbados to south London at the age of 12 and whilst still at school joined his first band, Road Works Ahead. He later formed the group Matumbi which went on to become Britain’s foremost reggae band, at a time when the genre was spreading from Jamaica to an international audience. 

Bovell also formed the Dub Band, beginning an enduring partnership with reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson which resulted in the production of numerous classic albums. The 1980s saw Bovell in great demand as a producer, working with bands as diverse as The Slits, Chalice, Orange Juice, The Thompson Twins and Bananarama. Bovell has also worked in television and film and continues to record, produce and play music live all over the world. 

Margaret Busby OBE, Hon. FRSL, was born in Ghana and educated in the UK. Graduating from London University, she became Britain’s youngest and first Black woman publisher when she co-founded Allison & Busby in 1967, where she was editorial director for 20 years. Subsequently pursuing a career as editor, broadcaster and critic, she has contributed to many publications, written drama for radio and the stage, served as a judge for prestigious literary competitions, and campaigned for diversity in publishing since the 1980s. She compiled the ground-breaking international anthology Daughters of Africa (1992), and 2019’s follow-up, New Daughters of Africa (Myriad). 

Norman ‘Normski’ Anderson was bought his first camera by his Jamaican mother at an auction when he was nine years old. His interest in photography was partly inspired by Horace Ové, as he was childhood friends with Ové’s son Zak. Normski was part of the emerging hip hop music scene during the 1980s and his involvement in music culture led him to photograph hip hop artists and fashions for publications like The Face, i-D and Vogue. Normski harnesses his personal sensibilities to capture exquisite detail and memories that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. He also created publicity photographs for the musicians themselves. He has also worked as a DJ and television presenter.

GET UP, STAND UP NOW
GENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS
12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019
A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond.

Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.