Guyana SPEAKS: Oscar Abrams (1937-1996) and the Keskidee Centre

This event was curated and hosted by Juanita Cox & Rod Westmaas, Co-Founders of Guyana SPEAKS.
The SPEAKERS:
Amah-Rose Abrams - a journalist and Oscar Abrams' daughter.
Henry Muttoo - one of the Caribbean's foremost Theatre Arts practitioners and a household name in regional theatre, arts and cultural practices.
Linton Kwesi Johnson - the renowned award-winning dub poet, musician, political and community activist, and forefather of many forms of contemporary performance poetry.
Accabre Huntley - poet and daughter of the pioneering Black socio-political activists and co-founders of the radical book publishing company, Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications (BLP), Jessica Huntley and Eric Huntley.
Background of Oscar Abrams and the Keskidee Centre:
Guyanese Architect, Oscar Abrams established Keskidee, the first Black arts centre in Britain, which went on to have an international impact on promoting African Caribbean culture. Abrams came to London in 1958. "He became chairman of the Islington branch of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination which fought for better housing and access to education for newly arrived people from the Caribbean.
In 1971 Abrams set up a centre in Gifford Street - Keskidee Theatre Workshop. With its motto ‘A community discovering itself creates its own future’, the centre nurtured local talent and gave Black youth a space of their own. For years, it was the only dedicated space in London for Black actors, dramatists and technicians. Keskidee was a pioneering cultural centre, promoting emerging artists from Africa and the Caribbean. By the late 1970s, it was known across the world, leading to theatre tours of Europe. In the 1979 Keskidee Aroha tour of New Zealand the company met and performed for remote Maori communities.
In the 1970s poet Linton Kwesi Johnson worked as the education office at the Keskidee and it became a centre for live dub poetry and music alongside classes on tenants’ rights, yoga, cookery, photography, painting and pottery. LKJ's work at the centre was memorably chronicled in Franco Rosso’s documentary Dread, Beat and Blood. Dread, Beat an’ Blood (Franco Rosso, UK/1979/colour/45 mins/documentary). Bob Marley shot the music video for 'Is This Love?' at the Keskidee Centre. Other luminaries associated with the centre included Walter Rodney, Edward Brathwaite, and Angela Davis.
[Sources: www.layersoflondon.org/map/re... and new.diaspora-artists.net/displ...]
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[@1Satta7]

Very annoying amateurish presentation which does not reflect the true bearing of The Kesdidee Centre. The most informative guest was Henry Muttoo. I am very disappointed by the negative remarks made by LKJ in relation to the Youths of Keskidee, especially the names he mentioned as "ring leaders". However, Oscar was a man with a vision and a great role model. He sent me to Goldsmiths College to study Youth and Community Work whilst I was employed as a Youth Worker at the Keskidee Centre from late 70s to Mid 80s... If you want to know the history of Keskidee, ask me or any of the original members of the Keskidee Arts Center.

[@GuyanaSPEAKS]

I’d love to take you up on your offer. Can you share your contact details with me via [e-mail]?