Sounds & Stories from the Windrush exhibition opening

Join us on Windrush Day to open the Sounds & Stories from the Windrush exhibition!

Thelma Matilda Alves Foundation (TMAF) in collaboration with Poet in the City (PinC) is hosting an exhibition to commemorate 75 years since the arrival of the HMS Empire Windrush. The exhibition is a space to showcase the stories of the Windrush generation in London.

The exhibition will feature artwork from Black London-based artists such as Sade Popoola, Rudy Loewe, Tamia Stone, Jacob Joyce, and Yvadney Davis. As well as, personal pictures, and stories of experiences of migration and life in the UK from the late1950s to the early 1970s. On the opening night, there will be live poetry reading from Jeremiah Brown and Karen McCarthy-Woolf curated by Poet in the City, along with a DJ and bar.

Come and celebrate Windrush with us!

About the Thelma Matilda Alves Foundation

Started in April 2020, Thelma Matilda Alves Foundation is dedicated to supporting women of African and Caribbean descent in their mental health and well-being journeys. The Thelma Matilda Alves Foundation is dedicated to the founder's grandmother, who emigrated to the UK from Jamaica to provide a better life for seven children. Many of the stories about her grandmother confirmed she lived a life of undiagnosed mental health problems exacerbated by emigrating to the UK during the Windrush era. The story and experiences of her grandmother have shaped her doctoral research, which aims to investigate how immigration to the UK in the Windrush era has created a generational effect of racial melancholia, mourning, and mimicry and the effects that it has on the psyche of the mothers and daughters of Windrush.

She began her journey by researching the mental health of three generations of Black Caribbean females in the UK. She realised how underrepresented Black females are in the mental health sector, both as professionals and patients. Many of the gendered and racialized issues that affect Black women's mental health in the UK have been pushed into the shadows because of stereotypes, stigmatisation, and misogynoir. Inspired, she created this foundation to combat all the prejudices and discrimination that Black women face trying to practise and access mental health services in the UK.

https://www.thelmamatildaalvesfoundation.com/

About Poet in the City

For over 20 years, Poet in the City (PinC), charity number 117354, has been at the forefront of contemporary live poetry, reflecting the diversity of the UK today. Through poetry events, newly commissioned poetry, and young poetry producer development opportunities, our mission is to platform unheard narratives and voices and to foster solidarity with and between communities.

We affirm poetry’s position, from Beowulf to John Cooper Clarke, from Little Simz to Lex Amor, as a uniquely versatile and classless verbal artform, requiring only the voice to create extraordinary experiences. Through our inclusive and community-driven approach, we support and foster the UK's live poetry scene, investing in outstanding emerging poetic and poetry-producing talent whose voices should be heard.

We listen to the stories and histories that matter most to communities and work with them to transform these stories into theatrical, adventurous poetry productions, while building and nurturing networks and creative teams, paving the way for further cultural activity.

We deliver our mission through three key areas:

1. Events that inspire, entertain, and change our understanding of the world

2. Commissions - working together with communities to animate places and histories

3. Training programmes to support the next generation of poetry producers.

In 2022 we produced 11 projects, 27 live events, and 31 pieces of digital content with 84 artists, reaching live audiences of 51,968. Our work included new poems, productions, films, exhibitions and zines. We trained and paid 14 young people to produce sold-out events and generated two new jobs.

https://www.poetinthecity.co.uk/

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Peckham Levels, 95A Rye Lane, London, United Kingdom