Hello Friends,
A bumper list for you to apologise for no e-mail yesterday.
I watched this talk by Eva Pascoe on setting up Cyberia, London/the worlds first internet cafe. Some good anecdotes about teaching Kylie Minogue how to use e-mail & when David Bowie & Gary Barlow both tried to start their own internet providers lol. Just ignore the very last line she says.
I read this blogpost and watched this great little video on the Brixton Fairies & the South London Gay Community Centre / squatting around the Railton Mayall roads which is v recommended.
You might’ve noticed a local history kind of theme over the last couple of days / today / most likely continuing but I’ve been working on a walk for SLG which I’ll link to once it’s live, about (loosely) radical publishing. One of the rabbit holes it’s led me down is the Black Unity & Freedom Party which ran for a bit out of a rented house behind Queens Road. Anyw this chapter / talk by Harry Goulbourne is a good overview of the group, how their politics evolved & their relationship to other Black Power organisations at the time.
Also this episode of Lenny Henry’s radio 4 show on black british theatre & screen production has a great interview w/ Horace Ove about Pressure & what was going on at the time, like living below Michael X & the scene in the film where the police break up a meeting being the Actual Police breaking up what they thought was an Actual Meeting.
Thanks to John Eden for linking to this amazing 1988 community film made w/ people on the Clapton Road Estate.
Last & not least thanks to Katie for sending through Sonny’s Lettah by Linton Kwesi Johnson & Cornel West for laying it all out.
Stay safe, see you tomorrow.
P x