News & Articles

A selection of latest news and published articles

Mastodon posts by MarjorieMorgan
Newsletter – subscribe here

Support Marjorie H Morgan by a donation: Paypal
or buy a ko-fi


Reversed Cartography – A review of Liverpool Biennial 2023

“As a member of the African diaspora, the festival’s curation feels personal to me – as if it was designed for me. Yet I wonder how other members of the Global Majority will experience it, and I wonder how white people will experience it.”

Image: Binta Diaw ‘Chorus of Soil‘ 2023 at Tobacco Warehouse, Liverpool
Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial
Photography by Mark McNulty

British Black History Workshop – KS2

“From King John’s royal court in the 13th century through to the premiership football pitch, this exciting KS2 workshop takes your pupils on a time-travelling journey through the annals of British Black History.

Created by award-winning writer, Marjorie Morgan, and led by a One Day drama facilitator, this History-rich session invites your pupils to discover the many ways in which Black Britons have shaped the nation we live in today. Royal trumpeters, Roman soldiers, Olympic swimmers, racing car drivers… the list goes on! Join us to celebrate the contributions of British Black people and explore those stories not always represented in history books.”

British Black History Workshop created by Marjorie H Morgan for KS2 pupils

The Colour of War

“Through the creation and sharing of art, the people who have fought, survived and returned from the many theatres of war are regularly remembered and often revered as heroes. Art is an open doorway used to recall the lasting impact of war without celebrating the brutality, pain and loss of combat.”

Read more at Art UK.

Women and the sea: the art of Lubaina Himid and Emma Stothard

“Women’s relationship with the sea has varied throughout the ages, social classes and cultures of the world. The sea has the connotations of mystery and fear – an unforgiving entity that cannot be controlled. The artists Lubaina Himid and Emma Stothard are two practitioners who have used their different media to depict women’s relationships with the sea.”

Read more at Art UK.

Hear Me Now, Volume Two

Two of my monologues have now been published by Bloomsbury under the imprint @MethuenDrama; you can find them, along with writing from other playwrights,
in this new volume of Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour.

For your copy click here.

The perfect storm: Basil Watson creates the National Windrush Monument

The selection of Jamaican, USA-based sculptor Basil Watson to create the National Windrush Monument commission is inspired.

Watson is a part of a three-generation dynasty of artists who are known as the ‘Jamaican royal family’ of artists. Barrington Watson, Watson’s father, was an esteemed artist in his own right, his three sons are also artists, and Basil Watson’s son, Kai, is following the family tradition of creating art in the studio he shares with his father in Georgia, USA.

The Windrush migration story is the Watson family story. It is also the story of many people like them. The Watson family lived in the UK for about a decade in the 1950s and 1960s – they travelled from the Caribbean with similar suitcases to those depicted in the sculpture. This sculpture – a cast in bronze – is both personal and global for the creator Basil Watson. The National Windrush Monument will be situated in Waterloo Station, London from 22nd June 2022, unveiled on the fifth national Windrush Day in the UK.

Read more at Art UK

Caught in the Medium: Racist Cameras

The summer exhibitions at the Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, are open from 13 May – 28 August.

The paradoxes of photography audio installation includes Caught in the Medium: Racist Cameras, a co-creation between Rosie Swayne and Marjorie H Morgan.

Linked to the essay The Black and White Truth of Photography.

Caught in the Medium: Racist Cameras
by Rosie Swayne and Marjorie H Morgan

Augustus Edwin John: the painter at home in society’s margins

Upon entering the gallery space, I was transfixed. I stood still for what seemed like years but was in reality only minutes. I stared at a painting that, for me, stood out above all others. This was my first encounter with Augustus Edwin John, and his painting Two Jamaican Girls in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

It was an unexpected, and delightful discovery because it reminded me of my own childhood in my home county of Wiltshire, and also linked me to a side of Jamaica that I knew about from my family, but had not seen reflected in British artworks in major national galleries before this visit.

Read more at ArtUK

‘The Talk’ Learning Resources

Heart of Glass is proud to launch ‘The Talk’ Learning Resource (TTLR), a free new learning resource by Marjorie Morgan

Created for teachers and those working with children and young people to support the vital work needed to increase learning, knowledge and understanding of racial literacy. TTLR aims to equip teachers with the starting points for wider structured discussions around race and racism, especially in the UK. 

TTLR consists of a set of four short, animated films, a series of flash and trivia cards and detailed biography profiles celebrating the achievements of 20 Black British figures throughout history that, in a number of cases, have been overlooked or ignored.

To find out more about this work and to download ‘The Talk’ Learning Resource please visit https://lnkd.in/e3HTwjPt

TTLR has been commissioned by Heart of Glass and supported by Arts Council England

Women Working Class

A web resource that was the brainchild of Fox Irving for working class women artists to consider the way we navigate art spaces, and to consider ways of making art spaces more accessible to lower class people.

A festival of links and resources, including art work, self worth reflections, provocations, podcasts, and working class identity.

Art Curation – The Global Majority

A personal curation of over 640 artworks that reflect the lives and times of the Global Majority.

See more at ArtUK

The forgotten citizens of Merseyside’s migrant communities

WAR has long-lasting impacts on generations of families. War takes many shapes in people’s lives. War reshapes people, changing their relationships to each other and to the land where they were born and where they live. Citizenship is a vital part of identity. When unexpected migration impacts a person’s life their identity can be altered overnight, or by the stroke of a pen.

The boy with the pearl earring: the decorative art of slavery

In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, Black children trafficked from the African continent were used in visual art as a prop to highlight both the wealth and whiteness of their European enslavers. A regular feature of this Black child adornment was to add an expensive pearl earring to their decoration. The enslaved child was not seen as a person, but as property that signified the wealth of the people or family who commissioned the portrait performance.

Read more at ArtUK

‘Other’ mothers: motherhood and the African diaspora

Centuries of repeated cultural messages about the ‘ideal’ mother, supported by the upheld dominant white culture, continues to have an impact on how non-white mothers are viewed and treated in popular opinion and the law.

Motherhood is the root of the world. Without motherhood, human civilisation as we know it would not exist. It has been proven that human civilisation started in the African continent, yet, despite this, most canonical art images of mothers depict white women in a saintly, nurturing role, and positive images of Black motherhood are generally obscured. Black mothers were traditionally viewed as ‘others’, and not quite human.
Read more on ArtUK

The visible invisibility of Black people in aristocratic portraiture

It was increasingly fashionable, and a form of social currency from the seventeenth century onwards, for the Black servant in the British aristocratic home to be shown in portraits….

These portraits are not uncommon for this era and they encapsulate the seventeenth-century fashion for aristocrats to be presented next to Black individuals, as a way to demonstrate their social and economic status, and whiteness….

The Black presence in these various portraits demonstrated the establishment involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.
Read more on ArtUK


Ronald Moody: a European identity with Caribbean roots

Ronald Moody, a man from the small Caribbean island of Jamaica, made big sculptures, many in England, and showed them all over the world…

Moody’s work is a combination of internal and external examination, and I believe, like many artists, his practice emerged by looking at himself first, his image and view of the world, before he started to look outwards…

Moody stated that his work reflected his very existence and presence in Europe and the Caribbean – a perpetual state of friction. (Read more on ArtUK)



The changing face of the people of the African diaspora in British art

The peoples of the African diaspora have been represented in British art from around the seventeenth century to the current day; the colonial influence is the undercurrent of many of the works that are present in the museums and art galleries of Britain. The white gaze is the unlabelled and ever-present curator of British art, especially relating to the depiction of people originating from the African continent.

Ideas of privilege, power and history cannot be separated from the white gaze on Black bodies, and art is the construction of creative cultural commodities. (Read more on ArtUK)

A first look at The Talk Learning Resources is now available at the Heart of Glass. Please watch, share, and sign up for more information to be released early 2022.

#WorldAidsDay2021 #EndHIVStigmaOneConversationAtATime

I’ve recently had the privilege to work on a Rural Black History Project with dramaturg and filmmaker Amani Naphtali.
The start of many joyful mind-expanding collaborations I hope.
My short film (1 of 4) will be available in October.
Watch this space for more details.
#AmaniNaphtali #RBHP Rural Black History Project

15 September 2021
I did some acting in Joe Ramsden’s play, ‘Passing Fair’
at Liverpool Everyman Playhouse New Works Showcase
We, me, them
Alarms don’t alarm us any more
we are here today
because we keep moving from
we, to me, to them

Threshold Festival

Friday 9 April – Saturday 10 April 2021.

10 Year Anniversary

Join in with this 10 Year Anniversary of the Threshold Hybrid Festival of Music and Arts.

My recent PSA film, The Talk, will be available to view among the art and music of so many great contributors. Get your tickets now.

From slavery to voguing: the House of Swann, published 22 February 2021 by Liverpool Museums for LGBT History Month.

What is Drag? Where did the concept of Drag Queens start? There are multiple answers to those two simple questions. 
Drag has been variously described as the theatrical performance of gender, a man in a dress, ‘wearing clothes of the opposite sex, creative self-expression that uses costume, makeup and/performance to play with traditional notions of gender’.

If there were only two genders, or clothes were globally gendered, answers to these questions might be easier to find, as it is, history shows Romans, upper-class 19th century Albanians, Scots and Irish men wearing kilts or skirts, women of all nationalities and continents regularly and mundanely wearing ‘male’ trousers, therefore the idea of what ‘drag’ is seems to centre around the hyper-masculinity of the globally pervading patriarchal systems. Men in ‘female clothes’ are sometimes designated as monstrous, ‘grotesque’ and ‘depraved’. The terms ‘Drag’ and ‘Drag Queen’ continue to evade fixed definitions.

Read more at Liverpool Museums …
or here (with embedded links for additional research information)

‘The Talk’ by Marjorie H Morgan.

‘The Talk’ premiered on Thursday 28 January, 2pm, it is a short, ‘public service announcement’ style film, giving a brief insight into the personal impact of racism in the lives of Black young men in the UK. The premiere event consisted of an initial sharing, followed by a conversation with Marjorie, Professor Patricia Daley and Professor Godfrey Palmer around the subjects raised in the film – available here.

A subtitled version of the conversation will soon be available from Heart of Glass.

‘The Talk’, and associated resources are intended to stimulate discussion, education and conversation into the reality of some aspects of life lived while Black in the UK, in the hope that barriers will be removed and equality and equity of opportunity and access will increase.

Introducing The Talk, a new commission by Marjorie H Morgan

‘The Talk’ by Marjorie H Morgan is a short ‘public service announcement’ style film giving a brief insight into the personal impact of racism in the lives of Black young men in the UK. Sharing and conversation with Professor Patricia Daley and Professor Godfrey Palmer on Thursday 28 January at 2pm.

‘The Talk’, and associated resources are intended to stimulate discussion, education and conversation into the reality of some aspects of life lived while Black in the UK, in the hope that barriers will be removed and equality and equity of opportunity and access will increase. Free tickets here.

In Other Words is a collection of urgent reflections, created by 49 artists over 4 months in 2020 exploring their hopes and fears for the future at a time of global crisis.  Through prose, poetry, drawing, collage and photography it is a clarion call for change from a diverse group rich in wisdom, shared experience, and what it means to be marginalised in the UK.

The book was devised at the start of the Covid -19 pandemic in the UK, and was initially inspired by an Arundhati Roy quote in April 2020.

“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred … or we can walk through lightly, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”


http://www.metalculture.com/projects/in-other-words/

Buy your copy here: https://metalculture.bigcartel.com/product/in-other-words

Homotopia Festival 2020

From Homotopia Arts – THE WALK podcast series.
“Looking at Liverpool through a queer lens, THE WALK is a stroll through the city, as told by six queer writers.
Download the podcast and listen along as you retrace the writers’ steps, or enjoy the recording from the comfort of your own home.”
https://soundcloud.com/user-490983708
Here is a link to my contribution: “Ep. 7. Award-winning playwright Marjorie Morgan offers an intersectional approach to the Albert Docks, anchored to the city, to family, to self.”
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0nCeJiiFW4OFn9gqDtcGzZ?si=KZk1i48oRmyC-XtMJRg2Mw

Black Oral Histories in the North – an online panel discussion hosted by Liverpool Everyman Playhouse theatres on Friday 30 October 2020.


Racism and mental health. What impact does racism have on a person’s mental health?
What behavioural changes can make a positive difference?
Discuss.

Coming soon … 10 November 2020 – Stage Your Story, a playwriting workshop collaboration with The Goddess Projects and Liverpool Everyman Playhouse theatres.

Coming soon …
Show Your Working from Homotopia Festival 2020

Who is …? series of short videos:
Queen Nanny of the Maroons

Throughout the month of July 2020 I have been selected as one of the artists who has been granted a Metal Remote Residency. Along with the other artists I will carry out my residency working remotely from my own home but with access to the support, networks and resources available from Metal. More information available below.

http://www.metalculture.com/metal-remote-residencies-july/

Windrush Stories – Prison Radio UK

#Windrush interview with Prison Radio UK #WeTalk
Listen to all the #WindrushStories here: Lloyd Bradley, Benjamin Zephaniah, Cecil Wright, Jamz Supernova, Nadine White, Brendan Batson, Sister Ina Spence, Blacker Dread, Marjorie H Morgan, Matthew Phillip, Mr. Wright, Dr. Vanley Burke 

#Windrush #WindrushStories interview with Prison Radio UK https://pod.link/1518310698

I Can’t Breathe (Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?)

The Mis-education of a Moonraker

Commissioned by #WithForAbout2020 premiered 17 June 2020 at 2.30 BST

The Mis-education of a Moonraker was featured in the live #WithForAbout session 4 available here:

#WithForAbout2020 Curated by James Leadbitter and Cecilia Wee

Vanishing Points is a new anthology of cultural criticism, focusing on the making, watching and conditions of Live Art and performance in the UK today. Vanishing Points is edited by Salome Wagaine, with deputy editors Ava Wong Davies and Ben Kulvichit, and designed by Chani Wisdom.

The book features contributions from Ava Wong Davies, Zarina Muhammad, Ben Kulvichit, Season Butler, Jack Tan, Salome Wagaine, Marjorie H Morgan, Rajni Shah, Selina Thompson and Dr Cecilia Wee.

It is co-published by LADA and Diverse Actions, a Live Art UK initiative, championing cultural diversity in the sector and marks the final point of three years of activity. Supported by an Arts Council England Ambition for Excellence grant, Diverse Actions is managed by Cambridge Junction on behalf of Live Art UK.

https://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/publishing/vanishing-points/

10° of Separation – a commission from Northern Broadsides Theatre, 2K20.

Granted a HomeWork Commission from Heart of Glass as part of their Compendium of Care Package during the Coronavirus Pandemic 2020.

http://www.heartofglass.org.uk/project/home-work/

Joined the board of trustees.

www.homotopia.net

Cultures of Love

by LUMA Creations – FREE entrance.

7pm Friday 21st Feb 2020 at John Archer Hall, L8 1YR

An evening of food, music & spoken word celebrating love, books, and stories inspired by the novels that shaped our world.

at Hope Street Theatre, 9-10 March 2020 – more information / book here

I’m one of the writers presenting new work at Finger Food Shorts, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse theatres, 27-28 March.

Tickets available here.

With Soulla Eriksen, Saphena Aziz et al. https://www.fingerfoodshorts.uk/

Marjorie H Morgan with Jill O’Halloran on Sean Styles show at BBC Radio Merseyside,
11 March 2020

http://www.fingerfoodshorts.uk

Each weekly session costs £10.00 per participant. Book here.

“Moonlight”: Removing the Physical Armour

“Moonlight” (2016) is a poetic and universal tale. It is a coming-of-age story for everyone who has every questioned “Who am I?” The central character in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s story is a Black American young man in Miami, yet he is also all of us, in all locations of this world growing up and coming to terms with our unique identities and surroundings. (Read more)

Who Wants To Live Forever?
Slideshow installed in Tate Liverpool 30 Sept 19 – 6 Oct 19

Who Wants to Live Forever? tells the incredible story of Henrietta Lacks through art, science, storytelling and documentation.

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/tate-exchange/workshop/who-wants-live-forever

Liverpool will premiere a major new play this week as part of a series of celebrations and reflections about the city’s Windrush Generation.

Home from Home has been penned by city-based playwright Marjorie Morgan and looks at the turbulent recent events of the ‘hostile environment’. The play tells the story of a Liverpool woman who enjoys a celebrated career in the NHS but also faces the threat of deportation after being caught up in the Windrush scandal.

It will premiere at Liverpool’s Blackburne House on Friday 28 June as part of a weekend of events aimed at celebrating and recognising the huge contributions made to the city by our Commonwealth members.

Home from Home author Marjorie Morgan said: “I have been writing about Windrush for some time now and this is a story that I thought would both celebrate and show the truth of the reality that some people are stuck in. It is like people have a dual identity, on one hand they are happy to be British and on the other they are not sure if they are British because people are telling them they are not. So this indication what reality is like for many people with a Commonwealth background. We are all Windrush. This affects all of us, it’s about all of us.” (Read more)

Home From Home, a new play by Marjorie H Morgan. Featuring Kel Nkondock and Dorcas Sebuyange. With production assistance from Curtis Watt and Gabe Morgan.

President Macron and Cultural Reparations

British colonialism is alive and thriving in the art world. The museums of the UK, and of the Western world, are filled with objects of uncertain provenance. Museum culture ignores the realities and sensitivities of the centuries of illicit trade as they are largely self regulated – they justify retaining their collections by claiming they are ‘universal museums’ that serve the citizens of every nations, not just one nation – this theoretical global access is a western luxury as the citizens of London, Paris, and New York may benefit, but not those of countries like Benin – access is not a global reality.

The British Museum was one of 18 museums who, in 2002, signed released a ‘Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums,’ as providers of “a valid and valuable context for objects that were long ago displaced from their original source”. This ‘displacement’ is a contested term used by mainly Western museums instead of looting, uncertain provenance, plunder, theft, and extortion. The use of the umbrella term, ‘universal museums’ provides institutions with a defence against the discussion of cultural reparation of objects to the countries of origin.

More from this piece available at: https://blkbld.uk/304PkDP

An extended article will be posted here soon.

“But it is Marjorie Morgan, whose Thin Red Line, a script written in response to The List – Liverpool Biennial’s most memorable work from 2018, for all the wrong reasons – that draws out the emotion of the festivals. She clarifies the role that introspective investigation can have on understanding the value of art, by shaking off the shackles of the Independents Biennial, and delving into a story pushed by Liverpool Biennial. Her script ignores the recent artwork, and the tales of destruction, and focusses on the story of three of the List’s occupants.

True to form, Marjorie Morgan’s nerve-wracking writing, alongside the fact and fiction of the other writers turns Post-it into a truly purposeful anthology.”

October 2018

Art in Liverpool usually writes very outwardly, reflecting on the highs and lows of what’s going on around us, so the upcoming book has been a fascinating opportunity to self-reflect, often very critically of the festival, and its context.

Working with eight of Liverpool’s most exciting writers, the book includes work from Richard Billing, Jessica Fenna, Joanie Magill, Bernadette McBride, Paul McDermott, Marjorie Morgan and Callan Waldron-Hall …

The book gives an insight into the stories behind work, and the voice of those who made it speaking truthfully about some of the most impactful work of IB18.

Liverpool Mental Health Week – October 2018

“This Festival’s final event launches the TranScripts anthology at Museum of Liverpool on 14th October. This features new writing and launches an anthology of work from a creative writing project run by Liverpool Mental Health Consortium … and led by tutor Marjorie Morgan, writer-in-residence for Independent Liverpool Biennial and recently shortlisted for the prestigious Kenneth Branagh Award. ” (Read more)

‘Girls Trip’: a dose of Black Girl Magic

When one discusses female comedy films, invariably “Bridesmaids” (2011) and “Mean Girls” (2004) are mentioned. This is not it. “Girls Trip” (2017) is new and different. There is the usual chaotic series of events that accompanies film comedies, but this movie has Black females friendships as a central focus. Written by Kenya Barris (scriptwriter of …

‘Wi likkle but wi tallawah’: enduring NHS cuts and Windrush deportations 70 years on

In 2018 we should be saying Happy 70th Birthday to the National Health Service (NHS), and Happy 70th Anniversary to the Windrush arrivals. These two significant events in British history took place in 1948, and they have been inextricably linked since that time. However, far from being a cause for celebration, the NHS is facing a …

“Moonlight”: Removing the Physical Armour

“Moonlight” (2016) is a poetic and universal tale. It is a coming-of-age story for everyone who has every questioned “Who am I?” The central character in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s story is a Black American young man in Miami, yet he is also all of us, in all locations of this world growing up and coming …

Black and European. A Better State of Affairs than Black Americans?

Illustration / Eddie Stok for AWE “All for one, one for all,” the dashing motto of The Three Musketeers, is almost as well known as the devise of the French Republic itself: liberté, égalité, fraternité. Less well known is that Alexandre Dumas, who wrote the classic tale of swordplay, camaraderie, and France’s wars of religion, …

Black bodies and the white gaze

Black bodies and the white gaze. A personal insight into the destructive societal and political dichotomy of Blackness and Whiteness. Understanding the social structures of Blackness and whiteness in the 21st century is a mission in a time of crisis. It is important because the human body is a metaphor of social relationships; the body …

Black Excellence – BBC Radio Merseyside

Upfront Show presented by Ngunan Adamu, Sunday 12 May 2019 featuring Marjorie H Morgan. Soundcloud link to the Black Excellence segment: http://bit.ly/2MqFdY5 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d7gj

Breaking the silence surrounding black female infertility

How often have you had a conversation about infertility amongst black women? Not very often, I would suspect. Or even never. Infertility is often viewed through a colour-coded prism: while white female infertility is frequently discussed and treated, there appears to be a silence surrounding black female infertility. Historically, myths surrounding black women, and the …

Caribbean elders are being reclassified as having no status

Caribbean British elders who have been resident in the UK for the majority of their lives are among a rising group of people becoming aware of the political terms of ‘legal ghost’ and ‘no status’ because these terms are increasingly and unexpectedly being applied to them. Many people only know that things have changed for …

Carmen Bryan – Deportation order for £2 shoplifting offence (1962)

British citizenship had been a long tradition within the British Commonwealth, however, following the end of WWII and the continual steady migration of British Caribbean citizens to the UK, there was an increase in British legislation to alter the rights of Commonwealth and colonial people. Before the 1960s it was generally accepted that every British …

Celebrating Liverpool’s Windrush generation

June 26, 2019 “Liverpool will premiere a major new play this week as part of a series of celebrations and reflections about the city’s Windrush Generation. Home from Home has been penned by city-based playwright Marjorie Morgan and looks at the turbulent recent events of the ‘hostile environment’. The play tells the story of a Liverpool …

CHOGM in London and questions about the Windrush Generation asked in the House

As the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) starts in the UK today (16 April 2018) it is an ideal time to ask what will happen to the children of the Commonwealth who came here as British citizens over 70 years ago? The infomercial promoting the CHOGM states “This is our Commonwealth” and “What’s agreed …

Coming soon … Creative Writing Course starts January 2020

8 weekly Creative Writing Workshops – morning or evening sessions available – providing participants with the keys to tackle a range of writing forms including flash fiction, journaling, critical writing, poetry, short stories and an introduction to playwriting. Participants can choose either morning or evening session for eight weeks starting on 27 January 2020 and …

Cruelty by design towards British Caribbean elders

  Information about the cases of the Caribbean British elders being systematically targeted and often deported from their British homes has been widely circulated in the past few weeks. Many members of British society, included the affected British elders, were unaware that they were a part of a group of people who were not officially …

Grant Winner: Marjorie Morgan, Oral History In North Of England

January 11, 2020 Grant Winner: Marjorie Morgan, Oral History In North Of England By Benjamin Yeoh I’ve awarded a grant to Marjorie Morgan based on her work documenting unheard voices. Recent work has included the Wind Rush generation and this grant will enable further documentation of communities around Liverpool. A blog about the project below, …

Home From Home

From Liverpool City Council’s website – liverpoolexpress.co.uk. June 26, 2019 “Liverpool will premiere a major new play this week as part of a series of celebrations and reflections about the city’s Windrush Generation. Home from Home has been penned by city-based playwright Marjorie Morgan and looks at the turbulent recent events of the ‘hostile environment’. The …

Jamaican Independence Day 2018 – Why does it matter to Black British people with Caribbean links?

Happy Jamaican Independence Day! 6th August 2018 is the 56th anniversary of the Independence of Jamaica from the control of the British Empire, yet the two countries are still closely aligned after over half a century of Independence because of people like me. I am English, a child of the 1960s, born in the West …

Loyalty is the main currency – Gully (2019) review

Gully (2019) – A story of young friendships, but so much more. This is a tender portrayal of the interlinked complicated life of four young men. It surprised me, but that’s only because I read some reviews beforehand. I hope you’re not doing that. I hope you are reading this after you have watched the …

Objectification and sexualisation of the Black female body – from Sara Baartman to Beyoncé

by Marjorie H Morgan © 2018 Since the 15th century – in the Americas and the colonised world – the Black female body has been seen as a product to be used to produce more products in the same image; this has some parallels with the Black African tradition where the Black female body was …

Pride reminder …

Some people are estranged from their families. A letter to … my siblings now that I’m out (Published in The Guardian 23 June 2012) It must have been hard to accept me once I told you I was gay. I say this knowing our shared history as a fundamentalist Christian family of Caribbean heritage. It …

Review – Satan and Mrs Smith: Boss New Plays

Satan and Mrs Smith, written and directed by Jamie McLoughlin, had its opening show at 81 Renshaw Street on Wednesday 11 July 2018. As the audience enters the small theatre they are greeted by the sight of Mrs Smith (Pamela Ashton) on her sick bed. The sparse scene was set and it required the actors to …

Sisters, Doing it for Themselves

Everybody loves an underdog story, and everybody loves a sports story. “A League of Their Own” (1992) is a combination of both genres. The underdog is this case is the average American woman left behind as the ravages of World War II has stripped the country of its fit and healthy young men. While American …

Snapchat Gender Swap Filter and Transphobia

Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of gender dysphoria. Over the weekend IDAHOBIT (the International Day against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, 17 May) was celebrated. At the same time, Snapchat has seen a resurgence in popularity since the platform introduced a new filter where users can do a visual binary swap of genders. You may …

Strong Island – The Contours of Fear: A Documentary Elegy

The sound of repetitive, relentless punching against a fixed piece of board starts this documentary, and a world upside down and back to front ends it. Every frame of the 107 minutes in between reinforces the idea that the director, Yance Ford, is sharing his personal elegy of grief with the camera. This is a …

The Black and White Truth About Photography

At its most basic level photography is about storytelling. However, it’s not all black and white in the history and use of photography. Photography was first seen in 1839. Human beings are creative and desire to see images of themselves in various places, from the walls of caves to printed photographs. The presence of photographs …

The Commonwealth, Colonialism and the Legacy of Homophobia

When is an appropriate time to review the subject? Any time. But even more so given the UK’s hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM) in London and surrounding locations, that closed on the 20th April. The Commonwealth consists of 53 member states and 80 organisations that exist in locations around the globe and work together to …

The Importance of UK Black Pride

Marjorie Morgan explores the importance of spaces dedicated to LGBT people of colour in a society where white heterosexuality is deemed the norm. Black UK Pride, an organisation that started in 2006, was created to raise the awareness around the experiences of UK’s Black LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community and promote equality and inclusion. …

The Long History of the Hostile Environment

For decades, the UK government has restricted citizenship to exclude and criminalise people from Commonwealth countries. By Marjorie H Morgan The Windrush Scandal has shed light on the ‘hostile environment’ as it has recently been implemented against legal British citizens who were reclassified as migrants, illegally detained, and sometimes deported from their home and country; this …

The Watchers: The Compelling Gaze in “The Virgin Suicides”

“The Virgin Suicides” film is a feast of watchers: it confirms that we are all watched and we all watch. Like George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” this film reminds the viewer that we are all under constant surveillance. Sofia Coppola directs her own screenplay adaptation of the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides from behind the director’s lens, …

The Windrush Scandal proves the government can’t be trusted to renegotiate our border policies

The treatment of the Windrush Generation revealed the racism and bureaucratic incompetence at the heart of the government’s migration system. Marjorie H Morgan writes that they can’t be trusted with post-Brexit border policies. Amber Rudd took a bullet for Theresa May in the immediate aftermath the Windrush scandal, stepping down is because she ‘inadvertently mislead Parliament’. But really, …

The Women of Wakanda

“Black Panther” (2018) is a typical Marvel action movie that’s not typical in its casting. A large amount of the action is performed by the women, main characters who don’t exist solely to assist the goals of a male character. They each have their own agendas and missions. The groundbreaking film “Black Panther” features Chadwick …

These. People. Existed.

The Harder They Fall (2021) Jeymes Samuel. This film is marketed as a western, but it is more than that; to me ‘The Harder They Fall’ defies true genre definition. It is a hero’s journey, a family story set across multiple towns, and an intimate portrayal of love. This is the film, dressed as a …

We need more vegan medication

Veganism is one of the fastest growing lifestyle movements in Britain. In two years there has been a rapid 6% increase in the number of vegans in the UK, rising from 542,000 in 2016 (Great Britain only) to 3.5 million in 2018. Many people are choosing  the vegan lifestyle because of health implications related to the consumption of meat …