Following on from the successful 2022 UK tour of the show Freedom Road Re-Imagined, Olby’s Soul Cafe in Collaboration with Freedom Road Project presents an evening ‘In Conversation with Charlie Phillips’ with Sabina Desir.
Photo credit: © Aliyah Otchere 2021
Charlie’s incredible photography was featured in the show and Sabina will be speaking with the icon and elder statesman about his work and life. Expect to be both educated and entertained by both Charlie’s charismatic personality and vivid memories of life in Britain for West Indian immigrants in the 1960s and 70’s.
Born 1944 in Kingston. Charlie lives and works in London.
Charlie Phillips is a photographer and documenter of urban communities in London. He is well known for his photographs of Notting Hill during the period of West Indian migration to London. Arriving in London from Jamaica at the age of twelve, he grew up amidst a background of hostility and prejudice. He began taking photographs at the age of fourteen and later worked as a freelance photographer for magazines including Harpers Bazaar, Life and Italian Vogue. While living in Notting Hill, he explored aspects of urban life in the 1960s, photographing friends and neighbours, creating a pictorial documentary of a community at a particular moment in time. Phillips has also chronicled the passion and style of African-Caribbean funerals in London over several generations. His images speak of the intimacy and familiarity with which he views his own community. “As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t been given a proper platform to show our culture, our side of the story,” he says. “It’s not Black history; this is British history, whether you like it or not.”
Photo credit: Richard-Birch.Com
Vocalist, Producer and Artistic Director of Freedom Road Project, Sabina Desir has garnered a reputation curating combined arts to present stories from marginalised communities.
Since relocating from London to Ramsgate, Sabina established herself within the East Kent Arts community initially working as a vocalist. She went on to establish The Jazz Sessions at Gulbenkian Theatre bringing outstanding Jazz artists to the South East of England. The Jazz sessions welcomed players spanning the genre including Grammy Award-Winning Saxophonist Jean Toussaint, The Steve Williamson Experience, Led Bib and Camilla George, to name a few. As a vocalist Sabina has formed a successful partnership with the hugely talented keyboard player/Composer Jessica Lauren with whom she has created the live show Freedom Road Re-Imagined. Her work now focuses on developing works for the Freedom Road Project.
Quote:
‘I feel a great sense of responsibility to represent both this momentous time and that of the historic struggle with diligence, passion and respect through the medium of art. I am both humbled and excited by the prospect of sharing this live conversation with the Icon that is Charlie Phillips’
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