For Caleb Azumah Nelson, Thereâs Freedom in Feeling Seen
In his debut novel, âOpen Water,â the British-Ghanaian author incorporates images, scenes and the occasional Kendrick Lamar lyric to communicate what prose alone cannot.
âI left everything I had on the page,â Caleb Azumah Nelson said of his debut novel, âOpen Water.âCredit.Adama Jalloh for The New York Times
April 7, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
Last December, Caleb Azumah Nelson visited Tate Britain to see âFly in League With the Night,â an exhibit featuring the painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. In her portraits, he didnât just see figures and backgrounds, he heard things too: the music of Miles Davis, Ebo Taylor, Solange â the songs the artist had been listening to as she conjured her characters.
The Great British Art Tour: a changing work of curdled hopes and dreams theguardian.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theguardian.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Bradford Museums and Galleries
The moment in June 2020 when John Cassidy s statue of Edward Colston was torn down and trundled through the streets of Bristol to meet its watery end in the River Avon has been endlessly on my mind. It was a profound moment of collective action aimed at reimagining who and what is celebrated in our public spaces by questioning the objects already within it. For so long in Britain, we have struggled to acknowledge the impact of our colonial history, despite its visible legacies across the country.
At this juncture, when the Black Lives Matter campaign has brought this into sharp focus, it is a timely opportunity to re-examine aspects of British history which often go unrecognised. Art is a rich place to start, as many artists have been working through these histories long before the conversation became mainstream. Many inspirational artworks have emerged as a result.