Award-winning filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s breathtaking debut follows the fated lovers' quest to carve a life for themselves beyond the expectations of others. 

The screening with be followed by a Q&A with director Ramata-Toulaye Sy.

To book: https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/12465/preview-banel-adama  

 Week 1: Art and revolution 

Details here: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/event/lecture-series-protest-art-and-power 

13 February 2024  - 6.30 - 7.45pm - Royal Academy of Arts - Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD, UK  

As part of the 'Entangled Pasts, 1768–now - Art, Colonialism and Change' exhibition - 3 February - 28 April 2024:  https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/entangled-pasts  

Artworks by leading contemporary artists including Sonia Boyce, Frank Bowling, John Akomfrah and Isaac Julien will be on display alongside works by artists from the past 250 years including Joshua Reynolds, J.M.W.Turner and John Singleton Copley – creating connections across time which explore questions of power, representation and history.  Experience large-scale works including the life-size painted cut-out figures of Lubaina Himid’s installation Naming the Money, and Hew Locke’s Armada, a flotilla of ‘votive boats’ recalling different periods and places. 

 “Afrika Eye 2023 is in our sights" Seventeen years on from the first Afrika Eye, we’re as excited as ever to be bringing a packed programme of films, from and about Africa, to venues across Bristol. 

I'll be speaking about Burkina Faso and the Sahel, after the screening of Apolline Traoré's film 'Sira, and about my interview with her. 

• On Saturday 18 November 2023 - 2pm 

Book here: https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/12240/afrika-eye-sira
Details here: https://www.afrikaeye.org.uk/events/sira 

Guyanese British artist Hew Locke - in Conversation with art writer Melissa Chemam

Wed, 5 July 2023 18:00 - 18:30 BST

 Royal Academy of Arts - Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD, United Kingdom  

Details and booking: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/event/hew-locke-in-conversation 

As part of the Summer Exhibition - Exhibition details: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/summer-exhibition-2023

Read my interview with the artist from 2022, for Art UK here:  https://artuk.org/discover/stories/hew-lockes-the-procession-transforming-darkness-into-joy 

Exhibition Preview: Alfredo Jaar In Conversation with Melissa Chemam

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 18:00 - 18:30 BST

Goodman Gallery: 26 Cork Street, London W1S 3ND, UK

"IF IT CONCERNS US, IT CONCERNS YOU is a potent survey of works by Alfredo Jaar which chronicles the artist’s forty-year critique of the Western media. The exhibition features important works which span the artist’s career, from the early 1980s through to new works created in 2022, which have not been exhibited before. It is the largest presentation of Jaar’s Press Works series to date."

Event details: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exhibition-preview-alfredo-jaar-in-conversation-with-melissa-chemam-tickets-590002201467 

Exhibition details:  https://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/london-gallery-alfredo-jaar-if-it-concerns-us-it-concerns-you-2023
Read my interview with the artists from 2019, for WhyNow:  https://whynow.co.uk/read/25-years-later-alfredo-jaar-at-goodman-gallery-london/ 

"Important new play about human rights and our fundamental duty to each other, written (and co-directed) by award-winning actor Giles Terera: The Meaning of Zong reminds us of theatre’s unique ability to create a place where conversations can come alive. As we follow the show’s terrific ensemble cast, thrilling movement and soaring live music - inspired by ancient storytelling traditions from across West Africa - we bear witness to these extraordinary stories of resilience and resistance that resonate more powerfully than ever."  

 Read on The Barbican Centre's website: https://www.barbican.org.uk/digital-programmes/digital-programme-the-meaning-of-zong 

On cinema history at different film festivals, in Paris, Bristol, London, etc. Samples:  

-Bristol Palestine Festival 2022 https://bristolpff.org.uk/2022/11/05/boycott/
Film screening and Q&A at Arnolfini with Ken Loach and Palestinian, Israeli, British activists: https://arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/bristol-palestine-film-festival-boycott/  

-Afrika Eye Nov. 2022 https://www.afrikaeye.org.uk/art-and-activism 

-Arnolfini - Vanguard / 'Bombin' screening - Q&A with Goldie - Oct. 2021 https://arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/film-vanguard-x-vans-bombin/ 

-Beyond Borders, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZC7gacfCAM 

-Karl Marx screenings at the British Library, 2018 https://www.bl.uk/events/karl-marx-imagined-and-the-young-karl-marx-screening 

 At the Bristol Palestine Festival 2022 - on Dec. 2nd: https://bristolpff.org.uk/2022/11/05/boycott/ 

'Boycott' explores the extent of anti-boycott legislation in the US and shows the impact of state legislation on companies and individuals that choose to boycott Israel. Bacha’s compelling documentary is an inspiring story of standing up for one’s rights and fighting against threats to freedom of speech.

Guest speakers include Ken Loach, film and TV director; Yuval Shalev from International Centre of Justice for Palestinians; Zeyn Mohammed, Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC); Dave Spurgeon, former chair of Bristol Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM). Chaired by Melissa Chemam.

For divers festivals, events and production houses (more soon).

With the Vanguard exhibition in Bristol: https://www.waterstones.com/events/vanguard-book-launch/bristol-galleries 

Read also my pieces on Street culture:

-With Mode 2:   https://upmag.com/mode-2/ 

-With el Seed: https://upmag.com/el-seed/ 

-In Tunisia: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/leaving-mark-tunisia-hotbed-arab-street-art 

-In Bristol: https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/culture/art-theatre/rediscovering-bristols-original-graffiti-artists & http://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/2016/09/bristol-in-us-public-art-review.html 

-On Banksy & 3D: https://www.londonstreetartdesign.co.uk/from-3d-to-banksy-why-bristols-street-art-tops-european-walls/ 

-In Belfast: https://www.artistikrezo.com/art/street-art-a-belfast-redorer-le-blason-des-murs-par-l-art.html 

-In Sicily : https://toutelaculture.com/tendances/voyage-tendances/carnet-de-voyage-arts-oasis-debarquement-dart-en-sicile/ 

 For divers festivals, events and production houses (more soon).

For 6 months, I immersed myself in the art boom emerging in Paris-East and the 93. I worked with Quai 36 in Romainville (93), near Pantin, set in an 'art quarter' uniting Fondation Fiminco, Les Réserves du FRAC Île-de-France, and many new art galleries: https://quai36.com

The space gives these graffiti artists room to develop their work on canvas, bridging urban and contemporary arts.  

See this Guardian article about the art production house: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/gallery/2015/jun/12/paris-street-art-gare-du-nord-goes-graffiti-with-quai-36-project 

Friday 29 July 2022 at Arnolfini Bristol: https://arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/shirazbayjoo/ 

Artist Shiraz Bayjoo, in conversation with writer, journalist and Arnolfini Writer in Residence, Melissa Chemam in a special evening celebrating the release of Shiraz’s beautiful illustrated edition of 'Treasure Island' by Robert Louis Stevenson, published by Four Corners Books: About working with archival imagery and histories of colonialism to produce this new edition of the classic novel.

For divers festivals, especially in visual and performative arts: 

-with 'Thanks for Nothing',  an  organisation mobilising artists and the world of culture by organising artistic and solidarity projects with a concrete impact on society (Paris, 2022) - clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc7I_hkW3vk 

-at the theatre festival Mayfest (Bristol, 2022): https://www.mayk.org.uk/mayfest 

-at Literary events (Bristol Transformed 2019, 2021 and 2022);  Working-Class Writers Festival, at Arnolfini, etc. Ex: https://www.bristolideas.co.uk/attend/english-as-a-second-language/ 

Writing about resistance, feminism, diasporas and multiculturalism. Read here: https://arnolfini.org.uk/category/writer-in-residence/ 

And took part in many events. 

I also worked on an art e-book, available as PDF. Details here: https://arnolfini.org.uk/africa-at-arnolfini/ And e-book here https://arnolfini.org.uk/here-there-evenwhere/ 

Since 2019, I've been working with the delightful Arnolfini gallery in Bristol as their writer-in-residence, first on the themes of feminism and resistance, then on an art book about the African & Caribbean artists they've invited to exhibit since the opening in 1961. 

All my texts here: https://arnolfini.org.uk/category/writer-in-residence/ 

For divers festivals, especially in cinema: 

-at the 'Beyond Borders Documentary Festival in Castellorizo, Greece in 2019 - see this documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZC7gacfCAM 

-with Velvet film from 2009 to 2018 - different events on Raoul Peck's film. Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WWFKjDb_hI 

-at the French Film Fest in Prague, CZ, in 2003

In January 2018 - Link: https://www.lylo.fr/concert/6cd05c-cafe-concert-lady-nade-la-bellevilloise + PR for press interview with RFI:  https://www.rfi.fr/fr/emission/20191026-sortie-safe-place-nouvel-album-lady-nade 

Organisation of two talks, in 2017 and 2019, with authors and artists, on political artists, involvement for social change, especially in street art. Link: http://lacolonie.paris/agenda/2019/novembre/border-wall-aesthetics-uvres-dart-dans-les-espaces-frontaliers-evenement-autour-du-livre-de-elisa-ganivet/ 

June 2016 : « La Route » with and for the NGO Waha International, photographies from the 'Refugee Crisis' in Greece and Kurdistan by Livia Saavedra -  Mairie du 10e arrondissement, Paris 

Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/867695260026951/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22page%22%7D]%7D 

I worked as the main researcher for the award-winning Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck for years, on and off, from 2006 to 2018, as a communication & project manager. On films such as 'The Young Karl Marx', 'Fatal Assistance', 'I Am Not Your Negro', 'Exterminate All the Brutes', and his events, DVD & book releases. 

In a conversation chaired by Rachel Holmes, Clive Coleman and Richard Bean, writers of West End hit Young Marx, film maker and writer Jason Barker and Melissa Chemam from the team behind Raoul Peck’s film The Young Karl Marx get to grips with this enigmatic figure. Followed at by a rare UK screening of the film.

https://www.bl.uk/events/karl-marx-imagined-and-the-young-karl-marx-screening 

In Paris in 1999, 2000 and 2001, rue Monsieur Le Prince, Paris 5e

Read here: https://www.arccamagazine.com/melissa-chemam