Newsletters

Substack News // Letter

On Substack: https://melissa.substack.com/

I post these newsletters for free. I went from 4 to 6 posts a year to about a bit recently, after the killing of Nahel in Nanterre.

I write about politics & arts, journalism, activism, travels, new discoveries, and issues that seem inspiring, insightful or thought-provoking, with the spirit of sharing and connecting.

You can subscribe if you like...

Melissa On The Road

My blog since 2011: http://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/

Journalist (DW, BBC, Art UK, New Arab, AJE...), Writer (first book on Bristol's music/art; next one on African art), I also work on films, podcast, and as a contributor to The Markaz Review, Art UK, The Independent etc.

Born in Paris, I have been based in Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi (covering East Africa), Paris and Bristol, UK. I also travelled to Italy, Haiti, Tunisia, Liberia, South Africa, India, Mexico, Turkey, Iraq... My passions: Africa, Europe, literature, music, arts.

This blog is to share my work and cultural discoveries.

June Substack News // Letter

Near Nanterre, a letter from Colombes - Protests, riots, or despair in the French poor suburbs?

On Substack: https://melissa.substack.com/p/near-nanterre-a-letter-from-colombes

Dear readers, friends and newcomers,
as I write these words, most of you must have heard about the situation in Paris and most of France’s large cities. The death of a 17-year-old young man, now known as Nahel M, on Tuesday, triggered a few nights of violence and clashes with police, on housing estates in several towns.

More here: https://melissa.substack.com/p/near-nanterre-a-letter-from-colombes

Winter News // Letter

2 January 2023

Dear friends, colleagues, art lovers,

I hope that you all are ok.

As often in the early days of a new year, a time of hope and good resolutions, I want to send you my best wishes for a happy new year! May 2023 be sweet and more hopeful...

I hope you had a beautiful end of the year. It wasn't an easy one worldwide. I hope December treated you well and that this January promises to be even better.

As most of you know, since 2015, my work as a journalist has evolved to combine my international experience (in Africa, the USA, Great Britain, the Middle East, etc.) with a reflection on major cultural issues (art and engagement, activism, multiculturalism,

feminism, politics and social change, North/South relations, anti-colonialism, etc.).

I have been able to explore these questions by working with Velvet Film, by reporting for the German international broadcaster DW, and with my writing, especially as an author in residence at the Arnolfini International Art Center, in Bristol, but also at various festivals, through my cultural journalism, on BBC radio 4, and via podcasts.

Since 2020, I have been particularly interested in artists from the SWANA region (South West Asia & North Africa, where my family is from), and their relationship to Europe and the West, but also in the place of contemporary arts in reflections on some of the profound changes of our time. Especially thanks to a few wonderful websites, especially The New Arab and The Markaz Review. Here are some of their latest publications.

Markaz review: 'FREEDOM' issue

Read all the articles here:

https://themarkaz.org/review/

My piece on music - Gultrah Sound System: The sound of freedom in Tunisia

https://themarkaz.org/fr/gultrah-sound-system-tunisias-sound-of-freedom/

Focus on Tunisia's street art and hip-hop culture

For Up Mag - Portrait of eL Seed:

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

At the Afrika Eye Film Festival, in Bristol, Nov. 2022:

https://www.afrikaeye.org.uk/art-and-activism

Meeting Ken Loach & Palestinian / Israeli / British activists:

The big moment of the end of the year 2022...

I got to meet the legendary British film director in Bristol, and to discuss the role of the BDS movement in the US and the UK, at the Bristol Palestine Film Festival

Screening of the film and Q&A at Arnolfini with Ken Loach and Palestinian, Israeli, British activists - info:

https://bristolpff.org.uk/2022/11/05/boycott/

Article:

https://www.newarab.com/features/palestinian-film-festivals-across-uk-celebrate-rising-talent

Since September 2012, I have been in contact with a few cultural centres and art galleries, on both sides of the Channel, in Bristol, London and Paris, and participated in my own way in the development of cultural projects, meetings, events, exhibitions.

I hope to be in England again soon, and to carry on working on projects that keep bringing us closer... On both sides of the English Channel, as much as from all sides of the Mediterranean.

Hoping to see you all soon here or there!!

With all the very best wishes again, stay well,

Many thanks.

Melissa Chemam
Writer, Journalist & Audio Producer

Autumnal News // Letter

21 November 2022

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I hope you are all doing well.

A word first to wish you a beautiful autumn and to hear from you, especially from my women friends, in these times particularly difficult for women's rights, from the United States to Poland via Iran.

I want to believe that these virtual connections can benefit us in some ways, while our "social media" completes their process of self-destruction... Again, I have nothing to sell: I only share ideas, words I believe in, and content that is the result of my work, accessible to everyone, free of charge (and if you do not wish to receive these emails, just let me know, and sorry...).

So here are some of my recent articles on one of the themes that stands out, creative and inspiring women:

With Grada Kilomba, Portuguese interdisciplinary artist of African descent - for BBC Culture

She was invited by Somerset House in London to hold one of her incredible performances... During Frieze week and the 1:54 African Art Fair. Read here:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20221012-the-slave-ship-in-a-london-courtyard

With UK-based Palestinian feminist artists

To read: https://www.newarab.com/features/palart-festival-voice-palestinian-artists-uk

With Sabrine, one half of Tunisian music duo Ÿuma

Sabrine is a trained plastic artist, a graduate of the École des Beaux Arts in Tunis, who gravitated to singing as a teenager. Ramy is a guitarist and vocalist who played in Tunisian rock bands before working as a screenwriter and filmmaker, later returning to music: https://themarkaz.org/dynamic-acoustic-duo-yuma-allies-with-tunisia-and-derja/

Afrika Eye - Art, Women and Activism

I was invited to join director Caroline Péricard, documentary protagonist Oumema, young film students and chair Professor Siobhan Shilton

for a post-screening discussion.

More here on Afrika Eye:

https://www.afrikaeye.org.uk/art-and-activism

Oumema Bouassida, alias Ouma, born in Tunis
& based in Sfax, in a queen of the spray can

As for Oumema, I had interviewed her just before the festival for the New Arab. Read here:

https://www.newarab.com/features/leaving-mark-tunisia-hotbed-arab-street-art

Photography/Cinema: On the male and female gaze

While I was in Bristol, I was invited to give a couple of lectures to film students on the 'French New Wave'.

We talked about Jean-Luc Godard, his words, ideas, frames, images, stories, lenses and gaze...

There'll be much more to say!

Another note on cinema: my article / reflection on British films, seen from the rest of Europe

As Dominique Green, former distributor and the artistic director of the Dinard British Film Festival, stressed, a festival like Dinard is of key importance in the post-Brexit and post-COVID context. “Producers suffer from the increase in costs,” she explained, “while Brexit has started to deprive British productions from European subsidies and distribution opportunities.”

Summer to Autumn News // Letter

23 Sept. 2022

Dears friends, readers, art/music lovers and fellow journalists,

Greetings from Paris.

I hope this message finds you all well, after a restorative and / or inspiring summer.

Since my last newsletter in June, I managed to travel between France, Belgium, England and Italy, by train!

While in Europe, I interviewed artists, reunited with friends, spent a lot of time in the sun, and unfortunately discussed the state of the UK with dismay...

I'm thinking of building a group to renew out "Entente Cordiale" and not let the devastating consequences of Brexit ruin a hundred years of friendship.

I'm for now writing about British cinema, and how it's received in Europe, by viewers, film lovers and professionals from different countries.

I also hope to invite British artists to discuss and collaborate here in Paris, and European ones to still come to England.

I must say that during my last few months in England, I didn't feel welcome anymore. All consumed by its identity crisis, Britain has rendered its diversity irrelevant, and that only saddens me. I hope to come back to see better days.

In the meantime, the world is vast, and other places are calling...

For now, let me share my most recent work.

With my best wishes and hoping to see you all soon, keep me posted !

Cheers,

melissa

Focus on Palestinian sound artist

Maya Al Khaldi

'Call the Waves': Maya Al Khaldi brings Palestinian rhythmic character to the shores of Wales https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/maya-al-khaldi-brings-palestinian-musical-character-wales

Interview with Kader Attia

and the Berlin Biennale

The Markaz Review is a literary arts publication and cultural institution that curates content and programs on the greater Middle East and our communities in diaspora. The Markaz signifies “the center” in Arabic, as well as Persian, Turkish, Hebrew and Urdu.

In recent years, with the flow of refugees from West Asia and Africa streaming toward Europe, many have struggled to find acceptance and asylum in the UK, Germany, and several Nordic countries, but one city stands out as having become a preferred destination among Arab and other Middle Eastern immigrants, and that is BERLIN.

My feature:

The prolific French-Algerian multimedia artist Kader Attia, whose work focuses on colonial and post-colonial history, trauma, and the spaces of repair, had his biggest event in Berlin with the Berlin Biennale. Read here : https://themarkaz.org/kader-attia-berlin-biennales-curator/

Street Art History:

New Stop - Tunisia

A decade after the revolution in Tunisia, urban art has helped transform the nation’s relations with public spaces. Local artists are encouraged to use Arabic as a means of graffiti. Now, a younger generation is ready to bloom, including women.

My feature for The New Arab here:

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

Music Column

An issue each month, around North Africa and South West Asia:

Vocalist Samira Brahmia Bridges France and Algeria with Love

A Palestinian Musician Thrives in France: Yousef Zayed’s Journey

Tunisia’s Imed Alibi Crosses Borders in new “Frigya” Electronica Album

Back to Italia

If you know me, you know I love Italy, and have been more than 25 times, from Torino to Palermo.

Because of Covid and Brexit, I had not been able to go since 2018...

A few images from Milano and Bergamo:

http://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/2022/08/milano-bergamo.html

Conversation with Chinonyerem Odimba

on "Black British Theatre"

One of the UK's leading British African heritage contemporary theatre companies, tiata fahodzi is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary with a new season of creative initiatives and productions, supporting the future of Black British artists.

The Watford-based tiata fahodzi theatre was founded in September 1997 by playwright and director Femi Elufowoju Jr. It is now under the direction of its fourth artistic director, the playwright Chinonyerem Odimba, for a milestone year named 'Year of the Artist', coinciding with its 25th anniversary.

Read here: https://www.iamhistory.co.uk/home/2022/7/27/i-am-talks-chinonyerem-odimba

More soon, on my website: https://sites.google.com/view/melissachemam

I'd love to hear from you too!

Please keep in touch.

With my best wishes,

melissa

Melissa Chemam

Writer, Journalist, Audio Producer

(Reader's Digest, Art UK, BBC Culture,

New Arab, BBC Radio 4, Deutsche Welle, The Markaz Review)

E: melissa.journalist@gmail.com

W: https://sites.google.com/view/melissachemam

Spring News // Letter

Dears friends, readers, art lovers and fellow writers,

I hope this message finds you all well, despite the terrible world events. Every morning (and many times over night), I wake up struggling to believe that this war continues...

The very little I could do was to write about it and the state of journalism:

A few words on media bias

in the coverage of world affairs:

http://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-ides-of-march-on-ukraine-west-and.html

I hope to write more on this soon... if I'm granted a better platform to do so.

And I dedicated my TMR music column to people who have been through conflicts and displacements...

Music in wartime - Kyiv / Beirut on my mind:

https://themarkaz.org/music-in-the-middle-east-bring-back-peace/

Before this horrible war exploded, my goal for 2022 was to finally travel again, to see the world again, and reconnect. Whether by train, by bus, or even walking, as usual. How sad it is for me to finally get on roads again, after the long imprisonment caused by Covid & Brexit, just when so many others are on the road for all the wrong reasons.

Nevertheless, in January, I went back to Paris and to Marseille, after years without being able to.

Marseille: A city dear to my heart, so much that I decided to be back there as soon as possible!

In March, I also spent a couple of days in London.

I really long for further travels too... In Italy, West Africa, the Caribbean and in Lebanon especially.

For now, this spring, I'll only be able to travel again to France. At the beginning of the summer, I'll finally see Liverpool. If I'm lucky, I’ll then go to Berlin for the Art Biennial, and Italy later on...

In the meantime, I have been travelling by proxy, writing about artists from further away in the world, especially artists interested in activism.

Here are some of the accessible articles:

Salah El Mur - from Sudan:

https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/story/salah-elmur-sudan-painting/

Haya Zaatry - from Palestine:

https://themarkaz.org/nazareths-liwan-features-palestinian-singer-haya-zaatry/

On the late Rachid Taha - from France/Algeria:

https://themarkaz.org/rachid-taha-and-the-sway-of-chaabi-rai-on-franco-arab-rock/

I've also been reporting on (and against) the Nationality & Borders Bill, debated in the UK since 2021, about to affect refugees:

http://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/2022/02/protesting-dangerous-nationality-and.html

Invited as a guest on an American podcast series about similar issues, centred on fighting racism and neocolonial bias... we discussed issues around Algeria's struggle for equality and France's history of colonialism. Here are the two coming episodes of their new season:

Discriminology Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/discriminology/id1521770510

Meanwhile, in Bristol, I was also part of the 'Final Frontier' Festival, to discuss the links between arts and resistance:

https://www.trinitybristol.org.uk/activities/art-of-resistance/events/the-final-frontier

And I was really happy to read that some people somewhere found me inspiring enough to recommend my name for this list, despite the grim international climate that is still affecting me very much...

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/international-womens-day-137-most-6739549#comments-wrapper

I will give two more talks in the spring:

on 27 April at Arnolfini - about my writing residency:

https://arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/melissachemam-anneharbin/

You can book here:

https://www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/#date=2022-04-27&event_id=73139&product_password=500588635&event_password=afg5ficb3c

And on 14 May in St Pauls, as part of the Bristol Transformed festival:

https://www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/st-pauls/fri-13-may-bristol-transformed-festival-2022-72269

Before then I will chair this event on the 100th anniversary of the BBC on 7 April:

The BBC's centenary - with David Hendy & Simon Potter

https://www.waterstones.com/events/the-bbcs-centenary-david-hendy-and-simon-potter/bristol-galleries

Hopefully, I’ll have time to write much more soon.

This year has been very labour intensive, especially with teaching 5 modules in journalism and creative media production.

I also hope to produce a few more podcasts…

For now: Thanks for your attention as usual!

If you're in London, Paris, Marseille, Liverpool, Berlin, Venice, around the summer, let's meet up on the road, discuss culture, arts, resistance, change and peace-building!

With my very best wishes,

Melissa Chemam

Writer, Journalist, Researcher

Lecturer in Media & Journalism

Writer in residence at Arnolfini Art Gallery

January News // Letter 2022

Dear friends, colleagues, culture & art lovers,

I hope this email finds you well.

Firstly, happy new year and best wishes for 2022!

For everyone, 2021 has been full of ups and downs, and probably a lot of disappointments, losses, frustrations... It's also been a time full of success and hard work for so many.

I, however, truly believe that what the world needs more than ever is to think collectively and to invest in safe and sane interdependence. For our planet, our healthcare systems, in education, in politics, and of course, closer to our team at UWE Bristol, in media/news production.

For those of you interested in my work as a journalist and art commentator, here is the latest, about Art, Writing, Music & Multiculturalism.

John Berger & Lubaina Himid - BBC Radio 4

Five writers talk about looking at pictures, to mark the 50th anniversary of Ways of Seeing - the 1972 TV series presented by John Berger and its accompanying book.

Listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00132xf

African & Diaspora Artists in Britain: Conversation with Dr Anne Harbin

- UWE / Arnolfini, Bristol

ART HISTORY - 'Here, there… Evenwhere': A personal history of 60 years of African and African diaspora Artists at Arnolfini.

Watch our conversation here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDwTAuC5Ls4

Read the book here:

https://arnolfini.org.uk/app/uploads/2021/10/African_Arnolfini_DigitalPDF_165x230mm_AW.3.pdf

Out of Algeria

A text about contemporary artists who are dear to my heart, for the new magazine the Journal of Creative Pursuit, issue nb#2:

"A publication that explores social and cultural issues through creative work. Acknowledging the systemic inequalities within the creative industries, this publication seeks to diversify the narratives it creates. We aim to bring attention to creatives who are underrepresented on the global scale. We hope that through the stories and discussions we have with creatives from different parts of the world, we can shed light on some cultural and social issues that various communities face."

On Arabic Music

New column... for The Markaz Review.

First episode:

Electronic Music in Riyadh?

https://themarkaz.org/electronic-music-in-riyadh/

Electronic music is trending in the Arab world and Iran, but is Saudi Arabia the best place to showcase it?

Read, react and share if you care.

Part II: Music in the Middle East: Business can’t Buy Authenticity

https://themarkaz.org/music-in-the-middle-east-business-cant-buy-authenticity/

Multiculturalism in British Music

TIMES OF REINVENTIONS: HOW BRISTOL MUSIC SCENE EVOLVED IN THE MID 1990’S

For BIMM Bristol - read here:

https://blog.bimm.co.uk/times-of-reinventions-how-the-bristol-music-scene-evolved-in-the-1990s-mmu

'Writing for Change:

Can Words Truly Inspire a Better World?'

Lastly, this discussion from the Working-Class Writers Festival, which took place in October 2021 in Bristol, is now available to listen online.

Insight into the previous themes mentioned but also a class perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht0oyC23cGQ&list=PL2j4bv2AiVXIy8XkIGy1Y_IiOVQkTJs9w&index=11

My next article will be about Britain and its colonial past... how it still impacts us and how artists are reacting to it. Then I'll write about artists from different parts of the world.

I'll be in Marseille soon, and hopefully later in the year in Liverpool then Berlin. If you're there, let's create a discussion!

I wish you all a new year of great music, art and events, hopefully. Let's make the most of 2022.

With my very best wishes,

melissa

Melissa Chemam

Writer, Journalist, Researcher

Lecturer in Media & Journalism (Bristol)

Writer in residence at Arnolfini Art Gallery

E: melissa.journalist@gmail.com

W: https://sites.google.com/view/melissachemam

To a better world in 2022

For everyone, 2021 has been full of ups and downs, and probably a lot of disappointments, losses, frustrations... It's also been a time full of success and hard work for so many.

I truly believe that what the world needs more than ever is to think collectively and to invest in safe and sane interdependence. For our planet, our healthcare system, in education and of course in media/news production.

I've personally been very lucky to find a very clever, nice and supportive team at the University of the West of England, so that, a special thanks to my manager Anne Harbin, the best I've ever had in almost two decades of work all over the world... #Gratitude.

For the rest, thanks so much to The Markaz Review, Art UK, Al Jazeera Media Network and BBC Radio 4 for being safe spaces for the kind of slow, long-form and critical kind of journalism I now want to practice.

To a brighter, more understanding 2022...

October > November News//Letter

Dear friends, colleagues, culture & art lovers,

I hope this email finds you well!

October disappeared in a loop of time, didn't it?

At my end of the Channel, it was warm, busy and very interesting! Focusing on book events, writing and pursuing the conversations on issues such as the "class war", Black History Month, colonial history, but also beauty and creativity...

Here are a few texts and audio programmes - all available for free as usual - I'd love to share with you all.

May November 2021 be as rich and progressive...

On #Decolonising

17 October 1961 / 2021 - My opinion piece for AJE

Meanwhile, other ghosts from the past were haunting me...

It's the first time I find the courage to write about this

part of my family's history... You can read it here.

And the American radio NPR asked me to pursue the conversation.

Here it is: on All Things Considered.

Here, There... Evenwhere:

African & Diaspora Artists at Arnolfini

In other news, my art book on African & Diaspora artists at Arnolfini is out too! I worked for a year for the art gallery Arnolfini, here in Bristol, as their writer in residence. I'm so excited to share the result!

The book will be available in PDF for educational purposes, and a few physical copies will be available in November, at Arnolfini's bookshop.

We also recorded an online discussion with Dr Anne Harbin from UWE, to generate a wider discussion: it'll soon be on Arnolfini's website and on their YouTube Channel.

Do get in touch if you're interested in reading and/or taking part in our wider discussion!

KEITH PIPER: INTERVIEW

ART UK asked me to focus on the work of one of the key artists I interviewed for the aforementioned book: Keith Piper.

A key member of the Black Art Group in the UK from the early 1980s, he then exhibited worldwide and never ceased to innovate and provoke inspiring art and reflections, relevant for the time.

His next exhibition will open at the New Art Gallery in Walsall in January 2022.

You can read our conversation here.

Journalist in Africa

Timely, I was also recently asked to chat about previous travels by the amazing journalist Chika Oduah, currently based in Nigeria, about our experiences as reporters on the continent and on Western-African relations, one of my favourite subjects...

It is a very long one, but feel free to have a read:

SERIES:

HOW TO MOVE TO AFRICA AS A JOURNALIST #3:

MELISSA CHEMAM

https://journalistinafrica.com/2021/10/02/series-how-to-move-to-africa-as-a-journalist-3-melissa-chemam/

I AM History

As you know October is also the time of 'Black History Month' in the UK, but I write about different communities' art and history all year long...

There is so much to see and listen to but here's my latest little contribution:

An Interview With Artistic Director Suzann McLean

The Eyes Magazine - Issue #12

THE EYES #12 > B-SIDE

PHOTOGRAPHY . AFROPEAN . FUSION

With Johny Pitts as guest curator

We interviewed the one and only Mad Professor together.

See here: https://theeyes.eu/en/revue/the-eyes-12/

'Soul Music'

on BBC Radio 4

Finally, I was invited to talk about the song that should be our national anthem, really...

'Unfinished Sympathy' by Massive Attack, from their debut album 'Blue Lines', released 30 years ago.

This fantastic programme is indeed produced in Bristol and this specific episode will be available from early December.

You'll be able to listen from here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008mj7p/broadcasts/upcoming

A few words about my book on the band here, about 'Blue Lines' here and here.

I still have a few projects coming up... More about them next year.

My next article, before the end of the year, will be about Lubaina Himid and a piece on contemporary Algerian artists who are dear to my heart... It's for a brand new magazine: the Journal of Creative Pursuit.

Feel free to get in touch if any of these ideas above speak to you.

For more on my writing and reflections about art, multiculturalism, post-colonial history, activism, you can also follow my work on Twitter, LinkedIn, on this website or via my blog.

Many thanks for your attention!

With my very best wishes,

melissa

Melissa Chemam

Writer, Journalist, Researcher

Writer in residence at Arnolfini Art Gallery

Senior Lecturer in Media & Journalism (Bristol, UK)

W: https://sites.google.com/view/melissachemam

September News//Letter

Dear friends, colleagues, culture & art lovers,

I hope this email finds you well!

Please, allow me to share with you my latest newsletter.

For more on my writing and reflections about art, multiculturalism, post-colonial history, activism, here are a few links and events to come.

Firstly, my recent piece for The Reader's Digest ahead of a fantastic season in England's main art venues:

5 pioneering Black British artists

These Black Britons have produced some of the most thought-provoking and envelope pushing art for decades

This year sees an array of exhibitions by leading Black British artists, and as the writer in residence at Arnolfini in Bristol, Melissa Chemam shares her selection of five ground-breaking Black British artists. Read here.

Working-Class Writers Festival

Later in October, a dynamic new literary festival of national significance will also take place in Bristol in October 2021.

It aims to enhance, encourage and increase representation from the 'working class' across the country, whilst connecting authors, readers, agents and editors.

The artistic director is Natasha Carthew, an award-winning working-class writer and poet, a passionate campaigner for working-class representation in the arts.

I've been asked to be part of it! I'll run a workshop on 'Writing in English as a Second Language', on Saturday 23 October here in Bristol, at the Knowle West Media Centre.

I'll also be part of the panel discussion:

'Writing for Change:

Can words truly inspire a better world?'

Come over at Watershed on Sunday afternoon.

I'll also run a writing workshop at the Knowle West Media Centre on Saturday: details on their website soon.

This event is partnered by Bristol Ideas, Watershed and Knowle West Media Centre.

TMR13 - ORIGINS

Meanwhile... Do have a look at latest issues of @TheMarkazReview:

Read about notions of displacement & indigeneity from all over the Greater Middle East in this incredible edition:

https://themarkaz.org/

With texts from Istanbul, Morocco, Turkey, Iran... And original stories reflecting Amazigh, Armenian, Bedouin, Kurdish, Sephardic, Black Iranian identities, and other diverse cultures of the MENA.

Here, There... Evenwhere:

African & Diaspora Artists at Arnolfini

And finally, as some of you may know, I worked for a year on a book with and for the art gallery Arnolfini, here in Bristol, as their writer in residence. I'm so excited to share the result soon!

The art book will finally be released later in October in PDF and physical copies, and we are organising online events, with the gallery and UWE, to generate a wider discussion.

The first one will be posted on Arnolfini's website.

Some of the artists mentioned are from the UK; others were born in the USA, Trinidad, Jamaica, Montserrat; others from Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Ethiopia or Ghana...

Most of them had to first work in the margins, or to form their own groups and find their personal space to be exhibited and deliver another vision of the arts / the world we live in.

These are themes that have haunted my work as a journalist, researcher and writer since the mid-2000s at least...

Since the 2000s, many of these artists have been simultaneously exhibiting in London, Liverpool, Nottingham, New York, Berlin, Venice and further. John Akomfrah, Veronica Ryan, Keith Peiper, Donald Rodney, Sonia Boyce, Hassan Hajjaj, Frank Bowling, etc.

That's why I'd love to create dialogues and generate further encounters with African artists exhibiting in other parts of the world, when this book is out.

The book will be available in PDF for educational purposes and in physical copies at Arnolfini's bookshop.

Do get in touch if you're interested in reading and/or taking part in our wider discussion!

Details on Arnolfini's website here.

Bristol Street Art: Books

As part of an exhibition at M Shed, Bristol's history museum, I've been asked to write a chapter in the 'Vanguard' Book about the first graffiti artists in Bristol in the first part of the 1980s.

The producers of the show are trying to organise a book launch and have invited the legendary John Nation and myself to talk about the scene. Probably in late Otober 2021.

In the meantime, you can still find my first book: Massive Attack: Out of the Comfort Zone.

From this month of October, I'm now teaching 5 (!) different modules in journalism, media production and creative industries - including lectures about music journalism, films, news programmes...

It's quite a commitment and I'm grateful to be trusted in these tasks, to learn so much along the way.

I still have a few projects in writing and podcasts coming up... More about them soon.

Feel free to get in touch if any of these ideas above speak to you.

You can also follow my work on Twitter, LinkedIn, via my Facebook page - Melissa on the Road, or my blog.

Many thanks for your attention!

With my very best wishes,

melissa

Melissa Chemam

Writer, Journalist, Researcher

Senior Lecturer in Media at UWE Bristol

Writer in residence at Arnolfini Art Gallery

August News//Letter

Rethinking Art History, Creativity and Colonial History...

- Book Events and New Writing -

Dear friends, colleagues, culture & art lovers,

I hope this email finds you well!

Please, allow me to share with you my latest newsletter.

For more on my writing and reflections about art, music, multiculturalism, post-colonial history, activism, here are a few links and events to come.

Firstly:

Welcome Back Bristol!

Saturday 14th August 2021 18:30 At Waterstones, Bristol - Galleries is very happy to reopen their shop to events!

Join us "local" authors: Martin Booth, Melissa Chemam, Mike Manson and Colin Moody to discuss works on our great city.

Martin is the editor of Bristol24/7 and author of 111 Places in Bristol that you Shouldn't Miss.

Melissa is a journalist, lecturer and author of Massive Attack: Out of the Comfort Zone.

Mike is a local author who has worked on the Bristol Short Story Prize and published several books on the city, including the Bristol Miscellany.

Colin is a photographer whose books document the diversity and spirit of Bristol.

This will be your chance to listen to all four speakers, get a copy of their books signed and enjoy an evening celebrating Bristol.

Free event on Saturday 14 August 2021,18:30 at Waterstones, Bristol - Galleries, register here!

For more on the Bristol's street art scene, here is my article for Reader's Digest:

Bristol's original graffiti artists

In the 80's, Bristol was one of the pioneering graffiti art hotspots in the world. A new exhibition at the M Shed museum in Bristol pays tribute to its history.

Read here.

I AM History

My latest articles for the online magazine on 'Black' art and culture:

>> ‘Mother Of Mankind’ Exhibition Celebrating Black Women Artists

2021 is a great year of reckoning for many Black women artists in the UK. And an amazing set of exhibitions allows us to enjoy their powerful work this summer. It starts with the exceptional Mother of Mankind exhibition on view at the House Of Fine Arts Mayfair space in London, which is free and open until 31 August.

>> Lubaina Himid And Sonia Boyce, Pioneers Of Black British Art

The two pioneering artists paved the way for Black women artists in Britain. Both have incredible work on display this year that you absolutely must see.

Frank Bowling, Icon and Inspiration

This summer, a mesmerising exhibition of the unanimously admired painter Frank Bowling is also on display at Arnolfini, Bristol.

My interview with Frank Bowling will soon be available to read on Art UK here.

Television Series

on Colonial History

In the spring, I've been working as a researcher on a historical TV series still in the making... While the documentary series I've worked on for years has been released on HBO in the USA on Sky and NOW TV in the UK: 'Exterminate All the Brutes'.

'Exterminate All the Brutes', by acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck ('I Am Not Your Negro', HBO’s 'Sometimes in April'), is a four-part hybrid docuseries offering an expansive exploration of the exploitative and genocidal aspects of European colonialism, from America to Africa, and its impact on society today.

Based on works by three authors and scholars — Sven Lindqvist’s Exterminate All the Brutes, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, and Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Silencing the Past— 'Exterminate All the Brutes' revisits and reframes the profound impact of the Native American genocide and American slavery as it fundamentally informs the present.

Review: 'HBO’s Exterminate All the Brutes Is a Radical Masterpiece About White Supremacy, Violence and the History of the West' - Time Magazine

Bristol - Fall of Colston,

One Year On

The statue of 17th century merchant and slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down here in Bristol during a Black Lives Matter protest, on 7 June 2020. 125 years later.

One year on, the statue now is part of a new display at M Shed museum, on the docks, in partnership with the We Are Bristol History Commission.

Read about it here on my blog.

Do get in touch for more.

You can also follow my work on Twitter, LinkedIn, via my Facebook page Melissa on the Road, or my blog.

Many thanks for your attention!

With my very best wishes,

melissa

Donald Rodney, 'Double Think', 1992

July News//Letter: Education, Alternative Art and Multicultural Encounters

Dear friends, colleagues, culture & art lovers,

As the academic year 2020/2021 ends, I have the privilege to have been chosen to become UWE's new Senior Lecturer in Journalism and Media Production, within the Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education (ACE).

Senior Lecturer at UWE Bristol - School of Creative and Cultural Industries

After 9 months as a guest lecturer in Music Journalism at BIMM Bristol and 18 months as an associate lecturer in journalism & in the creative industries at the University of the West of England (UWE), I've learned so much, and I intend to focus on critiquing the news, decolonising the news, and cross-media creativity...

I really enjoy working with UWE; the teams are brilliant and creative. I look forward to new projects next year!

In June, I also interviewed one of our students to talk about how the past year and all its challenges affected them: you can listen on The Quarantini Podcast here.

In the meantime, my writing and reflections about art, multiculturalism, African & post-colonial history, activism... led to interesting encounters, projects and collaborations.

Here are a few articles already published:

I AM History

My latest article for the online magazine on 'Black' history and culture.

Review:

'The Other Black Girl' By Zakiya Dalila Harris

Poetry

Reflecting on a pivotal year in my life, 2015, I decided to share a poem I started writing after my first trip to Bristol and in the midst of a year of terrorist attacks in my city of birth, Paris, followed by a huge backlash on Muslim people in France.

I hope it will resonate with some of you:

https://www.thawra.co.uk/post/heavenly-gardens

I also intend to keep on writing and to pursue my research on multiculturalism and on African-American-European exchanges / relations.

'Heavenly Gardens'

My first poem published by the new literary online magazine THAWRA: https://www.thawra.co.uk/post/heavenly-gardens

Heavenly Gardens

An enemy of our future

Is walking by at dawn.

Our city, darker and darker,

Violated by a gesture,

All broken, drowned and done.

Paris floats like a dreamer.

Its people have become ghosts,

Lost in fear and in terror

Due to men whose hearts turned to stone.

Our meaning has gotten lost

And we no longer can honour

The promise we’ll never be alone.

After death should have come heaven,

We could only find blurred limbos.

Our children will have to look at a glow,

For a path cast away behind a forgotten garden;

And, you and I, we don’t know where it goes.

I only fathom my soul’s salvation, far below.

But the victims are sometimes silenced,

And the real perpetrators masquerade as saviours.

They have buried the traces of the past and distanced

Themselves from their old guilty crimes and dishonours.

Lost lives are all mourned,

But only some get to defend their dolors.

Deep inside my heart, I feel another world breathes,

Way underground, or over the rainbow,

And you and I can reach its gates if we drive

Far, far away, along the right way, beyond death.

Under a wreath, I will carry a crown and take a bow

While you will be able to catch the beat where we thrive.

By Melissa Chemam

May News // Letter

Dear friends, colleagues, culture & art lovers,

As the academic year reaches a milestone with the end of teaching and beginning of assignments (well done students!), here is a letter with more of my professional news (see at the end), and my current artistic explorations...

Please first allow me to share the latest episode of our podcast with a very special artist:

Interview with Artist Susan Thomson

Susan Thomson who shares her thoughts about the pandemic and talks about her new film essay 'The Cytokine Storms'in which she explores the colonial echoes of the UK government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Listen to our interview in Episode 37 here.

Our special feature for music this week is Lady Nade, with her wonderful new title: 'Willing', announcing a new album of the same name for June.

Listen to the song by the end of the episode.

PLUS - we bring you our usual round up of positive responses to the virus from around the world....

And... if you wish to say a few words about this weird year and any solution you found to make your world a better place, do get in touch! We'll feature you.

Meanwhile, as the television series I worked on for years on colonialism - 'Exterminate All the Brutes' - is now available on Sky and NOW TV in the UK, I'm currently working on a new TV project as a researcher (subject to remain confidential for now!); it's for a British historical drama to become a television series as well.

In the meantime, I'd love to share some of my writing and news about art and street art, multiculturalism, African history, and activism...

Enjoy!

The Markaz Review

A few more words on Morocco-born London-based artist Hassan Hajjaj, as his art is exhibited in New York City...

I met him in Bristol last summer and his art has been travelling a lot since then!

Read and have a look here.

The Markaz is back with its 9th Issue on the theme of WALLS...

I AM History

I've also been writing for this great website, IAM History, for about six months now, on 'Black'/African History and Cultures.

My latest article:

Wangari Maathai & The Green Belt Movement

Environmental researchers and activists have been doing an incredible job from the Global South for decades...

And one of the most admirable voices in that field was certainly Wangari Maathai, who was a pioneer from the 1960s and has left a mark with her work.

Bristol's Graffiti History:

Bristol will soon host an exhibition on the history of street art:

Vanguard Exhibition @ M Shed Museum

26 June—31 October 2021

I've been asked to write a chapter in their guide book and should be part of an online discussion later in the summer.

More details soon, in June 2021.

Art Book: Africa at Arnolfini

I'm currently completing a book on African Art in Bristol with the art gallery Arnolfini, as their writer in residence.

It is to be released in September, as previously mentioned.

The project also retraces the routes that binded Africa with the Americas and Europe.

These are themes that have haunted my work as a journalist, researcher and writer since the mid-2000s as least...

I'd love to create dialogues and generate further encounters with African artists exhibiting in other parts of the world, when this book is out. Do get in touch if you're interested!

Senior Lecturer at UWE Bristol - School of Creative and Cultural Industries

And finally, after 9 months as a guest lecturer in Music Journalism at BIMM Bristol and 18 months as an associate lecturer in journalism & in the creative industries at the University of the West of England (UWE), I've been chosen to become UWE's new Senior Lecturer, within the Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education.

From July, I'll be working further with this incredible team of the School of Creative and Cultural Industries, in their renewed BA in Media & Cultural Production, from late June.

I really enjoy working with UWE; the teams are brilliant and creative. I look forward to new projects next year!

Many thanks for your attention!

I hope to see some of you soon in 'reopening' Bristol or London; or in Europe later in the summer, hopefully...

With my very best wishes,

melissa

Melissa Chemam

Writer, Journalist, Researcher

Senior Lecturer @ UWE Bristol

Podcast: https://the-quarantini.captivate.fm/

Web: https://sites.google.com/view/melissachemam

'Exterminate All the Brutes': TV Review

I’m very proud to have worked on this series: A four-part hybrid docuseries by the term behind the award-winning ‘I Am Not Your Negro’s, Raoul Peck and Alexandra Strauss. I was the main researcher for this project for over a year, at the production company, Velvet Film, based in between Haiti and Paris.

Josh Hartnett stars in Raoul Peck’s experimental hybrid docuseries for HBO about colonialism and genocide in Africa and the Americas.

“We would prefer for genocide to have begun and ended with Nazism,” muses filmmaker Raoul Peck in the voiceover that steers his four-part hybrid docuseries Exterminate All the Brutes (HBO). “This would indeed be most comforting.” But genocide was made a prerequisite for the establishment and expansion of America — a fact as obvious to some as it is unacceptable to others. Drawing on the work of historian Sven Lindqvist, from whose 1992 book (and a line from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness) Peck takes the title of his project, the I Am Not Your Negro director argues that, though guns, germs and steel played their crucial parts in the Western colonization of Africa and the Americas, it was a 19th century idea that the extinction of “inferior” races was part of the “natural” course of history that gave Europeans ideological cover to annihilate or brutally exploit the peoples native to those continents. The West won, he asserts, because it was willing to wipe out entire civilizations.

But that summary belies the beauty, the intimacy, the creative leaps, even the whimsies in Exterminate All the Brutes, which approaches the history of European colonialism — starting roughly in the late 1400s, when Columbus set sail and Spanish anti-Semitism and Islamophobia solidified the unscientific concept of race as blood-based — with an essayistic stream of consciousness, especially in the docuseries’ first hour. Peck also employs meta-reenactments — many starring Josh Hartnett (the series’ only recognizable actor) as a kind of colonial Zelig who pops up in the American West and in Africa — to reinforce the continuity between exterminations across the globe, as well as to reinstate the shock of an individual killing, even when real-life victims number in the millions. In a similar technique, Peck often zooms out on photos of victims — say, of a Native American child who’s revealed to be surrounded by dozens of fellow Brown students forced into Christian schools (in a practice that often involved abducting children from their parents) — in an effort to memorialize both the tragedy of the one and the group.

With Exterminate All the Brutes, Peck seeks to shift our perspective, again and again — to get us to see the founding of America as inherently genocidal, to situate race relations today within a centuries-old exercise of homicidal racism and soul-destroying greed and to sit with the mind-boggling amount of suffering that European and American colonial powers inflicted. When a time-lapse graphic illustrates the 12 million captives taken from Africa to the Americas, for example, it moves slowly enough for at least an iota of that oceanful of needless torture to sink in. (“Trading human beings — what sick mind thought of this first?” asks Peck in his forceful, lyrically aphoristic prose.) In case we’ve grown inured to seeing white men kill Black and brown tribespeople — a script passed down to children in the form of playing “Cowboys and Indians” — Peck has Hartnett’s colonizer murder a group of Black men in modern-day clothes in seemingly contemporary Africa, perhaps to see if the different context makes historical genocide feel any more morally shocking, any less an inevitability.

Despite its bleak subject matter, Exterminate All the Brutes is visually gorgeous, at times even easy to watch. There’s a collage effect to its assemblage of maps, photographs, paintings, film clips, home movies, animation, nature videos, thought-experiment sketches and occasional pop-music interludes. (One image you won’t see: a single talking head.) The series is also packed with unexpected observations, connections and asides — part of the docuseries’ pleasure is getting a peek inside a mind as fascinating and worldly as Peck’s. Rather than relay a detached chronology of European colonialism, he offers his own — one that ping pongs between history and art and reflects on his early childhood in Haiti (“I am an immigrant from a shithole country”), as well as his decade and a half in Berlin. As an aspiring film student in Germany, Peck made a movie about a Nazi torture compound, and much of the docuseries is dedicated to comparisons between the Holocaust and the genocides of Africans and indigenous Americans, including the alarming and under-discussed fact that Hitler looked to the near annihilation of Native Americans as an inspiration for his Final Solution.

Exterminate All the Brutes is a daring, imaginative and defiantly challenging artwork — one that often feels like it belongs as much in a museum as on a TV or laptop. That kind of ambition almost guarantees some minor missteps — I’ll admit to being confounded by some of Peck’s pop-song choices, even when they’re intended with irony. Subject matter as heavy as this will also inevitably attract nitpicks — my chief one being that Peck only briefly touches on the sexual violence and exploitation that accompanied the colonizers’ arrivals (an expansive and endlessly painful subject that, admittedly, could be the center of its own four-hour docuseries). But as this introspective yet cosmopolitan cri de cœur demonstrates, Peck is an ideal guide to help us confront the truths we’ve yet to fully grapple with.

Premieres Wednesday, Apr. 7, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO

>> Read on the Hollywood Reporter's website: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/exterminate-all-the-brutes-tv-review?fbclid=IwAR0Jjqq9OCGWQsy93QXEcUl_wIGrWUC8yzj-BO5UyV8zHgE_cw0nS720fVg

Bristol - Riots or Protests? About the Current Media Coverage

Bristol, 26 March 2021

Dear readers,

Let's talk about protests as this week comes to an end...

As an independent writer, journalist, broadcaster, since 2015 I've been writing and reporting extensively about Bristol's tradition of protests and activism. First as a foreign journalist, in French and English for French, German, Canadian and American media, such as Radio France Internationale, France24, the Public Art Review, Nouveau Projet, Socialter and Deutsche Welle.

I've documented past event through interviews with local historians, artists and activists, including Robert Del Naja from Massive Attack, graffiti artist Inkie, Dr Edson Burton, Councillor Cleo Lake, Dr Shawn Sobers and many more, notably for my book about Bristol's music, art and activism.

I'm currently conducting more research on the media coverage of protests, from the 1960s to our days, with a strong focus on the 1980s, the mid-2000s, the 2011 protests, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the events of the past 12 months. In the UK but also France and the USA.

I recently wrote about the toppling of the Colston Statue, the Anti-racist protests in Bristol and education, the Students' Rent Strike, NHS workers' demands for pay rise and other issues.

After following the recent protests here in the city, discussing them with protests, other news producers, activists and students involved in the movement, and while reading reading multiple reports, it remains quite clear that these few days' protests in Bristol have been mostly peaceful.

But did the media coverage reflect that fact? Online media have largely displayed photos of police vans in flames and used headlines such as 'Bristol Burns', instead of detailing the facts. Yet the public shouldn't have to look too much into the sensationalist images from - mostly - freelance photographers enamoured with the glamour of close shots on 20-max rioters at night. And the media should be more careful about clickbait posts and zoom-in, as they focus mostly on fire and brutality. The consequences of such coverage is an increasing discredit of these legitimate protests against a bill attacking our rights... to defend our rights.

Representation of the protests matters. And especially in such case that concern all of us.

I've been lecturing a class on the matter of visual journalism and representation to students since December 2019, at the University of the West of England.

In this case, the protests against the "Police and Crime Sentences" Bill are legitimate and will go on. More protests took place on Friday 26 March, again, peacefully. But the media has betrayed part of the reality, even local media here in Bristol.

This should be corrected and serve as a lesson in good journalism.

Another issue that shouldn't be forgotten or overlooked is: Safety for women, which sparks this affair... Where is the coverage about that matter?

Bristol has a long history of protesting for the good of us all and that shouldn't be undermined by a few extremists or the police's response. I've lengthily detailed part of that history in my book, such as the Old Market Riots, the Bristol Bus Boycott in 1963, and St Paul's Uprising in 1980 and 1986. But what is a book compared to free online content in these days?

In my exchanges with fellow Bristolians, filmmaker friends, news producers, broadcast journalism students and podcasters, this worry hasn't faded away for now. So I hope a few more days of reflection, as the protests grow and rally more supports, will resonate further from here.

March News // Letter: The Markaz's New Issue, Music & Radio, Film, Art Book...

Bristol, 16 March 2021

Dear friends and music/art lovers,

I hope this email finds you all well, and ready for better days!

All over Europe, we can feel that spring is almost here and I hope it is as inspiring where you are as where I find myself, back in Bristol, after a couple of weeks in Paris...

Here are the newest links to my writing and collaborations, which I thought might interest you.

Remember that all of my articles and productions are free to read / listen to. My goal is mostly to spread and share ideas.

TMR - Issue 7 !

The Markaz Review is busy working on its 8th issue! After six months of existence.

Thank you everyone for your support.

Here are our latest pieces and highlights:

> Issue 7 - on the issue of 'Truth?'

Here's the editorial: https://themarkaz.org/magazine/why-truth-

There are also contributions on endangered literacy (Marcus Gilroy-Ware), natural-born liars (Preeta Samarasan), and the truth about Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, where assassinations of journalists are the new form of national censorship.

> For International Women's Day: Faïza Guène’s Fight for French Respectability

> Condemnation of threats against so-called "Islamo-Leftists" in France by Pinar Selek and other academics

> Issue 6 - As we comment on the 10 years of the "Arab Springs", a piece on Revolutions through History

Next: All Eyes on Marseille! And especially its Music Scene through 30 years of hip hop... Out mid-April.

Music/Book: Bristol & Massive Attack - 30 years of Blues Lines

Speaking of music... In the very same timeframe, the Bristol Sound is also reaching a milestone: MAssive Attack's first album, 'Blue Lines' was released 30 years ago in April 1991...

More on 'Unfinished Sympathy', 'Blue Lines' and 'Daydreaming' in my article in the Reader's Digest.

My book, which came out two years ago, is now available on UK Bookshop: 'Out of the Comfort Zone'.

For the 'Francophones', here I am on France Inter discussing more in Pop'n'Co with Rebecca Manzoni: Pop N Co for more than half an hour !

And there'll still be more to say...

Film: 'Exterminate All the Brutes' - Docu series on HBO

Meanwhile, a project I worked on for years is about to come out on television! First in the US, then in the UK and in Europe.

PREMIERES APRIL 7, AT 9PM ET, ON HBO

Exterminate All the Brutes, by acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro, HBO’s Sometimes in April), is a four-part hybrid docuseries offering an expansive exploration of the exploitative and genocidal aspects of European colonialism, from America to Africa, and its impact on society today.

Based on works by three authors and scholars — Sven Lindqvist’s Exterminate All the Brutes, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, and Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Silencing the Past— Exterminate All the Brutes revisits and reframes the profound impact of the Native American genocide and American slavery as it fundamentally informs the present.

I was the main researcher on this project, from 2017 to 2019, and orientated the project on its American angle.

Do watch and let me know what you think!

> Link for American viewers: https://www.hbo.com/exterminate-all-the-brutes

> Viewings to come for UK and Europe

> More details on the film here: http://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/2021/02/more-on-exterminate-all-brutes-on-hbo.html

> Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g37YqLD0BSg

NB. I'd love to organise a screening/talk/debate in Bristol to discuss some of these ideas. Three years ago, a debate was organised at the Watershed around I Am Not Your Negro and I literally forced Raoul Peck to come!

Do get in touch if you feel you'd come and see the film, online or maybe in a cinema later in the spring... when they reopen.

Arnolfini Art Book > Release postponed to September 2021

We're waiting for the coming reopening of Arnolfini's Archives in Bristol to perfect the visuals.

And by waiting for September we have a chance of organising a real event in the art centre's auditorium.

Newsletters

Substack News // Letter

Melissa On The Road

June Substack News // Letter

Winter News // Letter

Autumnal News // Letter

Summer to Autumn News // Letter

Spring News // Letter

January News // Letter 2022

To a better world in 2022

October > November News//Letter

September News//Letter

August News//Letter

Bristol's original graffiti artists

July News//Letter: Education, Alternative Art and Multicultural Encounters

'Heavenly Gardens'

Heavenly Gardens

May News // Letter

'Exterminate All the Brutes': TV Review

Josh Hartnett stars in Raoul Peck’s experimental hybrid docuseries for HBO about colonialism and genocide in Africa and the Americas.

Bristol - Riots or Protests? About the Current Media Coverage

Sonia Boyce: a revolutionary face of contemporary British art

Skin Deep Meets Hassan Hajjaj, about his exhibition ‘The Path’

An interview about my work on arts & culture

An interview about my work in Africa

For Art UK, Reader's Digest, Skin Deep, etc.

Championing today’s disruptors in Black art & entertainment

Writing about African Cultures and History

Black History Matters

Contributor to the Markaz Review

Reporting from Bristol - for RFI

Reporting from Calais, France, on the refugee crisis - for DW, IPS...

Reporting from Paris - for CBC

Reporting from Ethiopia, East Africa

Reporting from Dadaab Refugee Camp, at the Kenyan-Somalian Border

Reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia

Reporting from Kenya & Uganda - for BBC Afrique

Reporting from Iraq

Reporting from Haiti

Reporting from Miami, Florida, USA (2008)

Alfredo Jaar at The Goodman Gallery London

Host at the Bristol Palestine Festival 2022

@ Afrika Eye - film festival (Nov. 2022)

@ Arnolfini - book discussion (July 2022)

Talk @ Bristol Transformed 2022

International Women's Day 2022: the 137 most influential women in Bristol right now

Event: Art of Resistance

Working-Class Writers Festival (2021)

Conversation for Arnolfini

Talk at Waterstones (2021)

In conversation with Patrick Cunningham

Bristol Transformed 2019

On Bristol at the British Library (2019)

BRISTOL PEOPLE OF THE YEAR 2019

On Karl Marx at the British Library (2018)

Lecturer in Media Production & Journalism (2019-22)