It's half past five, I am just getting over this afternoon's Traitors prom at the RAH, but now it is back up to Gateshead.
Angeline Morrison delivers the Black British story in the medium of folk music arrangements. This prom immediately takes me back a few years, to 2020 and 2021, when Black Lives Matter became hotly topical as a result of the brutal murder of George Floyd. At the time, I became deeply engrossed in Black British history, joining walking tours through the city of Liverpool, and I saw a wholly new side to the city I thought I already knew inside out. Indeed, the race riots of 1919 are described later in this programme; the blue plaque to Charles Wooton was just one of the many landmarks I visited 'during covid'.
Morrison offers a lullaby for lost babies, championing the story of the 'Unknown African Boy,' the vocals and instrumentation are lilting and undulating. We hear of Black history in Wales in the guise of 'Black John' - the first Black British horticulturist.
'The Beautiful Spotted Black Boy' tells a story of an enslaved child exhibited as a curiosity, as was the tradition of the time. The accordion accompaniment adds to the circus theme.
At the moment, there are too many other stories to give them all the absorption they deserve, but when I finish this Proms marathon I will definitely be coming back to visit Angeline Morrison's album of the same name, to give each my full attention and cognition.
And to conclude this post, my own thoughts on the proms and diversity:
The proms audience demographic is, let's face it, an elitist realm populated by the white middle classes. There are - of course, and quite rightly - deliberate efforts being made to increase diversity of the proms performers (what did the artist roster look like 50 years ago compared to now, one wonders?). But what of the audiences? Only when we see the same amount of diversity here will we truly know progress.
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