__________

From: [log in to unmask]

NEW CENTURY BLACK BRITAIN : Despatches on the Black Experience from street
protests, culture  and politics to cyberpower.

By Thomas L Blair © 20.09.10

Holiday Black Londoners “Play Mas”,  but need resources to defeat cultural
racism

Now is the time for “We t’ing!” No, I don’t mean the “rum and rhythm”
street party that attracts a million revellers every August to Notting
Hill, the iconic Black district in London. Now is the time to refute what
many think but dare not say:  that Black people in Britain have
“No-culture, no-history and hence no-worth, no power, no-chance”

The dispiriting fact is that carnival leaders are in a double-bind in the
fight against cultural racism. They must campaign against drastic cuts in
public arts funding. In addition, generate the resources to keep Black
cultural opportunities alive and local.

Militant cultural activist, Kwesi Owusu, sees carnival arts as a vital
weapon against dominant Western elite culture and its art forms. “What can
we consider better than freedom”, he asked in /The Struggle for Black Arts
in Britain/.

 CAMPAIGN AGAINST CUTS
First, community leaders must question the English Arts Council’s average
cuts of £2-£10,000 that threaten carnival small enterprises. The
well-heeled Royal Opera House and the Royal Shakespeare Company can
weather the cuts, but Black organisations that serve children and young
people, are at risk, say leaders.

The UK Centre for Carnival Arts based in Luton is on the barely-surviving
list. Tiny groups such as the Notting Hill Mas Bands Association and the
Elimu Carnival Club may have to close their costume making, music,
stagecraft, and performance workshops. Under threat, too, are cultural
guru Prof Stuart Hall’s Institute of International Visual Arts and the Yaa
Asantewaa Arts and Community Centre.

 “Many jobs will disappear and programmes ended, if carnival organisations
don’t fight back. It’s a challenge for survival of the icon of Black
British culture”, said Alex Pascall, educator and “ambassador” of
Caribbean culture in Britain.

GENERATE RESOURCES
Second, in today’s savage economic climate, cash-strapped carnival leaders
need to attract support from a range of social groups. Top
African/Caribbean sports and entertainment are obvious fundraisers.
Rank-and-file support from the small Black elite and middle class, just
starting to grow strong, is urgent.

Fraternal, trade and professional associations could rally their members
in a burst of philanthropic zeal. The “new Black metro-elites” in
government, politics, business, banking, media and information technology
have a duty to promote the arts and culture in Black communities, it is
said.

This new “tithing” principle is linked to the emerging view that the major
property-owning and wealthy Black churches should support the Notting Hill
Carnival community arts.

London’s mega-African religious charity, Kingsway International Christian
Centre's (KICC), could set a standard for creating cultural capital: the
vital elements are arts, business and philanthropy.

FIGHT CULTURAL RACISM WITH ACTION/KNOWLEDGE

Third, Black intellectuals should refute the stereotypes and slander that
limit the creative potential of Black communities. They can produce the
books, articles and lectures that nourish the fragile roots of Black
British cultural heritage, of which Carnival is an important part.

Furthermore, beating the “pan” for Black culture and expression, they can
encourage British African/Caribbean people to:

· Formulate a mission statement, syllabus and structure of the first
University of Black Studies and the Arts in Britain.

· Create the first Black Digital Centres of cultural production that are
user-friendly and linked to digital reservoirs of knowledge and cultural
action.

· Write the first Black British intellectual journals and Black-authored
histories of Black Britain in print, eBook formats and Internet web sites.

· Launch the first training projects in cultural production and tourism
highlighting maps of African/Caribbean markets, heritage and cultural
sites

· Set standards for integrating Black culture into core academic subjects
and supplementary community centres for schoolchildren and students at
crucial stages in their lives.

BUILD VIBRANT ARTS COMMUNITIES

Creative endeavours like this will prove the slanderers wrong. The
financial climate is tough, but frontline Black arts organisations are a
compelling case for public and private investment.

Renascent Black communities can build on the cultural arts they produce.
They can plough their financial and intellectual resources into community
development. Thereby, they can raise their status and power to compete
with other minority ethnic groups.  Moreover, it should be recognised that
carnival was meant to symbolise an enduring truth of the Black cultural
experience in Britain. As Claudia Jones, “Mother of the Notting Hill
carnival” proclaimed: “A people’s art is the genesis of their freedom.”

Prof Thomas L Blair is author of The Audacity of Cyberspace: The struggle
for Internet power in the Editions Blair series. Available in print and
e-book format at http://www.thomblair.org.uk.  To keep your Black British
and Afro-Europe research/study interests blooming, follow my commentaries
on http://www.chronicleworld.org, and http://chronicleworld.wordpresss.com

‘Til next time.

Contact e-mail: [log in to unmask]