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Festival

Various dates

Black history Month 24: Black Music Exhibitions Toxteth Library

Dates
Admission -
Social -

Throughout October as part of Liverpool’s Black History Month Celebrations

Echoes From The Islands

Echoes from the Islands is a multimedia exhibition featuring three high-profile and successful UK reggae icons in a twenty-minute film that takes the audience on a journey through their musical careers. From starting out as the children of the Windrush generation – to taking their music to a global audience – the exhibition shares fascinating stories from Macka B, Tippa Irie and Sandra Cross, shown within a vintage Jamaican Sound system with the public listening to the films via headphones.

The Exhibition has been created by Liverpool based artists Whispered Tales and launched at Africa Oyé Festival on Windrush Day. It has toured three public libraries across Liverpool and was accompanied by a programme of schools workshops. Funded by Windrush Day and Liverpool City Council UKSPF.

Beyond The Bassline

Beyond the Bassline is a national exhibition highlighting 500 Years of Black British Music. The first major exhibition about Black music in Britain, it shines a spotlight on different voices and perspectives to celebrate Black British music as a form of entertainment and vehicle for community, as well as a source of liberation, protest and education. Stepping into carnivals, clubs and record shops across the country, Beyond the Bassline draws on different places that have cultivated creative expression and inspired a number of Black British music genres.

We’re delighted to present a selection of pieces from Beyond The Bassline at Toxteth Library. This exhibition has been curated by the British Library for member libraries in the Living Knowledge Network and celebrates Black British music over 500 years, from carnival and community to politics and protest.

‘Beyond the Bassline’ provides an opportunity to look at our archive and library collections and to reach out to local organisations to curate exhibition content.

Liverpool: Next Stop New York

Liverpool: Next Stop New York is an evolving social archive – initially established to explore the ways in which Black American music found it’s way to Liverpool, and how it inspired and was expressed by local musicians and performers – and now encompassing the history of Black music in Liverpool, including it’s unsung performers, forgotten recordings and lasting impact.

Selected photographs from the Liverpool: Next Stop New York archive are available to view at Toxteth Library through October – including pictures of Earthbeat, The L8 Defence Committee and Somali Centre.

We want to hear from YOU!

Do you have Stories of the Blues? What are your memories of Liverpool’s Sound System culture? Where you there when the lights went up at the Ibo Centre or The Frontline? Your memories and souvenirs are an important part of social history, and should be documented for future generations. The history of sound systems is also a story of joy and community cohesion, which, in the current climate, is something that needs to be remembered, and celebrated.

To help us preserve this history for future generations:

  • Write down your thoughts and memories, and drop them into our speaker at Toxteth Library, Windsor Street, Liverpool, L8 1XF
  • Bring down your photographs, flyers, records etc to Toxteth Library – to be scanned or recorded. You can do this every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, between 2pm and 4pm, throughout October 2024. Please tell a member of Library staff that you are here to see the Writing on the Wall team.
  • Email us at festivals@writingonthewall.org.uk
  • Get in touch if you’d like to arrange a recorded interview – to talk about your memories and experiences, all to be included in our growing archive, via the email address above.

Keep in touch

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