Bob Marley on Gifford Street – BBC Radio 4 Thursday 1130am

Paul Convery and Diane Shelley alerted me to this wonderful sounding programme going out tomorrow on BBC Radio 4 about the Keskidee Centre on Gifford Street, Britain's first black arts centre.  (iPlayer) WIth Alan's help I have dug up the 'Is This Love' video on YouTube (below or click here) and amazingly it is recognisably Gifford Street and the surrounding area.  It sounds unmissable – will update with a link from iPlayer when it is up.

Paul says:

'Oral Historian Alan Dein, will be broadcasting his programme tomorrow at 11.30am on Radio 4fm.  The topic tomorrow will be very close to the heart of the those of us that were around in the 70's. Alan will take us back to the church hall on Gifford Street behind the Caledonian Road, that housed the Keskidee Centre, which was a pioneering Arts Centre for young black artists. 
 
Many will remember Oscar Abrams the founder member and the centre where dub poet, Linton Kwesi Johnson was the education officer. Keskidee was the centre that Bob Marley personally selected, to shoot the video 'One Love'.'

Alan Dein says:

'It's a fascinating glimpse into the recent social history of the area, and I hope that the broadcast may lead to further projects based on the story of the  Keskidee – we hope to have an exhibition at the Islington local history centre ready for Black History week, and maybe a plaque cld be considered for the building too.

[Update – 'I got Is this Love' confused with 'One Love' – the latter featured extracts from the video of the former so I revised this post to embed 'Is This Love' which was entirely shot in the Keskidee Centre and surrounding streets – thanks to Alan for clearing this up – william]

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About William Perrin

Active in Kings Cross London and South Oxfordshire, founder of Talk About Local, helping people find a voice online and a trustee of The Indigo Trust , Good Things Foundation and ThreeSixtyGiving as well as Connect8.
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1 Response to Bob Marley on Gifford Street – BBC Radio 4 Thursday 1130am

  1. Unknown's avatar Paul Convery says:

    The programme is available in an MP3 file that I have posted here:
    http://www.paul.convery.dsl.pipex.com/downloads/20090507_keskidee.mp3

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