Carol Leeming’s cultural highlights

Photo by Peter Houtman

Carol is Leicester-born, of Jamaican parentage, and director of Dare to Diva, set up in the 2000s. She is a poet, playwright, director, curator, musician, composer, film maker, visual artist, and public speaker. Carol is a guest lecturer for the MA in Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University, Associate Curator of Africa Diaspora Film, Phoenix Cinema & Arts Centre, Leicester, Associate Writer/Director of Curve Theatre, Leicester, and a former RLF Reading Round Lector. Carol received the MBE as a poet and playwright and is an elected Fellow of the RSA. Recent poetry commissions include Leicester University, BBC Proms, and The City University, London.

 

Exhibition: 100 Black Women Who Have Made a Mark: Serendipity Black Arts Heritage Institute 

When you go to see the exhibition 100 Black Women Who Have Made a Mark, you’ll feel jubilant, thrilled to know you are a part of a very important British Black history. Curated by Pawlet Brookes of the Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage, the exhibition just came to an end at the De Montfort University Gallery. This celebratory, expansive exhibition seeks to address the erasure of Black women in portraiture in the UK and features the excellent work of five young, very different in style Black women artists: Gayle Ebose, Grace Lee, Yvadney Davis, Valerie Asiimwe Amani and Lauryn Pinard.

courtesy of Patricia Vester
 https://www.serendipity-uk.com/whats-on/key-events/100blackwomen/

 

Poetry: Unruly Blood by Olivia Douglass 

The British Nigerian writer and poet Olivia Douglass’s poems got under my skin in a tent at the Love Supreme Festival last summer. Whilst being drawn in, I kept thinking Douglass’s poetry reminds me of Audre Lorde’s open sensuality. Later, when reading Douglass’s poetry collection with its themes of selfhood and family, I find that Lorde is a key influence on this talented artist. Douglass is completely affecting in her deft use of language, offering a haunting quality I like; poems which seem to cling to you for myriad reasons. However, you can never quite put your finger on why – wholly intriguing. 

https://badbettypress.com/product/unruly-blood-olivia-douglass/

 

Musical: Standing at the Sky’s Edge  

Seeing the barn-storming musical-theatre show Standing at the Sky’s Edge brought me to my feet at the Gillian Lynn Theatre, London. It was wonderful; truly compelling due to Richard Hawley’s music and lyrics. I identified strongly with its historical span, covering some of the worst Thatcher years; decades of families experiencing gut-wrenching stories of struggle on a council estate in a city up North. It is this aspect in particular that pulled my heart strings so hard; there is no other British musical theatre, working-class-narrative like it, utilising some very ingenious stage craft, great voices, all performed with pathos and real brio.

https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/standing-at-the-skys-edge-2/

  

Food: African Puff Puff 

At my local Nigerian Cafe, relishing my dish of African Puff Puff with chicken, fried plantain and pepper sauce, I am transported, joyous like Proust savouring his madeleines. African Puff Puffs are a simple delicacy enjoyed across West Africa and on a par, in terms of fond affection, with African Caribbean Dumplings. Importantly, both of these fried soul foods offer the most exquisite gratification. African Puff Puff has more complexity due to the addition of yeast and sugar in its preparation. This is what makes them so wholly irresistible!  

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

 

Fashion: Tanavoho Black Women’s Natural Hairstyle

I’m enjoying wearing a new, fashion hairstyle called Tanavoho, with many compliments received. Along with other Black women across the African Disapora, I can thank superstar Rhianna for setting a new, global, natural hair trend in 2024. It’s a traditional Black, natural, women’s hairstyle from the Sakavala nation In Madagascar. It was cool in the 70s to have just two large Afro puffs of hair, worn close on either side of the head. The fashion now is for many smaller Afro puffs of hair, worn around and away from the head, secured at the ends of plaited or tightly-wrapped hair strands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clGIaXz-iFQ

Music: Franz Von 

Franz Von is a unique, British rapper extraordinaire. Born in Jamaica, he hails from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. I first heard his mellifluous rap streams of political, social consciousness this year live and direct, watching him electrify audiences from the stage. Franz Von mixes up Afrocentric music: African, Reggae, Hip Hop and other genres. He is in demand as a collaborator, emcee of Afrofusion kings K.O.G. & The Zong Brigade and jazz fusionists TC & The Groove Family. As a rapper he captures the current zeitgeist, with a  broad, sensitive, collective, person-centred and hard-hitting repertoire. Admirably, he is also fully committed to creative community as a Board Director for Sheffield Flourish, addressing support for mental health. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_tWgeyL0CU

 

A favourite  WritersMosaic Writer: Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine is a very innovative inspirational author, exploring diverse subjects and forms. She writes with wit and tremendous verve. I like how I can immerse myself fully into what sometimes feels like familiar scenarios and characters.