Women of the Windrush Tell Their Stories

Passengers disembarking from the
Empire Windrush at Tilbury Dock, June 1948

As part of the Equator Festival at Kings Place on 22 September 2018, composer Shirley J Thompson is curating an evening commemorating the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the MV Empire Windrush in 1948 at Tilbury Docks. Women of the Windrush Tell Their Stories will feature the stories, narratives and memories of the women who came on the Windrush. Shirley J Thompson will be joined by guest artists and composers including Nadine Benjamin (soprano), Rachel Duckett (soprano), Zena Edwards (Mbira/Spoken Word), Gweneth Rand (soprano), Rebekah Reid (Violin & Electronics), Carroll Thompson (Vocalist) and Allyson Devenish (piano), artists themselves descended from the Windrush generation. This multi-media event will showcase a unique mix of music, including classical, electronic, mbira and reggae together with a spoken word element, thus exemplifying the diverse culture of the Windrush communities. An integral part of the event will be the film Memories in Mind: Women of the Windrush Tell Their Stories, which originally inspired Shirley J. Thompson to stage this event.

Between 1948 and 1973, some 524,000 people from the Commonwealth became residents in the UK and Caribbean people currently comprise 3% of Britain's population.

Shirley J. Thompson is an English composer, conductor and violinist of Jamaican descent, and her music was performed at the official Windrush commemoration service at Westminster Abbey earlier in the year.

Full details from the Kings Place website.