Dipsaus

Barby Asante and friends present a collective reading of poet, writer and lawyer M. NourbeSe Philip's essay Caribana: African Roots & Continuities, Race Space and the Poetics of Moving. Written in 1996 Caribana traces the history of Caribana, the Toronto Carnival, from the plantation to emancipation, through Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas and to Europe.  Barby and friends bring this reading together in a ceremony of grief and celebration, to remember the deep and long history of carnival as a living practice of resistance, survival, remembrance, joy and mourning, at a time when the COVID 19 pandemic takes the 54th Notting Hill Carnival off the streets and into a virtual space. This reading also reflects on the over policing of Black people in London and across the UK at this moment, asking if once again beka may be using this time to control Totoben and Maise's moving.  Readers: Barby Asante, Paul Goodwin, Foluke Taylor, Anthony Joseph, Gail