Announcing the world premiere of Jay Bernard's multimedia poetry show, 'Surge'. The GPI's former poet-in-residence will be performing at the Albany in London, 20-22 June 2019.
In 1981 a fire broke out at a house in New Cross. Thirteen young black people died and the political events that followed would have a dramatic effect on our understanding of what it means to be Black and British.
Inspired by that story, Surge is a poetic exploration of what came after - the resistance, activism and changing notions of the state, the body and the city, narrated by the ghosts of the fire. Rooted in the area's local history, this is a show that imaginatively blends the personal and the political, tracing a line from Thatcherism, the colour bar and the National Front to our current age of Brexit, Grenfell and May.
Join Jay Bernard, winner of the 2017 Ted Hughes Award, as they explore this important history using poetry, archive film and audio.
