Art Bytes

50 YEARS UNDOCUMENTED IN THE UK

 

The BBC has made a film on the story of a Jamaican whose life was changed by the Windrush scandal. “Sitting in Limbo” is a drama is about Anthony Bryan and his three-year fight with the British government to avoid being deported after entering the country legally and living there quietly for 50 years.

Bryan was one of many wrongly targeted and illegally detained by the government from 2012-2017 after it destroyed thousands of landing card slips that recorded arrival dates and placed responsibility for providing those proofs on the accused. Most of them were forcibly deported, although the full scope of how many people were affected still isn’t known. Bryan lost his job, couldn’t claim a pension or use the NHS, and was separated from his partner, Janet, and his seven grandchildren. As of 2020, 1,207 individuals have filed for recompense, but only 36 have been awarded money.

While Bryan has not yet been compensated, in May 2018 he was issued his official paperwork live on the “Good Morning Britain” TV show and a plane ticket to Jamaica so he could finally visit his aged mother.

Art Bytes

Jamaican-born Brooklyn artist Michael Escoffery is being featured in the annual Harlem Fine Arts Show. An award-winning painter, Escoffery’s work focusses primarily on women.

To mark Bob Marley’s 75th birthday this year, a music video for his hit Redemption Song was released on his YouTube channel.

Tallawah, a new exhibition, by photographer Nadine Ijewere and hairstylist Jawara Wauchope celebrates the way Jamaican women across generations and countries express their selfhood and cul

Flight by Jamaican directors Kia Moses and Adrian McDonald was recently awarded Best Short Film at the Belize International Film Festival.

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is staging a competition for the design of their new logo.

Fibre artist and illustrator Lisa Davis has created a line of colouring books, dolls and other products for girls of colour under her company The Craft People.

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