6am and I’m up travelling to Nottingham to a showing of Black Archive film from the
BBC. I narrated the piece. It’s about  an hour long and produced by Karen Gebay at BBC Manchester. Gebay who worked on programmes like Roots Remembered and I love the Eighties and loads more, noticed that there’s a lot of archive film in the BBC Vaults of when Caribbeans first came to the UK – but its on film.   After speaking to older generations and BBC staff Gebay sought out  film of that time – a lot of hard work – and
got it transferred from film to digital.  Karen put together these documentaries and
edited them down to an hour.  Did you know that in the seventies the BBC produced a black Top of the Pops called Blackcurrant

It was a migration in some ways  like that of the Americans from the south to the north –  ladened with promise.  How have we come from that to this, the state we are in today, The film is showed to an electrified, alert but abysmal number of people. 

Slightly downhearted  I got on a train and raced the hundred and fifty or so miles  back to London (four hours travelling in total)  changed into a suite (on the train) and got taxi from Paddington West London  to The Troxy cinema in Stepney, east London,   (not Trotsky but troxy, try explaining that to a taxi driver)  where I met The Journalist. It’s a beautiful art deco cinema. I guess it was once an east end dance hall. Pictured.

It was  The event for The Eritrean Liberation Day Celebrations and I found myself sat at a table  next to a footballer for the Eritrean National side.  On the table next to us was the Ambassador for Eritrea. Police lined the barriers outside and a thousand or so people turned up. Security was all over the place. Black suited Body guards scoped the venue from the inside.  They were straight outa The Matrix.  

The Journalist won an award for her book, so to the footballer and so too various others. Back home for midnight. Why don’t these places sell draught beer!  Anyway.  Been a
long day 6am to 12 midnight. Ciao! Inone day two historical events of The Caribbean and of Africa. There’s so much going on in the world…