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mojatu .com
Black History Month
PANYA BANJOKO
Writer, Story-teller
& Performance poet
By Rowan Windsor
Panya Banjoko is a Nottingham-based writer, story-
teller and performance poet. Her work has been
published by IC3 – an Anthlogy of New Black Writing in
Britain, the Millennium commission, and featured in
the award-winning Andi Osho film, Brit I Am, for which
she performed at the 2012 Olympic games.
Panya is British, of Caribbean descent. Her mixed
heritage is reflected in her written and spoken art,
saying her inspiration is drawn from current affairs, the
media and personal experiences. In a recent interview
for LeftLion she discussed how her poetry often
addresses social justice issues like sexism and racism
“I hope my work makes people stop and think what it is
like to be “other”, and for those deemed as “other” to know
they are not alone. I want to use the privilege my ancestors
didn’t have to empower and inform. I’d like for those who
have the power to affect change, even on a micro level,
to step into my shoes for the duration of a performance,
feel what it is like to be peripheral, and then when they’re
faced with a choice or action in the future, to think about
what they do”
Panya has often described how her work is born out
of her own experiences of being “other”, including her
identity as a writer, stating her own experience as a
Black Writer has lacked the opportunities afforded
to her white counterparts. For this reason, Panya has
described how she feels unable to concentrate solely
on being a writer, and is “...obliged to think about and
address wider issues. Addressing the imbalance comes in
many forms, primarily through my work challenging the
status quo and also through supporting and developing
black writers through a network. My work is important
within this context because it seeks to challenge and
inspire.”
Panya is an advocate on behalf of black writers in
Nottingham and is Patron for Nottingham City of
Literature. She addresses the imbalance primarily
through developing black writers, seeking to
challenge, often running workshops aimed at aspiring
writers. Earlier this year she ran a workshop on writing
a response piece to the issues raised in the exhibition
The Place is Here at the Contemporary—an exhibition
examining black artists and the history of the Black
Arts Movement in the UK and the hidden histories
of individuals during this time who were lost in the
bigger political picture.
In addition to her written work and poetry, Panya
addresses the wider issues of black identity by
documenting Nottingham’s black histories. She is the co-
founder and director of the Nottingham Black Archive,
an organisation dedicated to collecting, preserving
and researching the black history, heritage and culture
in Nottingham. Banjoko discussed the importance
of Nottingham Black Archive in documenting and
presenting the presence of Black people and histories
in Nottingham. By making this information accessible
to Nottingham communities, Nottingham Black Archive
highlights the contributions black people have made
and continue to make to Nottingham, which a seldom
explored. The work of the Nottingham Black Achieve
reinforces self-belief among the black community, to
overcome the risk of Nottingham black histories being
forgotten.
Nottingham Black Archive, with Prof Sharon Monteith
of Nottingham Trent University, recently launched
their touring exhibition We Will Remember Them,
which examines the hidden histories of Caribbean and
South Asian soldiers who fought in the Great War. The
exhibition feature original artwork from Jerwod Prize
winner, Barbara Walker and Keith Piper, local narratives
of Irfan Malik and Waple Fleming and the contributions
made by the Indians in Dulmial Viage and the British
West Indian Regiment.