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Free, booking essential
Join us online for our symposium examining the social history and legacy of Brixton in the 1980s
This symposium will be livestreamed via YouTube
You will receive a link to the livestream 1 day before the event
You can also join us in person for the talk at Autograph's gallery in East London
Brixton in the 1980s was shaped by radical action with activist groups, community centres and art spaces confronting disparities in race, gender and wealth. Within this politically charged atmosphere, photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s Railton Road studio transcended into a sanctuary visualising black queer self-expression, offering a powerful lens into the intersections of identity, politics and art.
Autograph’s new exhibition The Studio – Staging Desire features never-before-seen photographs from this era by Fani-Kayode, who was a prominent figure in the Black British art scene and contributing member of the Brixton Artists Collective. To commemorate his radical vision, this symposium will bring together artists, historians, writers and residents who experienced and participated in this creative moment in social history – as well as those inspired by its legacy.
Join us online for a panel discussion exploring the socio-political climate of 1980s Brixton. Panel one will delve into local social activism involving anti-racism movements, LGBTQ+ rights campaigns and grassroots community organising that sought to challenge institutional inequalities. Following this, we will turn our focus toward the future in a second panel. Panel two will examine the ongoing impact of these movements and explore how they continue to inspire activism and creative practices around identity, community, and representation.
Speakers include Ajamu X, Andrew Hurman, Oumou Longley, Jacob V Joyce, Lucy Davies and Binta Yade – with more to be announced. You can see the photographs Fani-Kayode took at his Brixton studio from 1983 until his death in 1989 in the VR exhibition tour of The Studio – Staging Desire.
Everyone is welcome to join, from any location. The language used will be English
Only our event speakers and host will be visible on screen
Ajamu (1963, Huddersfield, UK) is a photographic artist, scholar, archive curator and radical sex activist best known for his imagery that challenges dominant ideas around black masculinity, gender, sexuality, and representation of black LGBTQ+ people in the United Kingdom.
He is the co-founder of rukus! Federation and the rukus! Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer + Archive and one of a few leading specialists on Black British LGBTQ+ history, heritage, and cultural memory in the UK. In 1997, Ajamu was the Autograph x Lightwork artist-in-residence in Syracuse, USA developing a series of self-portraits during his residency. He is currently an PhD candidate at Royal College of Art, London. In 2022 Ajamu was canonised by The Trans Pennine Traveling Sisters as The Patron Saint of Darkrooms in his hometown Huddersfield and he received an honorary fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society.
Ajamu’s works have been shown in exhibitions in museums, galleries, and alternative spaces globally since the 1990s.
Andrew Hurman was one of the founding members and directors of the Brixton Artists Collective, the group of artists that set up and ran the Brixton Art Gallery from its opening in June 1983.
Hurman worked on the organisation's administration and co-curated exhibitions including; Rasheed Araeen:Third World Within and Monika Baker: Reflections of the Black Experience.
In 2008 he launched Brixton50 a digital archive relating to Brixton Art Gallery which was followed in 2022 by Black British Artists Archives a more generalised archive relating to the work of Black British artists working in the 1980s - both being based on his personal collection of hard copy ephemera. From 1984-93, he also wrote the weekly art reviews for TNT magazine and in 2023 he self-published Brixton Art Gallery 1983-86: An Illustrated History.
Lucy Davies is the Director of 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, Brixton, where she has worked since 1999. Her career has been primarily focused on increasing opportunity and visibility for emerging artists and curators of Colour.
Since becoming Executive Director in 2002 Lucy has been responsible for the strategic development of 198 including the artistic programme, education and community learning programmes and more recently, the capital redevelopment of 198’s premises in Railton Road, for which the organisation won a RIBA award. In a personal capacity Lucy also mentors artists, offering support in areas such as fundraising, project management and curation. She has also mentored other VSO organisations in the Brixton community, leading community development initiatives and developing strategic partnerships.
Jacob V Joyce’s work ranges from afro-futurist world-building workshops to mural painting, comic books and performance art. Joyce is a non-binary artist amplifying historical and nourishing new queer and decolonial narratives.
Joyce has self-published several zines and illustrated international human rights campaigns for Out Proud African LGBTI, Amnesty International, Global Justice Now and had their comics in national newspapers. TFL Arts Grant awardee and former artist in residence at Gasworks, Serpentine, The Museum of Homelessness, Nottingham Contemporary and Tate Galleries Education department. Find out more: jacobvjoyce.com and via @jacobvjoyce on Instagram. They are currently a doctoral candidate researching the history of Black British arts education at Westminster University.
Oumou is a writer, researcher and creative practitioner interested in the messy and fugitive ways that Black life is documented, in both personal and cultural archives.
Oumou’s curiosity in this began on the LSE MSc Gender in 2018, where their research into Black British activist Olive Morris - available in the Feminist Review - began. In 2021 Oumou produced an audio piece about Morris titled ‘Voices of the Archive’ for the ICA and BBC New Creatives Scheme, which premiered on BBC Introducing Arts radio. In 2022, Oumou expanded this work into a 10-day installation in Brixton Market for Lambeth Windrush. They recently shared oral history research on an LSE panel that celebrated ‘Legacies of the Brixton Black Women’s Group’ and seek to reflect on the intimacy and informality of spaces that have preserved Black histories, where institutions have failed to.
Binta Yade is a Senegalese-Italian-Australian community organiser, poet and lawyer living in South London. She is the co-founder of the Aada Collective, a Pan-African collective dedicated to reviving and reimagining Pan-African school of thought through afro-centric community engagement and decolonial education.
She is the cultural programmer for The Black State, a community organisation championing radical thought and action among Black youth. Beyond this, she plays an active role in several organisations namely educational charity Thinking Black, Poetic Unity andBlack Cultural Archives. Alongside her community work, she is a published poet whose work in the past year has seen her perform internationally. Across all her work, Binta hopes that people feel seen, heard, held and called to critically engage with and strengthen the local and global communities that shape us.
31 Oct 2024 - 22 Mar 2025
Never-before-seen works from the artist Rotimi Fani-Kayode's wider practice, exploring themes of culture, intimacy, desire and pain.
Introducing Autograph's new exhibition
Read | 4 min read
Interview with Fani-Kayode's friend and model, Dennis Carney
Read interview | 8 min readExploring the context of Brixton in the 1970s and '80s
Read blog post | 5 min readEvan Ifekoya reflects on the Fani-Kayode's photographic practice
Read blog post | 8 min readJason Okundaye on queer erotica in the archives of Black cultural memory
Read blog post | 4 min read
Ajamu's self-portrait responds to the legacy of Fani-Kayode
View artist commissionBanner image: Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Untitled [detail], 1988. © Rotimi Fani- Kayode. Courtesy of Autograph, London
Speakers: 1) Ajamu signing prints of Power Drill Heels at Autograph, 2021. 2) Courtesy Andrew Hurman 3) Courtesy Oumou Longley 4) Courtesy Jacob V Joyce 5) Courtesy Lucy Davies 6) Courtesy Binta Yade
Part of the Exhibition: Rotimi Fani-Kayode: The Studio – Staging Desire exhibition at Autograph, London. Photograph by Kate Elliott.
Autograph is a place to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.
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