Dr Aleema Gray is a Jamaican - British historian who co curated the British Library's exhibition 'Beyond The Bassline: 500 Years of Black British music in 2024. I visited when I was being publicly critical of BBC 1xtra, Capital Xtra and now Kiss Xtra's representation of our music in their daytime selection, and I credit this exhibition as one of the sparks behind my writing at that time and the phrase I use - 'What The Man Dem Put Up The Aerials For' 🟨. A salutation to those that built the foundations that we are still working on top of today.
We speak about the starting point for the exhibition, John Blanke, what curating and archiving is, the term ‘Black British’ and it’s evolution and the modern connection between the UK and Jamaica.
Dr Gray also runs a research studio House of Dread, and lives between London and Jamaica
Deep Feedback is produced by New Strange
