Dark Thoughts

Since October 2024 we have been working on a project called Dark Thoughts which you can see a summary of below: 

‘Dark thoughts’ is a documentary series launched to preserve, identify and promote the work of black philosophers and intellectuals in western countries. Part 1 of the series is focused on the life of abolitionist Ottobah Cugano, a freed slave who in the 18th century campaigned to end the slave trade as a philosopher, activst and author in the UK. The series features a range of leading thinkers, scholars and community advocates including professors who are the world’s leading authorities in their subject areas. Interviewees include: 

  1. Professor Vincent Caretta author of the Peguin edition of Ottobah Cugano’s work.
  2. Professor Llyod Benton specialist in the abolition of slavery from Glasgow University 
  3. Professor Wouter Peetes, global ethics specialist and philosopher from Birmingham university 
  4. Dr. Jude Nuatror, specialist in Business administration 
  5. Celia Tummings, Director of lerato community initiative 
  6. Richard Hay, magistrate and founder of Ridger radio station 
  7. Simon Hudson, Author of history through the black experience 

During the documentaries creation we worked with 20 illustrators, animator, musicians, filmakers who have a variety of support needs to create this production and collaborated with the Museum of London docklands who decided to provide a workshop and allowed us to film in their galleries. In the end the artists created created over 20 soundtracks, paintings, animations and filmed interviews which which went into this work. 

You can see our series here:

https://youtu.be/cUw22TZd90w?si=WuEalLbcjiRPI7Eq

Then into 2025 we launched a second phase of the project in September which you can see below:

We held 2 events and reached out to London based artists working with artists who have now created over 30 additional pieces ranging from paintings, digital illustrations, filmed dramatisations, musical tracks, interviews and photos celebrating history and depicting the work of black writers in Britain. We recruited actors who have dramatised the writings and work of historical figures in Britain including:

  1. Granville Sharp 
  2. Joseph Preistly 
  3. Sarah Parker Remond 
  4. Mary Prince 

And a few others. 

During our events part 1 of our documentary was screened and illustration and lyric writing workshops were delivered by producer Richard, MOBO winning musician Still Shadey and illustrator Ace visuals. 

So far we have reached over 30 new artists this year in our second phase and we look forward to featuring this work on our online exhibition. 

We thank our funders Croydon voluntary action, MSN and Woodward charitable trust.