Gipsy Ln
Oxford OX3 0BP
UK
Surge is an award-winning multimedia project dealing with the 1981 New Cross “massacre” – a fire at a birthday party in south London which killed 13 young black people. Inspiration for the piece, initially called Surge: Side A, came from Jay’s residency at the George Padmore Institute, a research centre in London for black history, and they continue to develop the work.
“(S)tartling and fresh and unique… a moving and powerful struggle for validation in the Black British community, and the poet’s own clarification of identity” – Judges of the 2017 Ted
Hughes Prize for New Work in Poetry.
Jay Bernard is from London and works as a writer and film programmer at BFI Flare (London’s LGBT film festival). Surge: Side A was produced by Speaking Volumes and performed at the Roundhouse as part of The Last Word Festival 2017 for which
Jay won the 2017 Ted Hughes Prize.
This event is part of Black History Month 2018 at Oxford Brookes University.