Tell us a little about yourselves and your backgrounds.

Sade: I originally began my venture into the arts as a fashion designer, though I detested this stereotypical definition and term ‘designer’, as I didn’t conform to the term so I created the term Anticlone. Anticlone means to not conform to suit society so that being said, I am an artist, Anticlone fashion designer, creative director and photographer. I grew up in Peckham and I was raised by a powerful first-generation immigrant Jamaican single mother who was an artist, graphic designer and teacher. My mother being one of the first black women to work on ID-magazine introduced my world to fashion and art which then became a natural part of my environment and life. I grew up in London, Peckham to be precise and in the ’90s Peckham was a neighbourhood mixed with diversity and different cultures (African, Caribbean and Indian) unlike now where gentrification is rife and it is predominantly white.

My late mother being a teacher taught me that education is wealth. We moved from Peckham to Greenwich where the difference was blatant and clear from the jump. Two extreme differences were the lack of diversity and culture and though it was/is a more affluent area however it also is a predominantly white area, as was the school I went to. Haberdashers Askes as brilliant as it was, I remained humbled to live amongst a diverse community with knowledge of my ancestry and history from my late mother which reminded me to not forget my foundation. I recognised from an early age people coming from a similar background as I didn’t know their history. I was taught by my late mother and continue to be self-taught as the educational systems then and now have no intention of presenting the truth.

My heritage is mixed with Jamaican ancestry, (before colonisation my ancestry stems from in order; Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Congo, Massai and my father is Colombian, Peruvian and Italian. I recognise I was privileged to have a mother who had the black history and life experience as knowledge to share, I was moulded to have a determination which enabled me to express myself creatively as well as appreciate academic knowledge, enough to attend University of the Arts London, though I don’t believe everyone must attend university, the experience itself widened my knowledge on who I aspired to be and what I intend not to be. The conformed backwards way of the education system pushed me to then create The Anticlone movement and Sade English; visual and wearable art. I had the advantage of freedom and knowledge which allowed me to express myself and develop my artistry and identity which is present throughout my work.

Anna : I’m an artist with my primary creative practice being photography and I have recently started creating work as a filmmaker. My creative practice focuses on creating imagery that centres and celebrates black beauty and explores themes of identity, blackness and queerness. I founded and run a fashion publication called Blue Magazine, which focuses on depicting black joy and beauty, I created the publication out of a frustration of the lack of diverse depictions of blackness within fashion imagery and as a result of growing up wanting to see representation that I could relate to.

I spent my early childhood living in Croydon, a diverse and multicultural environment, to moving to Kent and being one of the few non white students at my school and at that point I became acutely aware of my racial identity and experiencing a feeling of being ‘othered’. And it was at that point the mantra of having ‘to work twice, three times as hard’ as our white counterparts felt very accurate to my experience.

I studied graphic design at Chelsea college of art, and at the time I studied there was not as much diversity at all, sadly like a lot of educational institutions. Whilst studying I sought other creative pathways and I started assisting a photographer and from there started to develop my own creative practice and style of image making and art direction.

My mother is half Italian, half St Lucian and my father is Jamaican. Being raised my a single mother of mixed race heritage, I grew up hearing her stories of her parents immigrating to England and seeing the no blacks, ‘no dogs no Irish signs’ and of her struggle dealing with people’s ignorance at a time when being mixed race was not as common as it is today. Growing up I felt quite disconnected to my Caribbean culture and it wasn't until I was a young adult that I visited Jamaica for the first time. From quite a young age I’ve been interested in reconnecting with my family and wanting to learn my history.

Why did you both decide to create the ‘Black Exchange’?

Sade: Anna and I collaborated first as artists and naturally a friendship evolved. I recognised instantly we had similar yet different experiences that led us to have reoccurring conversations regarding race, black matters, the arts, society, politics and radicalism. All whilst trying to relearn history. History is often written by the winner, not people who lost to matters out of their control. It is necessary I relearn my native American and African history and Anna too has this desire with her mixed heritage. This similarity to understand the amount of unanswered questions regarding our unknown history which seems endless, developed the motive to learn and share these having conversations not just between ourselves but within a collective of people, a community.

Anna: The Black Exchange was created and evolved out of conversations we were having together about what it meant to be black British, exploring our mixed race heritage, of our experiences as artists.

I felt frustrated at the lack of Black History we had learned at school, specifically the erasure of Black British History. There felt a need to extend these conversations beyond ourselves and through Black Exchange hope to widen the discourse and build community in order for us to learn from each others experience and exchange knowledge.

Why the name Black Exchange?

Anna: The name reflects the ethos and aim of Black Exchange, for people to come together and share and exchange knowledge and experiences.

Sade: Africa is the second largest continent in the world, after Asia. Being a second generation Jamaican image I saw there was a disconnect with the Caribbean community even referring to themselves as African in my youth. This alone showcased the disconnect we have as African descendants . Therefore creating a name that signifies togetherness was essential.

Black. This term is symbolic to society and unifies everyone as descendants from the African diaspora and Africans no matter what part of the world we are from. We intend to exchange our knowledge and opinions, this alone is self explanatory as nobody is going to teach the real history to us, for us.

What would you say are some of the rising issues that led to the decisions to start the Black Exchange?

Anna: I would say for me the drive to create the Black Exchange has been a culmination of seeing issues affecting people from the African diaspora, both close to home and those affecting black communities overseas. I remember going to a Black lives matter protest a couple of years ago in London which was in response to all of the deaths of unarmed african americans at the hands of the police, there was a real sense of unity and collective anger and sadness at the situation, but afterwards I felt like that collective energy wasn’t being harnessed as there was a lack of black political movement within the UK .

I think we have a tendency when discussing Black social issues in the UK to centre discussions of institutional racism, white privilege. Rather than focus on why we are conforming and to trying to make ourselves palatable to be accepted and asking for a seat at the table instead creating our own tables, that are designed to centre us. A lot of the problems within our society and the institutions that are excluding or tokenising and misrepresenting us rather than focusing on the issues within the Black community and ways in which we can ourselves can unlearn the western ideologies and how we can mobilise ourselves. How we can create spaces for ourselves and how we can support and uplift one another.

One of the other reasons was the desire to learn my own history. The history that is erased from the curriculum. When we are taught about Black History the focus is always on African American history, the British have a way of overlooking their colonial history and the only real mention of Britain’s role in the slave trade, is when it comes to Slave trade being abolished, they manage to paint a very rosy picture ignoring Britain’s integral role within slavery. And its obviously very ironic with the recent political landscape of Brexit, the anti immigrant rhetoric and the disgusting way in which the Windrush generation have been treated. That is the problem with our history being whitewashed and brushed under the carpet, people seem to have forgotten the Windrush generation were invited to come and help rebuild Britain after the war. In essence the erasure of history enables current day ignorance and racism and has encouraged the resurgence of right wing hate politics with undertones of racism.

What would you both love to achieve with the Black Exchange in the long term

Sade: The achievements I would like long-term will be to have a community of people coming together sharing their knowledge and progress as individuals and as a community. Long term to platform other individuals, curate spaces and exhibitions with POC individuals. Presently the ethos is to relearn history as well as make history with anything we put our name to: whether that’s to share knowledge, hold events, seminars, exhibitions sharing knowledge and exchanging conversations to wake up society..

Anna: I’d love for Black Exchange to evolve to be a political and social movement for both the local Black community in London and on a greater scale across the Diaspora. I’d like Black Exchange to learn from the Black political movements such as the Black Panthers and how we can build upon those legacies and make them relevant to today.

How do you think the Black Exchange will help in resolving some of these issues

Anna: I believe there is strength in community, and the main purpose of Black Exchange is to bring people together, then through community how can we come together and find solutions.

Sade: Though society will and is waking up to our voices, and opinions with this generation, above all our existence is not solely based on society or the negative trauma passed down in history to us, we as African people didn’t not start off from slavery. Black Exchange will help in exchanging, coming together as a community and sharing our rich history we hold and are all making. This will change these issues, issues intact that we did not create, but were forced upon us.

Answering questions with action is what I stand for, and Black Exchange does this. It questions everything, whether it’s questioning the lack of diversity within the arts, politics, etc: Anna and I together are creating answers and planning on making change by creating our own exhibitions, events and publications showcasing artists ourselves. We both have skills in different areas and are fortunate to strengthen one another in all collaborative ways, black exchange is about, re learning, community, platforming and showcasing people that look like us, in the meantime widening society’s conformed mindset.

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An Interview with the founders of the Black Exchange