The Listen List: August
A monthly guide to what we are reading, eating, drinking and visiting.
In this month’s list we explore stories of migration and what we carry with us. An exhibition tracing more than a century of Pan African cultural production. A new London space for ideas from the global majority. Nigerian food reimagined, and a trip to the place where one of our favourite coffee roasters does its work.
Let’s dive in.
To See: Project a Black Planet, Barbican
A major exhibition exploring the relationship between Pan African thought, art and cultural production from the 1920s to today.
Bringing together hundreds of works from across Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, North America and Europe, Project a Black Planet looks at Pan Africanism not simply as a political movement, but as a site for imagination, solidarity and the creation of alternative futures. Artists include Claudette Johnson, Chris Ofili, Lubaina Himid, Simone Leigh, Magdalene Odundo and Lynette Yiadom Boakye.
Listen note: One to visit slowly. There is a lot here about how art can preserve memory, resist dominant histories and give form to worlds that do not yet exist.
The exhibition runs at the Barbican until 6 September. Project a Black Planet at the Barbican
To Eat: Puff Puff Cafe
A playful take on one of West Africa’s most familiar foods.
For its August edition, Ogoisfooding brought Puff Puff Cafe to Kiju Coffee House, serving sweet and savoury versions of Nigerian puff puff. Think suya chicken, spicy prawn cocktail and everything bagel alongside cherry and mascarpone, coconut and almond, and spiced raisin.
There is something we love about taking a food tied to memory and familiarity and giving it space to become something new.
Listen note: Food is one of the ways culture travels. Puff Puff Cafe is an amazing example of what happens when those traditions are carried forward with curiosity.
To Read: What We Leave We Carry by Colin Grant
What happens to our sense of home when we move somewhere new?
In What We Leave We Carry: Voices of Migration to Britain, writer and historian Colin Grant gathers stories from people who have migrated to Britain, asking what they left behind and what travelled with them emotionally, culturally and physically. The book moves through stories of arrival, assimilation, identity, love and loss.
It feels particularly relevant to the questions we have been thinking about at Listen around belonging, archives and the things that survive movement.
Listen note: An oral history shaped through listening. Very much our kind of book.
Read more about What We Leave We Carry
To Visit: Ibraaz
Part gallery, part library, part cultural gathering place.
Ibraaz describes itself as a space for art, culture and ideas from the global majority, with exhibitions, talks, screenings, music and residencies extending across its library, cafe and bookshop.
What makes it interesting is the feeling that the building is intended for more than looking. Make sure you visit their library on the top floor, it’s an incredible archive of both historical and current literature, there are also copies of many magazines that are no longer in circulation.
Listen note: We are increasingly interested in spaces that bring publishing, archives, conversation and physical gathering under one roof. Ibraaz is one to watch.
Coffee Shop: Origin Coffee, The Roastery
For the coffee nerds, this one is worth the trip.
Origin’s Roastery in Porthleven combines the working side of coffee with a sit in cafe, quality control and training spaces. It gives you a glimpse beyond the finished cup and into the infrastructure and knowledge that sit behind it.
There is something particularly satisfying about drinking coffee this close to where the roasting, tasting and learning happen.
Listen note: We will always have time for spaces that treat coffee as craft, education and culture rather than simply a product.