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Episode details

Radio 4,23 Mar 2018,30 mins

Sonia Boyce, Debussy, Black Men Walking

Front Row

Available for over a year

Artist Sonia Boyce's career has been punctuated by series of firsts - the first black woman to have her work collected by the Tate, the first black woman to be elected a Royal Academician. As her first retrospective opens, Sonia discusses her art and why she removed a painting from the walls of Manchester Art Gallery. On the 100th anniversary of Debussy's death two interpreters of his music discuss his life, legacy and influences. Lucy Parham tours a show playing his piano music interspersed with readings from Debussy's own writings and letters while Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla the conductor of the city of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has curated a season of Debussy's orchestral works. Testament is a rapper, beatboxer and theatre maker who's now based in Yorkshire. That county is the setting of Black Men Walking, a touring production that takes as its real life inspiration a group of black men - and some women - who go walking in the Peak District once a month. It uses music, poetry and the rich and largely unsung history of black people in this country, and countryside, to tell its story. Presenter: Gaylene Gould Producer: Hannah Robins.

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