African Oasis - ACE114.2

Derrick Anderson reading poem: " … a culture needs a centre…" Birmingham: canal, playground, dancers, murals, street scenes in Handsworth, illustrating the visibility of the black and Asian residents. Sign for the Cultural Centre indicating its link with the Probation Service. Offices, notice-boards, pictures, musicians practising, etc. Bob Ramdhanie saying it’s difficult to explain exactly what he does, being a Probation Officer in a cultural centre. Ramdhanie’s VO talking about the Centre being founded, in 1977, to respond to the needs of young black people (who often have poor self-image because of the way society treats them) to help them channel their energies usefully: pictures on the walls of the Centre, photographs of black people, police, skinheads, headlines about teenage "mob", poor housing, etc. He talks about the Centre offering the young people something they want as well as making art "a living commodity" and not something outside their reach. Judah talking about how British education fails black people: it teaches them about white history but not about their own: his VO over images of black Africans and over woodwork shop in the Centre; he thinks the Centre helps them establish their own identity. Poster of Bob Marley. Kokuma Dance Company. Pat Donaldson explains its inception, and that it became based at the Cultural Centre as this offered cheap rehearsal space, etc. Angela Samuda talks about having been on probation and finding the Cultural Centre through that. Doreen Forbes points out that local youth centres don’t offer very much: they all want access to music and art, rather than table tennis. All intercut with footage of the company performing.