From Glastonbury Tor to Notting Hill Carnival, Zakia Sewell has travelled across the British isles on a quest for new myths and legends to unite our divided nation.

Writer and broadcaster Zakia Sewell is on a mission to uncover an alternative spirit of Britain – found in otherworldly folk songs, ancient legends, Celtic seasonal rites, and mystic stone circles that punctuate our landscape.

Her journey began as the sun rises on the spring equinox over Glastonbury Tor, where she meets neopagans reclaiming traditions from our pre-Christian past. At summer’s peak at Notting Hill Carnival she heard cultural echoes that passed along the slave trade routes from the Caribbean. On All Hallow’s Eve she encountered the ghosts of Empire that are still haunting the nation, and in the depths of a Cornish winter she asked if today’s new folk revival could unite our increasingly divided country?

Joining us live in conversation in London, Zakia will bring a hopeful story of Britain out from the shadows, giving us a deeper sense of who we are, and heralding the promise of a brighter future.

Speakers:

Zakia Sewell is a writer, DJ and broadcaster based in London. She hosts Dream Time on BBC Radio 6 Music, and used to host the flagship breakfast show on NTS radio. For the past eight years she has been producing and presenting radio documentaries and podcasts for platforms such as BBC Radio 3 and 4, Tate and Camden Arts Centre. Her acclaimed four-part Radio 4 series ‘My Albion’ was an inspiration for her book. She regularly gives talks and her writing has appeared in publications including Tate Etc., Resident Advisor and Weird Walk and in the essay collection This Woman’s Work (White Rabbit, 2022).

Jeremy Deller studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute and at Sussex University. He began making artworks in the early 1990s, often showing them outside conventional galleries. He has been producing projects over the past two decades which have influenced the conventional map of contemporary art with projects. These include Acid Brass (1997), The battle of Orgreave (2001), It Is What It Is (2009), and Procession (2009). Deller has exhibited extensively worldwide with selected solo exhibitions including Wir haben die Schnauze voll, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2020) and Joy in People, Hayward Gallery, London (2012). His filmwork includes Putin’s Happy (2019), Everybody in the Place (an incomplete history of Britain 1984-92) (2018), and So Many ways to Hurt you (2010). Deller won the Turner Prize in 2004 and represented Britain in the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013.