Icons: Bonnie Greer In Conversation with Sokari Douglas Camp

We are pleased to announce the next installation of our Icons series; Bonnie Greer in Conversation with Sokari Douglas Camp. The programme seeks to celebrate past and present friends and members of The Africa Centre who have made lasting contributions towards our organisation’s development and helped to shape its journey. Through this exciting series, we hope to connect generations and ensure that our history, which is inherently connected to that of Africa and its global diaspora, is shared more broadly, and passed on.

This event is a follow-up to our inaugural session which featured Black British icon and frontman of the legendary Soul II Soul, Jazzie B. The sound system collective hosted memorable Sunday Soul Sessions at The Africa Centre’s previous home in Covent Garden in the 1980s.

Sokari Douglas Camp

Sokari Douglas Camp studied Fine Art at the Central School of Art and Design and at the Royal College of Art. Sokari has represented Britain and Nigeria in National and International exhibitions, she has had over 40 solo shows in venues such as the National Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian Institute and The Museum of Mankind London. Sokari was shortlisted for the Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth 2003 Her public artworks Battle Bus: Living Memorial for Ken Saro‐Wiwa, 2006, is a monument to the writer and Niger Delta activist, 2004.

Douglas Camp’s third solo exhibition at October Gallery in 2022, Jonkonnu Masquerade, included a series of new works exploring the masquerade of ‘Jonkonnu’ both within its Caribbean context and that of the broader African diaspora. Two larger-than-life-sized steel interlinking sculptures, Tussling Jonkonnu, were part of the Kensington and Chelsea Art Week, 2022. Douglas Camp’s work is at the V&A as part of the African Fashion exhibition until May 2023.

In 2005 she was awarded a CBE. She is an honorary Fellow of the University of the Arts London and of SOAS.

Bonnie Greer

Bonnie Greer is a playwright, author, and critic based in London. Raised on the South Side of Chicago in the USA, she arrived in London in 1986 and became a British citizen in 1997.

She rapidly established herself as a prominent figure in British culture, writing plays for BBC Radio and teaching Shakespeare in Lambeth and Brent schools. She has been an Arts Council-supported playwright-in-residence for both Soho Theatre and the Black Theatre Co-operative and served on the boards of the Royal Opera House and London Film School. Greer appears regularly as a critic on Newsnight's Late Review and writes a column in The Mail on Sunday.

In 2010 Bonnie was named by the Observer as one of the 300 Public Intellectuals in the UK – the only female playwright – and was also awarded an OBE. She has been Deputy Chair of the British Museum and has served on the boards of RADA, London Film School, and Theatre Royal, Stratford East. Bonnie just completed a conversation series, "The Era Of Reclamation" (2019-2022) at the British Museum alongside the  Museum's Director, Hartwig Fischer. Her podcast "In Search Of Black History"  is available from Amazon.