Southall Story for Alchemy Festival
2010

An exhibition and live music event that explored the recent history of Southall, a suburb of West London, four miles from Heathrow airport. Southall is a town that has welcomed new communities throughout the last century, enabling them to excel and influence both the social and political structures of Britain.

Established by Shakila Maan, Kuljit Bhamra and Ammy Phull, the Southall Story brought together over one hundred contributors including musicians, artists, historians, social activists and local community members. I curated the exhibition and recruited contributing artists such as Michael McMillan to create a replica 1970 a Southall living room. The exhibition also featured a Southall market scene complete with fresh fruit & veg, record shop and sari shop. Southall Story LIVE launched the exhibition with live music performances from traditional and contemporary Bhangra, Somalian and Guyanese music and was hosted by Bend it Like Beckham Director Gurinder Chadha.

The Southall Story at the South Bank Centre was part of Alchemy, a festival exploring the culture of India, its diaspora and its relationship to the UK today in over 30 events spanning dance, music, literature, debates, fashion and food.

For more information visit The Southall Story website and the postcards comments page from the exhibition on flickr.