Black Everyday Lives, Material Culture and Narrative: Tings in de House - Paperback

by Shawn-Naphtali Sobers (Author)

This book is a ground-breaking exploration of everyday life as experienced through the lens of Black British cultural history and creative practice, through a multiplicity of voices and writing styles.

The structure of Black Everyday Lives, Material Culture and Narrative examines life through a personal study of the family home - room by room, object by object - as a portal through which to examine the intricacies and nuances of daily considerations of African heritage people living in Britain in the modern era (post-1950). Using Small Anthropology methodology, this book foregrounds the experiences of Black British lives by bringing the threads of history and culture into the relevancy of the present day and demonstrates how the personal sphere directly links to wider public and political concerns.

This book will be of interest to a wide range of disciplines, including Black studies, anthropology, cultural studies, history, visual culture, photography, media communication, sociology, community development, art and design, and by any course that studies ethnographic methodologies, material culture, migration, everyday life, and British society.

Author Biography

Shawn-Naphtali Sobers is Professor of Cultural Interdisciplinary Practice at University of the West of England, Director of the Critical Race and Culture Research Group, and teaches photography. As a visual anthropologist he has carried out many research projects, ranging from legacies of slavery, African presence in Georgian and Victorian Britain, disability and walking, Rastafari language and culture, creative citizenship, and Rastafari and Ethiopian connections with the city of Bath. As a filmmaker and photographer his work has been exhibited and screened nationally and internationally, and has directed and produced documentaries with Firstborn Creatives for BBC1, ITV, and Channel 4.