Reimagined histories: Spoken word and choir
About the event
Join us for a powerful evening of music and spoken word, inspired by Yinka Shonibare and Thomas Gainsborough: A Conversation . Led by composer, artist and double bassist Dr Deborah Pritchard with poet and lawyer Dave Neita, this evocative performance brings together choir and spoken word to explore the exhibition’s central themes of identity, dialogue, social justice and freedom. Blending historical and newly commissioned work, the programme places classical music of Gainsborough’s era in conversation with contemporary compositions and bespoke poetry shaped by Shonibare’s practice. Through this meeting of past and present, the performance reflects on the legacies of empire and the transatlantic slave trade, asking urgent questions while illuminating untold histories. A choral ensemble join Dave and Deborah to create a richly layered sound world juxtaposing the textures and sound-colours of the past with new music and texts, including a specially commissioned choral setting for contemporary voices. Together, they give voice to stories that resonate across time, drawing connections between lived experience, artistic expression and cultural memory through the visual brushstrokes of cross-art form dialogue. Both intimate and expansive, this event seeks to reveal truth through beauty and colour, to move the soul, and to offer space for reflection, empathy and hope. Rooted in a shared human experience, it invites audiences into a living conversation - one that honours the past while imagining new futures.
