ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
Book tickets
Often referred to as the first wife of Marcus Garvey, Amy Ashwood Garvey’s contributions to movements for social justice, and in particular Black women’s rights, have largely been forgotten, not least since archives about her life and work are spread across the various places she lived.
After helping Marcus Garvey set up the UNIA, one of the most influential Pan-African movements in the world, Amy moved to New York, where she thrived in the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1930s she emigrated to Britain, where she set up a boarding house and social centre called the Afro People’s Centre, and a club called the Florence Mills Social Parlour. Swaby recovers Amy’s life and work as an important political activist, cultural producer and Pan-Africanist in her own right, retracing her steps across the Caribbean, US, Britain and West Africa.
In addition to conducting traditional archival research, Swaby creates a series of ‘curatorial fabulations’, imagining into the gaps in the archive with her autoethnographic practice. Drawing on the work of contemporary Black feminist researchers, archivists, curators and artists, and her own creative practice, Swaby animates the process of creating and curating Ashwood Garvey’s archive. In doing so, she reflects on the practice of Black feminist archiving past, present and future.
This is the third book in Lawrence Wishart’s Radical Black Women Series. Nydia will present a performative reading before being joined by London-based Artist, Curator, Educator and occasional DJ Barby Asante for a discussion about the book.
After helping Marcus Garvey set up the UNIA, one of the most influential Pan-African movements in the world, Amy moved to New York, where she thrived in the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1930s she emigrated to Britain, where she set up a boarding house and social centre called the Afro People’s Centre, and a club called the Florence Mills Social Parlour. Swaby recovers Amy’s life and work as an important political activist, cultural producer and Pan-Africanist in her own right, retracing her steps across the Caribbean, US, Britain and West Africa.
In addition to conducting traditional archival research, Swaby creates a series of ‘curatorial fabulations’, imagining into the gaps in the archive with her autoethnographic practice. Drawing on the work of contemporary Black feminist researchers, archivists, curators and artists, and her own creative practice, Swaby animates the process of creating and curating Ashwood Garvey’s archive. In doing so, she reflects on the practice of Black feminist archiving past, present and future.
This is the third book in Lawrence Wishart’s Radical Black Women Series. Nydia will present a performative reading before being joined by London-based Artist, Curator, Educator and occasional DJ Barby Asante for a discussion about the book.
Nydia A Swaby is a Black feminist artist, researcher and curator. Her practice engages archives, autoethnography, photography, the moving image and the imagination to explore the gendered, diasporic and affective dimensions of Black being and becoming. In addition to curating artistic programmes, she creates visual narratives, research and performance texts. Nydia is a member of the editorial board for the journal Feminist Review and co-edited the ‘Archives’ issue (July 2020).
Nydia has a PhD from the Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS and previously worked at the ICA, London and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYC. Nydia was the Caird Research Fellow at the National Maritime Museum and UCL, Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery (2021-2022), and she is a member of the advisory board for the Atlantic Worlds Gallery at the National Maritime Museum.
Nydia’s book, Amy Ashwood Garvey and the Future of Black Feminist Archives, will be published by Lawrence Wishart in October 2024 as part of the Radical Black Women book series. She is also developing an artist film, Amy and Me in the Archive, which will be screened at the forthcoming Singapore International Photography Festival 2024.
Barby Asante is a London-based artist, curator, and researcher who explores the politics of place and memory through social practice, film, performance, and collective writing, grounded in Black feminist and decolonial methodologies. Drawing on her Akan heritage and family stories, Asante engages with the personal legacies of slavery and colonialism, reimagining practices of liberation and transformation in everyday contemporary black life. Her ongoing performance project, “Declaration of Independence”, explores the power of interdependence, coalition and community building by reflecting on the exclusion of women's stories in independence narratives, and reinscribing this through personal stories and collective writing to articulate personal and political agency reflecting on the role of Black and of colour women and non-binary folx in creating and reimagining our world. She completed her practice-based PhD in 2022 at the Centre for Research in Art and Media (CREAM), University of Westminster. She currently lectures in Fine Art Critical Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Asante's work has been presented at The Diaspora Pavilion, Venice; BALTIC, Gateshead; HKW, Berlin and Art on the Underground, London.
Nydia has a PhD from the Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS and previously worked at the ICA, London and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYC. Nydia was the Caird Research Fellow at the National Maritime Museum and UCL, Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery (2021-2022), and she is a member of the advisory board for the Atlantic Worlds Gallery at the National Maritime Museum.
Nydia’s book, Amy Ashwood Garvey and the Future of Black Feminist Archives, will be published by Lawrence Wishart in October 2024 as part of the Radical Black Women book series. She is also developing an artist film, Amy and Me in the Archive, which will be screened at the forthcoming Singapore International Photography Festival 2024.
Barby Asante is a London-based artist, curator, and researcher who explores the politics of place and memory through social practice, film, performance, and collective writing, grounded in Black feminist and decolonial methodologies. Drawing on her Akan heritage and family stories, Asante engages with the personal legacies of slavery and colonialism, reimagining practices of liberation and transformation in everyday contemporary black life. Her ongoing performance project, “Declaration of Independence”, explores the power of interdependence, coalition and community building by reflecting on the exclusion of women's stories in independence narratives, and reinscribing this through personal stories and collective writing to articulate personal and political agency reflecting on the role of Black and of colour women and non-binary folx in creating and reimagining our world. She completed her practice-based PhD in 2022 at the Centre for Research in Art and Media (CREAM), University of Westminster. She currently lectures in Fine Art Critical Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Asante's work has been presented at The Diaspora Pavilion, Venice; BALTIC, Gateshead; HKW, Berlin and Art on the Underground, London.
Book tickets
07:00 pm
Tue, 29 Oct 2024
Cinema 1
£12 Full Price / £8.50 Concessions
Ticket information
- All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
- For aged-based concession tickets (under 25, student and pensioner) please bring relevant ID to collect at the front desk before the event.
Access information
Cinema 1
- Both our Cinemas have step free access from The Mall and are accessible by ramp
- We have 1 wheelchair allocated space with a seat for a companion
- All seats are hard back, have a crushed velvet feel and they do not recline
- These are our seat size dimensions: W 42 x D 45 x H 52
- Arm rest either side of the seat dimensions: L 27 x W 7 x H 20
for the following requirements:
- We have unassigned seating. If you require a specific seat, please reserve this in advance
- Free for visitors where ticket prices are a barrier, please email
29 October 2024
7.00-8.30pm
7.00-8.30pm
Red Members gain unlimited access to all exhibitions, films, talks, performances and Cinema 3.
Join today for £20/month.
no. 236848.