Black Boys Can Swim Performance | Khaleb Brooks

Thu, 15 Apr 2021, 18:00 BST

On 15th April at 6pm BST screened live outside the gallery and on Instagram Live Khaleb Brooks will release a perform Black Boys Can Swim.

A performance film piece highlighting black people’s relationship with water. In the United States there are at least 10 drownings a day. According to the Centre for Disease Control African American children between 5 and 14 are three times more likely to drown compared to white children. In the UK 80% of Black children do not swim and that number rises to 95% for Black British adults. A history of segregation not allowing access to pools, financial disparity and fear that can be linked to the Middle Passage has left multiple generations in the African diaspora fearful of water. In this performance Khaleb Brooks offers a new take on the common stereotype “Black people can’t swim” in Lamu, Kenya where local cultural exists in relation to the sea.

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