https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000pffx
Zakia, of both Caribbean and British decent talks about her experiences as mixed raced in England & Wales. In ‘The Cuckoo’, the first episode from ‘My Albion’, Zakia talks about being drawn to Pentangle and other folk revivalists of traditional English music. Asking questions about whether this music can belong to her. When interviewing Ben Edge, he talks about how folk monuments in the UK have so much mystery to them and all that is left of these are interpretations and speculations.
The beginning of this show talks about Sheela Na Gig, these crude sculptures can be found on old Romanesque churches around the United Kingdom, they have also been found in Jersey & Norway. The cultural origin is perhaps most likely Irish as most Sheelas being situated there. However it is most famously connected with Pagan mythology. “[Sheelas are usually] overtly sexual the representation is always grotesque, sometimes even comical. They are usually associated with “hags” or “old women”. – sheelanagig.org
The Sprig of Thyme, or ‘Let No Man Steal Your Thyme’, a traditional folk song performed by Pentangle. Is often interpreted to mean Virginity.
It’s interesting to consider the spaces these pieces were performed and the communal ownership of these pieces. Community being a key word. With the arrival of recorded music, our understanding and relationships with songs has completely changed. A folk musician before that time, not from a noble birth, not within the hierarchy of classical music, would not have any way to make record or preserve their music, other than to teach and share it and let others interpret it and pass it on. These pieces live on through the culture and tradition of folk. In the 20th century, with the birth of pop music, arguably recorded music can belong to the working classes, but this music has it’s origins, they are captured and that is where the piece ends. Framed and stuck to the wall, it’s production often a vital part to the story of that song. Can a folk song shifted through hundreds of years of performance and interpretation retain it’s essence (by which I mean, it’s immediacy & relevance to society) than a piece of recorded music captured in stasis? One feels like the work of many and the other like more of a singular vision (Recorded music however, is a deceptively collaborative medium).
I found an interview with Zakia Sewll with Elephant.Art in which I will quote the following passage of text…
“Sewell’s desire to reassemble disparate identities is rooted in her own past. She grew up apart from her mother, who began experiencing schizophrenia shortly after Sewell’s birth. “I was quite disconnected from my mum for a lot of my life, and that also meant being disconnected from my heritage, from my Blackness, from my Caribbean family,” she says. Conjuring “an idea of Carriacou as this kind of alternate landscape” in My Albion represents part of her ongoing attempt to reconcile her identity.”
Experiencing this kind of conflict of identity is difficult. Britain’s history of colonialism, slavery and genocide is unaccounted for and seeps itself into modern institutional racism and white supremacy. It is by most accounts a troubling history that is difficult to navigate, and should be for any British national. It has it’s own inter-sectional conflicts amongst British with historical favoritism of the South and neglect of the North, and ugly state brutality in Ireland. It is in short, an ugly history. Before Colonialism, there tyrannical kings. However, there has always been a thread of socialist activity within folk music. It is said in some Morris circles that the Morris dancers were often veterans, who would dance on the property of the rich to get money, bells attached to them bashing sticks in order to create a nuisance and be paid off to leave. I would like to research this more. There were some brilliant curated nights on Deeper Movies Channel, which have since the easing of lockdown disapeared from the internet – which I will attempt to track down in the next few days to write about this further.