Oscar Abrams
Oscar Abrams | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Oscar Winston Abrams 10 March 1937 Guyana |
| Died | 15 February 1996 (aged 58) |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | Establishing the Keskidee Centre in Islington, London |
| Children | Amah-Rose Abrams |
Oscar Abrams (10 March 1937 – 15 February 1996) was a Guyanese architect, theatre designer, community activist and community organiser.[1] He is best known for establishing the Keskidee Theatre Workshop in 1971, the first British brick and mortar Black-led arts centre on Gifford Street in the borough of Islington, London, England. Abrams was the chairman of the Islington branch of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD), a community organisation that advocated for decent housing conditions, tenant rights and education rights for Caribbeans who emigrated to the United Kingdom.[2][3]
Biography
[edit]Oscar Winston Abrams was born in Guyana and emigrated to London, England, in 1958.[4]
Together with Norma Ashe-Watt (1931–2025), a Trinidad-born friend living in Barnsbury, north London, Abrams formed a local branch of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD), an organisation advocating in the 1960s for race relations legislation to address the rights of Black and Asian migrants who were suffering discrimination.[5][6]
In 1971, Abrams bought a run-down Victorian mission hall in Gifford Street, Islington, near King's Cross,[7] from the Shaftesbury Society for £9000[2] and transformed it into the Keskidee Centre, which came to provide "a unique and hugely influential cultural and political environment for the black community throughout the 1970s and early-1980s."[2] The centre's name and logo derived from the keskidee bird native to Guyana and elsewhere in the Caribbean.[8] The motto of the Keskidee Theatre Workshop was: "A community discovering itself creates its own future." This pioneering centre was the only UK space dedicated for Black artists for years.[9] By the late 1970s, it was internationally renowned. Keskidee provided a space for members of the Caribbean Artists Movement,[3] and into the 1980s continued to be an important hub for Black arts and politics.[10][11][12][13][14][15]
Death and legacy
[edit]Abrams died, aged 58, on 15 February 1996,[2] the Keskidee Centre having had to close as a theatre space four years earlier, in 1992, being sold to pay off debts.[16][17] Abrams had said in 1987: "[T]he most outstanding achievement for me personally is the consciousness the Keskidee brought to the black community and groups that subsequently became interested in the arts."[10] Later used as a church, the building was honoured in 2011 with a green heritage plaque to mark the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Keskidee Centre; unfortunately, however, in 2012 the building was destroyed by fire.[4]
The George Padmore Institute (GPI) in London holds an archive of documents preserving Abrams' legacy of cultural contributions, activism, projects, interviews with community leaders, correspondence and other ephemera. His contemporaries included: cultural theorist Stuart Hall, author Anne Walmsley, poet Derek Walcott, journalist Donald Hinds, editor Diana Athill, Winston Benn, Felicity Bolton, Norma Kathleen Ashe, Donald Bowen, artist Winston Branch, poet Kamau Brathwaite, storyteller Faustin Charles, author Austin Clarke, and many others.[18]
Personal life
[edit]Abrams was married to charity worker Susanna McKnight (who died in 2017) and the couple had a daughter, Amah-Rose Abrams.[19]
References
[edit]- ^ "Oscar Abrams and the Keskidee Centre". www.layersoflondon.org. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ a b c d "The Keskidee – a community that discovered itself. Islington Local History Centre celebrates the Keskidee – Britain’s first arts centre for the black community", Islington Local History Centre, 2009. Archived 17 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ a b "Oscar Abrams (1937–1996) and Keskidee Arts Centre". Journey to Justice. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ a b "The Keskidee Centre – Britain's first dedicated arts centre for the Afro-Carribean [sic] community". Caledonian Park. 22 June 2021.
- ^ Cobbinah, Angela (15 October 2020). "CARD player". Islington Tribune. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ Cobbinah, Angela (31 January 2025). "Spirited Norma brought The Keskidee to life". Islington Tribune. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ "Keskidee Centre, formerly Gifford Hall", The National Archives. Records held at English Heritage Archive.
- ^ "Keskidee Centre", Diaspora Artists.
- ^ "Diaspora-artists: View details". diaspora-artists.net. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ a b "The Keskidee Centre". Friends of Islington Museum. 12 June 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ Brewster, Yvonne (2009). Matzke, Christine; Okagbue, Osita; Plastow, Jane (eds.). "Black British Theatre in London 1972–89: A Brief Overview". African Theatre: Diasporas. 8. Boydell & Brewer: 65–78.
- ^ Martin, Michael T. (Fall 2019). "The Practice of Curating the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive: A Conversation with the Founding Director". Black Camera. 11 (1): 40–61.
- ^ Waters, Rob. "Black Studies". Thinking Black: Britain, 1964-1985 (1 ed.). University of California Press. pp. 125–64.
- ^ Sivanandan, A.; Prescod, Colin (2008). "From Resistance to Rebellion: Asian and Afro-Caribbean Struggles in Britain". Catching History on the Wing: Race, Culture and Globalisation. Pluto Press. pp. 90–139.
- ^ Sivanandan, A. (1982). "From Resistance to Rebellion". A Different Hunger: Writings on Black Resistance. Pluto Press. pp. 3–54.
- ^ Chambers, Colin. "Black British Plays Post World War II–1970s". Black Plays Archive. National Theatre. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ "London's Black change makers throughout the decades: Our grant making history | 1972: Britain's first Afro-Caribbean community arts centre". Trust for London. 25 October 2023. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ "Oscar Abrams" Archive search, GPI.
- ^ "Rose bush dedicated to charity worker Susanna". Camden New Journal. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
External links
[edit]- "Interview with Oscar Abrams, 8 Oct 1987": The Caribbean Artists Movement: Papers of Anne Walmsley, gathered for the creation of her book 'The Caribbean Artists Movement 1966–1972: A Literary and Cultural History', published by New Beacon Books 1992. Transcripts of interviews with members or associates of the Caribbean Artists Movement – George Padmore Institute.
- "Guyana Speaks: Oscar Abrams (1937–1996) and the Keskidee Centre", 14 March 2022 (via YouTube).
- George Padmore Institute - Oscar Abrams archive