The Visual Cultures of Black British Music

From early broadcast aesthetics to contemporary digital production, music videos have played a central role in shaping how Black British music is seen, understood and remembered. 

Focusing on iconic and influential works from the past 50 years, the panel will examine how visual languages, from styling and choreography to cinematography and narrative, have amplified the cultural resonance of Black music. Together, speakers will unpack the creative decisions behind key videos, exploring how they construct, challenge and reimagine representations of Black British identity.

This panel forms part of a wider series of talks and screenings presented in collaboration with UCL and curated by Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka for The Music is Black Festival from East Bank at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Panellists: 

  

Jenn Nkiru is an award-winning artist and director. Her works are grounded in the history of black music, experimental-film aesthetics, international art cinema, the black-arts movement, and the rich, variegated, experimental tradition of black diaspora cinema. Jenn Nkiru’s capacious career spans from directing music videos for Beyoncé to participating in the Whitney Biennial.  In 2021, she won Best Music Video Grammy for Beyonce’s Brown Skin Girl. 

  

Baillie Walsh is a director whose work combines dramatic precision and technical craftsmanship across commercials, music videos, documentaries, and feature films. He has directed music videos for artists as diverse as Oasis, Kylie Minogue, New Order, INXS, and Spiritualized, and Massive Attack’s seminal ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ video. 

 

Richie Brave is an accomplished South London–born journalist, presenter, broadcaster and cultural tastemaker whose work sits at the intersection of media, culture music and public conversation. He is the host of 1Xtra Talks, the award-nominated flagship weekly talk show on BBC Radio 1Xtra, widely described as “the biggest group chat of the week”. Since taking the helm, Richie has transformed the programme into a vital forum for candid conversations about politics, culture and identity. Known for his disarming style and incisive questioning, he creates space for honest dialogue on the cultural forces, ideas and debates shaping contemporary Britain. 

Jazzie B (Beresford Romeo) OBE is a pioneering British producer, musician, DJ and founder of the iconic British R&B collective Soul II Soul. Jazzie B and Soul II Soul are credited with helping to create House music as part of the ‘Funki Dred’ subculture in the late 80s, blending this with reggae and soul music. After a landmark show at the Africa Centre, Soul II Soul were signed and quickly released the hit singles Keep on Moving and Back to Life, and the landmark album Club Classics Vol. One. They went on to achieve success in America, winning two Grammys and selling over 6.8 million albums. 

  

Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka is Associate Professor in Film, Culture and Society in the School of European Languages, Culture and Society within UCL’s Faculty of the Arts and Humanities, and Professor in Practice at the British Film Institute. Nwonka’s scholarship broadly centres on race and the humanities. He is the author of the books Black Boys: The Social Aesthetics of British Urban Film (2023), Black Arsenal (2024) and the co-author of the forthcoming book Race and Racism in the Creative and Cultural Industries (2026). He is Academic in Residence for the V&A East’s Music is Black. 

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