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Scotland the black
JOE JACKSON explores how growing up black amid ‘the quiet racism of Scotland’ shaped the art and politics of Maud Sulter
CLAIMING HER PLACE: (L) Maud Sulter, Self-portrait, 2001-2, detail; (R) Maud Sulter: Syrcas. Hélas l’héroine Quelques instants plus tard, Monique cherchait sa brosse à cheveux, 1993 [© Estate of Maud Sulter. Image courtesy of Street Level Photoworks Glasgow/Courtesy of the Estate of Maud Sulter and DACS]

Maud Sulter – You are my kindred spirit
Tramway, Glasgow

SHE was one of the first chroniclers of the modern experience of being black in Scotland. The daughter of a Scottish mother and Ghanaian father growing up in 1960s and 1970s Glasgow, Maud Sulter experienced first-hand the racism of the period. That experience strongly registered in her art, writing, poetry and photography, informing her lifelong commitment to anti-colonial politics and the amplification of black voices – particularly women – marginalised or forgotten by history.

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