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  • Walk up Bingfield Street - turn right into Pembroke Street…

 

 

The Keskidee Centre founded by Guyanese-born Oscar Abrams and his fellow trustees in 1971 was Britain's first arts and cultural centre for the black community. The centre took its name from a singing Caribbean bird.

 

The Keskidee became known for its thriving theatre productions, attracting black and white audiences and touring Europe, the US and New Zealand. For many years, it was the only place to experience black theatre in London and it was where poet Linton Kwesi Johnson created dub poetry. 

 

In 1978, Bob Marley chose the centre as the setting for his video 'Is this love?', starring a seven year old Naomi Campbell. The centre offered legal advice and classes on literacy, typing, yoga, cookery, photography, painting and pottery. Diminishing funding and growing debts led to the demise of the Keskidee in the early 1980s. Forty years after the centre opened, Islington Council's green plaque was unveiled by David Lammy MP. 

 

Today (2016) it presents a desolate appearance and the plaque shown here has been removed into safe keeping pending the restoration of the site.

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