Born in Guyana (then British Guiana), Cy Grant has lived an extraordinarily varied life. He served as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force during the second World War, was shot down and spent two years as a prisoner of war. After the war he qualified as a Barrister at Law, but went on to be an actor on stage and in film, as well as a singer in concert and cabaret. His was the first black face to be regularly seen on British Television, singing the news on television on the BBC TONIGHT programme. He has had his own series on radio and TV and his acting career is on record in BLACKGROUNDS, an Oral History Project housed at the Theatre Museum. He is the author of RING OF STEEL, pan sound and symbol (Macmillan 1999). He was the Chairman/cofounder of DRUM, the London based Black arts centre in the 70's and Director of CONCORD Multicultural Festivals in the 80's. He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Surrey, Roehampton and a member of The Scientific & Medical Network.
A fuller CV of Cy's long and varied career can be found here.
DRUM ARTS CENTRE, LONDON - Drum was set up by Cy Grant and John Mapondera in 1974 with the aim of creating a national centre for the arts of black people. In June 1975 Drum organized a two-weeks' season at the Institute of Contemporary Arts of plays by West Indian writers, combined with an exhibition of carnival photographs and costumes, performances by steel bands, etc. as part of Mas in the Mall. One of these plays Sweet Talk, by Michael Abensettes, went on to the Kings Head. In the same year Drum also presented two plays at the Commonwealth Institute - How Do you clean a sunflower? and Wole Soyinka's The Swamp Dwellers. In 1976 Drum organised a three month long theatre workshop at Morley College, Lambeth, under the direction of Steve Carter of the Negro Ensemble Theatre Company, New York. As a result of these workshops, Bread, by Mustapha Matura, was presented at the Young Vic, as part of the National Theatre summer season. This led to the setting up of workshops with black actors at the National Theatre for two successive years. In 1977, Ola Rotimi, from the University of Nigeria directed workshops at Morley College, leading to the production of his play, The Gods are not to blame at the Jackson's Lane Community Centre and The Greenwich Theatre. Drum also staged art exhibitions in various galleries in London; The most impressive (co-ordinated by Irene Staunton) being Behind the Mask - Afro-Caribbean Poets and Playwrights in Words and Pictures, at the Commonwealth Institute and the National Theatre in 1979.
A full account of DRUM can be found in Chapter 4, Blackness & the Dreaming Soul, Shoving Leopard 2007-04-26
CONCORD - Between 1981 and 1985 Concord mounted 20 multicultural festivals in major theatrical venues in cities in England and Wales. These were followed by two county-wide festivals - in Devon (1996) and Gloucestershire (1997). The aim of Concord was to celebrate the cultural diversity, that is the reality of life in Britain today, via the authentic arts of all cultures, particularly unrecognised local arts. The Festivals included performances by local, national and international artists, workshops, exhibitions and some educational residences. A report on Concord in Devon is available on application. It provides a blue print of good practice and was largely responsible for the development of the multicultural arts policy adopted by the Art Council. Multiculturalism and the Arts
A full account of the setting up of CONCORD Multicultural Festivals in the 1980’s can be found in Chapter 5, Blackness & the Dreaming Soul, Shoving Leopard,2007-04-26
FIVE TALKS/ READINGS
BLACKNESS & THE DREAMING SOUL
"Blackness and the Dreaming Soul is a personal testament, a record of experience unfolding. And the power of it and its relevance for us has the temper of reality because it directly reflects the adventure for truth of someone whose life and background has had him be open to some of the sharpest issues that are shaping human consciousness. And this is perhaps why his performances, with their extraordinary resonance, are experienced above all as an implant of special knowledge." John Moat
RACE, ECOLOGY & CONSCIOUSNESS - A Narrative Anthology with sound and music. compiled and presented by Cy Grant. The central challenge for us today is the reconciliation of man and Nature. The urban industrial way of the West runs counter to the Way of Nature. Drawing on the Ancient Wisdom of traditional cultures, on the words of poets and visionaries of all ages and on spiritual texts like the Tao Te Ching, the Dreaming of the Australian Aborigine and on other timely literature, this anthology draws our attention to the spiritual and pyschological transformation necessary to heal the rift. Performed: Temenos Academy, Schumaker College, etc.
MUSIC OF THE SPHERES - The unique harmonic nature of the steelpan of Trinidad & Tobago has led him to explore the world of sound in greater depth since completing his book RING OF STEEL. Harmonics or overtones follow the laws of creation. Pythagoras’ Music of the Spheres has resonated down the centuries and forms the basis of a talk/reading (with musical illustrations). First performed at the University of Birmingham.
The TAO TE CHING -The way of Nature - A reading of his own paraphrase (made over several years) of the ancient Chinese classic. by Lau Tzu. Broadcast BBC World Service 1980, 1982.
RETURN TO MY NATIVE LAND - a reading of the great surreal masterpiece Return to My Native Land (Cahier d'un Retour au Pays Natal), by Aime Cesaire. First performed as a platform performane at the National Theatre; then as a one-man show at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs and on tour for two years.
Although these readings are linked, they may be booked individually
BOOKS
Ring of Steel, pan sound & symbol, Macmillan Caribbean 1999. The mythic story of the Steelpan of Trinidad & Tobago. The symbolic, esoteric and often misunderstood world of Pan. "an elegant and unique exposition of the steel drum. a handsome text" Errol Hill.
Blackness & The Dreaming Soul, Shoving Leopard, 2007
The book provides a critique of the Western tendency to fragment knowledge and society into what it defines as their constituent parts and its privileging of one part over another. Drawing on personal experience and the themes of his four readings/performances, the author suggests a new cultural paradigm for the 21st Century; one that includes multiculturalism and the unity that derives from his Caribbean roots and the quest for identity and meaning in his time in Britain.
A Member of the RAF of Indeterminate Race ISBN 1-84683-018-4 - Woodfield Publishing, 2006
Cy was a Flight Lieutenant and Navigator of a Lancaster bomber during WW2 . He was shot down on a mission over the Ruhr in 1943 and spent 2 years as a prisoner of war. The title of the book is taken from a caption below a picture of Cy in a German Newspaper, Presumably this was meant as a propaganda exercise for Nazi Master Race doctrine, implying that the RAF had to resort to the recruitment of people of unknown or ‘indeterminate’ race to fight their wars for them.
Cy’s war memoir is archived at the Imperial War Museum and the Ministry of Defence’s current We Were There Exhibition honours “the invaluable contribution made by all ethnic minorities to the Armed Forces.
OTHER LINKS OF INTEREST
Click here for the Wikipedia entry for Cy
Click here for the Internet Movie Database entry for Cy
Click here for the Calypso World entry for Cy
Click here for the Talawa entry for Cy
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