ONE YEAR ON: NEW POETRY TO LIGHT UP SWANSEA’S NATIONAL WATERFRONT MUSEUM IN MEMORY OF GEORGE FLOYD

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• Welsh-Zimbabwean artist Kel Matsena has written a new poem in response to
  the UK Government’s ‘Race Report’ and to reflect upon the one-year anniversary
  of the murder of George Floyd.
• Two poems will be projected onto the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea by Lighting Designer Ryan Joseph Stafford
• The project, One Year On, will take place between dusk and midnight on the 25th & 26th May.

SWANSEA – The artists said, “Over the summer of 2020, many commitments were
made by individuals and organisations to confront and eradicate systemic racism.
However, one year later it seems as if the support for the Black Lives Matter movement
has faded away, as society has slipped back into the cycle of indifference towards
injustice. There is an outcry for things to return “back to normal” instead of taking the
opportunity to learn, change and grow. In less than a year we’ve seen a return to
complacency and a sense of apathy towards untangling the knots that come with 400
years of oppression”.

Two of Matsena’s poems will be projected onto the front of the National Waterfront
Museum:

• ‘Thank You’ is a new poem in response to the UK Government’s ‘Race Report’
  and a reflection of one-year of promised change.
• Are You Numb Yet?’ featured in a short film of the same name produced by
  Matsena Productions in July 2020, which won the ‘International Infallible Award’
  for ‘Best Show’ of 2020’s digital Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It has also been
  officially selected as one of the short films for Carmarthen Bay Film Festival. Kel
  Matsena performed the poem in BBC’s Dancing Nation, broadcast on BBC4 and
  BBC iPlayer, and received critical acclaim from The Guardian and The New York
  Times.

Matsena added, “‘Are You Numb Yet?’ and ‘Thank You’ are an outcry to stop the
vicious cycle of segregation and systemic racism that continues to colour the way we live
our lives generation after generation. Apathy and false change are challenged in these two
works in the hopes that we’ll all wake from dreams of feigned freedom. The works are
inspired by my experiences as a black man in post-colonial white Britain. A part of the
ongoing revolution”.

This project has been generously funded by ARTCRY and has been supported by
National Waterfront Museum and Race Council Cymru.

One Year On will be live-streamed on Tuesday 25th so those who are not local to
Swansea can still experience the evening. There will also be an audio recording of the
poetry available for those who are visually impaired or neurodiverse.

The artists ask people to continue following government guidance on coronavirus and
stay local. If they do visit the Waterfront in-person please practice social distancing.
For more information go to rjsld.com/swansea

Credit all images:Alex Hermon – OneYearOn