Birmingham Reggae Royalty, Part 2 of 3
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Birmingham Reggae Royalty, Part 2 of 3 by A J Paxton as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Birmingham Reggae Royalty, Part 2 of 3
Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 22 Apr 2023
This mural is painted on walls of the Handsworth Wellness Centre in Handsworth Park and celebrates Birmingham reggae musicians. The artist is Bunny Bread of CreateNotDestroy, who also painted the Downlow murals in Lozells (see, for example, Image]). He worked with Birmingham Youth Service and Simmer Down Arts, who organise the Simmer Down reggae festival in the park. This section shows, from left to right, Yaz Alexander, Musical Youth, Pato Banton, Steel Pulse and Annette B. Steel Pulse have their own mural elsewhere on the building, based on the sleeve art of their album Handsworth Revolution (Image]; this one is not by Bunny Bread). For good measure, we have the Empire Windrush, the ship that played a central role in Caribbean migration to Britain, called here the Windrush (as on the Windrush mural on Heathfield Road, Image], evidently no room for empire in Bunny Bread's work), also the raised fists of the struggle against racism, a constant backdrop to Birmingham and British life in the 1970s and 80s when the reggae scene was at its peak. See the Simmer Down site https://simmerdownarts.com/Reggae-Mural-Project/ .
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.507694
Longitude
-1.930415