Migration History Seminar Series 2024/25 Performing Self, Narrating Self: thinking yourself into being from a black perspective Research and knowledge exchange

In this talk I will explore the role of the deejay as a 'thoughtist' within Jamaican Reggae Sound System Culture, to evaluate the relationship between performance as a form of self-identity and self-narration. This means an insight into this form of spoken word, as an examplar of 'music as politics' across the African Diaspora, will be shared from an insider perspective.

Thus enabling a rendering of the seminal role that countercultural, 'hidden' voices play in resisting and transcending white supremacist thought and action, from an Africentric perspective across the diaspora, to be forthcoming in myriad ways. Therefore, all that is asked is that you bring your minds and make sure they are open, to ensure we share a cathartic space for reasoning, mutual healing and growth. Doing so will, in my humble opinion, perhaps assist us in our endeavours to unshackle the African mind, in this place, and at this time.

Professor William Henry was born in the London Borough of Lewisham of Jamaican parentage, and is Professor of Criminology and Sociology in the School of Human and Social Sciences and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Lead for the University of West London. He is the British Reggae Deejay Lezlee Lyrix, and a writer, poet and community activist who has lectured both nationally and internationally and featured in numerous documentaries, current affairs television and radio programmes, for over three decades.