Pearl Alcock back at 198

A lost paradise on Railton Road

Works by one of Brixton’s iconic figures, Pearl Alcock, are once again on show locally.

Thirty-five years after her solo show Mood Paintings at 198 Gallery in 1989, Pearl Alcock is back with a new exhibition on Railton Road, not far from where she used to live and run her café and shebeen.

On until Sunday 14 August, Coming Home, at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning at 198 Railton Road, celebrates Alcock’s life and explores her legacy in the current age of social justice, racial equality and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Part of the gallery space will be transformed into a café.

The exhibition is a rare chance to experience Alcock’s creations, with 46 works ranging through abstract paintings, landscapes, figurative drawings and sketches.

Full of patterns and movement, her colourful body of work is reminiscent of a life in a different world, perhaps a lost paradise, says the gallery.

Coming Home depicts Alcock’s creative journey of reinventing herself and invites the viewer into her vibrant and intimate subjective realm. Alcock, who was born in 1934, became an artist by accident at the age of 50. Unable to afford a birthday card for a friend, she made one herself, using magic markers. This was the beginning of her creative journey. She started painting and drawing at night by candlelight and produced more than 300 artworks, some of which were acquired by collectors Monika Kinley and Victor Musgrave to form part of the Outsider Art collection now gifted to the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester.

She gained mainstream recognition in 2005, a year before her death, when she was shown at the Outsider Art exhibition at Tate Britain.

Alcock was a member of the Windrush Generation, arriving in the UK from Jamaica in 1958.

She moved to Brixton and opened a bridal shop on Railton Road. The basement soon became a shebeen – an unlicensed bar – which became a safe space for the Black gay community.

Untitled, 1980 © Estate of Pearl Alcock

Scenes from Urban Art 2022 on Brixton’s Josephine Avenue, back after a two-year Covid absence. More than 80 exhibitors took part. Despite its smaller size than in the past, the event raised a record £4,200 split between four charity partners who supplied the volunteers: Anchor Group; Southside Rehabilitation Project, Holy Trinity and Jubilee primary schools.

Debut feature is snapshot of a changing Brixton

The Dunns of Brixton is a full-length debut feature film directed by Kevin Conroy Scott. Shot in Brixton, the comedy was due out on Amazon Prime in late July.

The producers say it is a neighbourhood film that “talks beyond its neighbourhood”.

Its characters include women who have left their 20s behind to become mothers, but become marginalised and unfulfilled, and men who have succeeded in careers but feel alone and frustrated, and children who do not understand their parents’ anxiety.

Eleven-year-old Clarissa Dunn’s mother cannot get her journalism career back on track, and her father is four years late delivering his novel. While her parents are dealing with their beleaguered marriage, Clarissa proves to be the wisest writer of all

With the help of his producer wife,

Landa Acevedo-

Scott, Conroy Scott says he is seeing to recapture the spirit of micro-budget American indie film like Clerks, She’s Gotta Have It, and Slackers and embrace the restrictions of location and budget – in this case, less than £60,000.

All the actors, both professional and non-professional, live in and around Brixton, and the film was shot exclusively in its streets and parks.

The team say they set out to make “a love letter to the changing face of Brixton”, while also celebrating the different types of families that make it what it is today.

“Each family goes through their own epic struggle on a day-to-day basis, striving and straining in their own way to find meaning and happiness in their lives,” Scott says.

“It’s a part of cinema that goes under-reported these days. I wanted to walk in the footsteps of great divorce movies like Scenes from a Marriage, Kramer vs Kramer, and The Squid and the Whale to show just how dramatic everyday life can be when a family is split in two.

“Ever since the infamous riots in 1981, Brixton has been synonymous with conflict and renewal, a metaphor for the spectre of divorce itself, no matter your creed or colour.

“I hope we’ve captured a part of Brixton that will serve as a snapshot for our times in many years to come.” A thedunnsofbrixton.com

Clapham Film Unit has been awarded funding from UntoldStories, the Mayor of London’s fund to make change and tell new stories in the capital’s public spaces. The unit’s project,

Where are the Women?, will celebrate London’s women mural

artists from 1980s to 2022. A first event was in at Stockwell’s Hall of Fame, when the WOM grass roots street art collective of London based female artists organised a street art jam and a graffiti workshop for young people.

A Find out more: london.gov.uk/untoldstories

Brianna Douglas as Olive Morris

Short film prize for Ballad of Olive Morris

The Ballad of Olive Morris by Alex Kayode-Kay, featured in the previous Bugle, was best short film at the Windrush Caribbean Film Festival awards.

Alex Koyode-Kay’s film records an incident in the early life of Brixton activist Olive Morris.

The Ballad Of Olive Morris sees a 17-year-old Morris assaulted by police officers after she tried to prevent a Nigerian diplomat from also being assaulted, and arrested under false pretences by Metropolitan police officers.

Its release coincided with the anniversary of her death on 12 July 1979.

The festival’s best film award went to Patricia Frances for Art of Oppression which uses documentary format to allow three diverse female artists to use their art to speak about marginalisation and injustice.

A View a trailer for The

Ballad of Olive Morris at bit.ly/BOM-trailer

Film London recognition for local collective

The locally based TAPE collective has been named as a Film London Lodestar for 2022.

The annual list honours innovative creators and practitioners to watch from across the capital.

Selected from a pool of hundreds of people, the Lodestar scheme reflects the breadth of talent across London’s screen industries and seeks to reinforce upcoming Londoners making great strides globally.

TAPE says it is a curatorial collective working across film production, distribution and exhibition, challenging traditional ways of filmmaking and working to demystify the industry for marginalised voices.

With the support of the BFI FAN Exhibition Fund, TAPE created a screening programme, Touched, a witty, intimate and unapologetically sexy selection of films by women and non-binary filmmakers that open up space for wider discussions about self-love, intimacy and longing.

TAPE also curated a programme at BFI Southbank called But Where Are You Really From?, celebrating mixed-heritage in filmmaking, and subsequently took that on tour in cinemas across the UK.

They curated and programmed 30 film events in their role for London Short Film Festival 2022.

BRIXTON Bugle

SPORT

‘Imagine that, a Brixton Topcat in Buckingham Palace’

“Imagine that, a Brixton Topcat in Buckingham Palace.”

That’s how Luol Deng responded on Instagram to receiving his Order of the British Empire at the palace, with his mother there to see it.

One of nine children, he arrived in London with his family who were refugees from the civil war in South Sudan.

The former Chicago Bulls basketball player got the award, made in June last year, for his work for charity and with welfare and community organisations.

“I will always be thankful for the opportunity provided by UK for me and my family as a refugee,” he said.

Twice an NBA All-Star and a former Great Britain international, the former Brixton Topcat played at Brixton Rec with the late Jimmy Rogers.

“What made it so profound for me was not about validation or a title. It was about the transcendent power of sport, which has been my primary tool for giving back to the places that have played a role in my life,” he said on Instagram.

“South Sudan is who I am, but I’m eternally grateful to England for granting my family asylum. South London helped raise me, and is where I forged my lifelong relationship with the sport that changed my life forever. I am where am because of Brixton basketball.” He said he was proud of contributions he has been blessed to make to grass roots sport through the Deng Top50 and Deng Academy.

“This felt like a book end to representing England at the 2012 London Olympics and seeing my face on the £5 note in Brixton,” he said of the visit to Buckingham Palace.

“And inevitably, this moment is most meaningful because I was able to share it with my mother, who I aspire to make proud in everything I do.”

The bouldering hall is 18 metres long

BlocFit will hire you climbing shoes

Here’s just the place for the social climbers of Brixton

Rock climbing has gone from a niche sport to a worldwide sensation and you can find out why in a railway arch off Coldharbour Lane, says Ollie Goodwin

For many people climbing seems like a bit of a fringe hobby; clinging to the side of a wall might not be everyone’s idea of exercise – it’s easier to have a kickabout with your mates at the park isn’t it?

However this once niche hobby is certainly on the come-up, and BlocFit Climbing and Fitness on Coldharbour Lane, are hoping to find some more climbing enthusiasts here in Brixton.

BlocFit was set up with an open mind. Whether you’re a climbing enthusiast looking to continue progressing, or are new to the climbing world, their qualified coaches can help experienced or aspiring climbers at any level achieve their goals.

There are a lot of elements to climbing – physical endurance, raw strength, of course, but also the mindset of working out the best route to your destination. There’s a lot of things in play.

The converted railway arch now hosts climbers with a huge bouldering room and loads of other equipment.

“Climbing is so hugely beneficial,” Dave Culver, the man behind BlocFit, told me. “If you are one of those guys that doesn’t like going to gyms and standing about watching other guys working out or going on running machines and you want something more active. If you want an active kind of fitness that’s gonna give you strength and get ripped, climbing is just amazing.”

Amazingly, the site only took three weeks for Dave to set up in Loughborough Junction. “We opened this arch up in February 2020. It has been going really well.”

It’s a cool space. There’s something there for every climber. Whether you’re a novice like myself, or an enthusiast looking to push themselves, BlocFit has you covered.

“We’re very old-school here,” says Dave. “We’re really community based; one of those places where everyone knows everyone and we’re also really friendly to newcomers.”

The gym’s 18-metre bouldering room has a range of angles and difficulties. Walking around it impressive to think Dave put this all together in just three weeks.

There’s a huge range of difficulties and climb styles from enduranceboards, campusboards, fingerboards as well as a gym area including weights and kettlebells – Pretty much everything you need for your body to be climb ready.

It’s a small but intimate operation. Dave has put a lot into the set-up, you can tell There’s a vibe you probably won’t find at a bigger commercial climbing wall.

“It’s a great place to meet people, very popular on first dates,” he says. “It’s really social.

“Once people start, they just get a bit hooked. It opens up loads of new avenues for people.

We also do massive barbecues every couple of months, socially it’s really beneficial and also it’s really good for your mental health, or so I’ve been told! There’s lots of positives”

The guys at BlocFit run introduction sessions, so if you’re looking to hone your skills or just need some fitness that doesn’t involve hitting the local gym for the fourth time in a week, Dave will be more than happy to have you.

“It’s about trying something new. Don’t get put off; stick with it. We get a lot of people saying ‘Oh, I’m too overweight’, but it’s not about that,” Dave says.

“You don’t need to be able to do a pull-up. People will always be welcome. We’re inclusive and happy to get people into climbing – that’s what it’s all about.

“We have friendly staff, there’s always someone on hand if you don’t know how to do something. We even hire shoes!” A You can check their website at blocfit.co.uk