This is a pilot project aimed at community engagement, to raise the awareness and profile of the incredible range of female sound system pioneers that empowered the Black community against the harsh bitterness of racist Britain from the 70s to the present day.

During the autumn of 2022 we will conduct four high-profile community consultations in order to find out and test the idea of knowing if there is a community led appetite and interest for creating a Brixton based Sound System Mural which would be a permanent public piece of artwork located on a wall outside Brixton Recreation Centre.

Sound system culture has been an important tool of resistance against the status quo, and a powerful medium to call out social injustice, and create a needed sense of community and belonging as they navigated a complicated post-colonial reality, beset by racism, police brutality and poor job prospects. Whilst there has been much attention paid to the contributions of Black Men, this project aims to uncover the role women have played in the history of British sound systems and prioritise women artists in Brixton within a cultural backdrop Brixton’s civil unrest.

The grand vision is a depiction of the iconic history, the present and the future of Brixton’s rich sound systems and its culture.

The four consultations will mobilise community participation in order to:

• get a feel for the level of local interest including but not limited to, sound system owners, musicians, music shops, music studios and people with first-hand experience of being involved in female led sound systems and artists
• interrogate the intention and ambition of the project from multiple perspectives
• generate initial project responses/ideas
• catalyse new potential partnerships and collaborations
• collaborate with local artists and curators to create a blueprint for the work to be produced in 2023
• engage the changing demographic of Brixton’s rich activist heritage
• formulate a community led steering group that can develop and continue this project as future funding is secured

These community consultations will be co-designed with the local community and will happen entirely in public spaces, they will be inclusive & accessible and champion the social action and unheard voices of Black female sound system and its culture. The community consultations will provide an opportunity for the community to re-think the contribution and value women played in Brixton based Sound Systems and its culture.

We will create a photo trail that maps the who, where and how of Brixton based Sound Systems rose from and create an exhibition that charts its history in the winter of 2023.

This project has been made possible through funding by Untold Stories, part of the Mayor of London's Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm

To register for the next local community engagement workshop:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/brixton-sound-system-mural-tickets-373420780607