Biography
Drum was set up by Cy Grant and John Mapondera in 1974 with the aim of creating a national centre for the arts of black people. In June 1975 Drum organised a two-weeks' season at the Institute of Contemporary Arts of plays by West Indian writers, combined with an exhibition of carnival photographs and costumes, performances by steel bands, etc. as part of Mas in the Mall. One of these plays Sweet Talk, by Michael Abensettes, went on to the Kings Head.
In the same year Drum also presented two plays at the Commonwealth Institute - How Do you clean a sunflower? and Wole Soyinka's The Swamp Dwellers. In 1976 Drum organised a three month long theatre workshop at Morley College, Lambeth, under the direction of Steve Carter of the Negro Ensemble Theatre Company, New York.
As a result of these workshops, Bread, by Mustapha Matura, was presented at the Young Vic, as part of the National Theatre summer season. This led to the setting up of workshops with black actors at the National Theatre for two successive years. In 1977, Ola Rotimi, from the University of Nigeria directed workshops at Morley College, leading to the production of his play, The Gods are not to blame at the Jackson's Lane Community Centre and The Greenwich Theatre.
Drum also staged art exhibitions in various galleries in London. The most impressive (co-ordinated by Irene Staunton) being Behind the Mask - Afro-Caribbean Poets and Playwrights in Words and Pictures, at the Commonwealth Institute and the National Theatre in 1979.
Afro-Caribbean Art was a large open submission exhibition organised by Drum Arts Centre, held 27 April – 25 May 1978 at the Artists Market, 52 Earlham Street, London, WC2. The artists were, Mohammed Ahmed Abdalla, Keith Ashton, Colin Barker, Lloyd George Blair, Frank Bowling, Linward Campbell, Jan Connell, Dam X, D. Dasri, Horace de Bourg, Gordon de la Mothe, Daphne Dennison, Art Derry, Barbara Douglas, Reynold Duncan, Anthony Gidden, Lubaina Himid, Merdelle Irving, Siddig El N’Goumi, Anthony Jadunath (his name appeared in the catalogue as Jadwnagh), Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede, Donald Locke, G. S. Lynch, Errol Lloyd, Cyprian Mandala, Althea McNish, Nadia Ming, Lloyd Nelson, Bill Patterson, Rudi Patterson, Eugene Palmer, Shaigi Rahim, Orville Smith, Jeffrey Rickard Trotman, Adesose Wallace, Lance Watson, and Moo Young. [The last artist listed was likely to have been Tony Moo Young, from Jamaica, though the Moo Young listed in the catalogue was listed as coming from Trinidad.]
The only substantial references to this exhibition are a review by Rasheed Araeen, published in Black Phoenix (Afro-Caribbean Art, Black Phoenix, No 2 Summer 1978 pp. 30 – 31), and a review “In View” by Emmanuel Cooper, contained in Art & Artists, Hansom Books, London, Volume 13, Number 3, Issue Number 148, July 1978. A feature on Drum Arts Centre, titled Drum Call for Black Britain, written by Taiwo Ajai appeared in Africa magazine. No. 44 April 1975 p. 43
