Past event
Date:
14 September 2019
As part of Southbank Centre’s Africa Utopia Festival, in collaboration with Indaba X, Letters Live presented a unique show over a weekend of exciting and thought-provoking events celebrating and showcasing Black culture.
The festival was a series of events comprising panels, workshops, talks, music, comedy and more. Letters Live headlined the programme on Saturday 14th September, presenting a stellar cast reading powerful letters with Black history taking centre stage.
In tribute to the late Kofi Annan, all Indaba X proceeds went to the Kofi Annan Foundation. The Kofi Annan Foundation mobilises political will to overcome threats to peace, development and human rights. It assembles those who are in a position to influence and bring leadership to the world’s most pressing problems.
(Click dates to expand/collapse)
Don’t let anyone define who you are
Angelique Kidjo to Girls of the World
Dad is looking down at his family with a smile
Walter J. Leonard to Mamie K. Singleton
I have watched the growth of your nation with great pride
Martin Luther King Jr to Kwame Nkrumah
Long Live Africa!
Patrice Lumumba to Pauline Opango
Herbs is his Majesty’s
Lee “Scratch” Perry to Tokyo’s Minister of Justice
Good luck, my darling
Nelson Mandela to Winnie Mandela
My Dungeon Shook
James Baldwin to his nephew
You mean more to me than life itself
Earl Woods to Tiger Woods
Brown is as pretty as white
W. E. B. Du Bois to his daughter
To My Old Master
Jourdon Anderson to P. H. Anderson
The struggle must continue
Eddie Glaude to Langston Glaude
We are the gift
Melissa Harris Perry to Richard Mourdock
I have two handicaps
Florence Price to Serge Koussevitzky
I am so proud of both of you
Barack Obama to his daughters
A gross failure of responsiblity
Martin Hammond to Stanley Johnson
I am writing to you for the first time after my death sentence
Baya Hocine to Mother
Don’t let anybody raise you
Maya Angelou to herself
The painting must go
Hannah Black to Whitney Archive of Art
Wisdom is a gift
Toni Morrison to Barack Obama
Straighten up and fly right, Banky!
Billie Holiday to Tallulah Bankhead
I’m still here, trying to make it
Jimi Hendrix to his dad
Leave the African women alone
Cherry Stephana Mogolo Sibeko to Rand Daily Mail
Dear Editor
Adrian Piper to Various editors
We women are human beings like the men
Z and G to District Commissioner
How dare you
Aretha Franklin to Liz Smith