The Museum of Youth Culture & Hackney Showroom to Present Female Pioneers of Reggae Exhibition

The Museum Of Youth Culture and Hackney Showroom will present Female Pioneers of Reggae, a photographic exhibition showing rare and unseen photographs capturing women in the Reggae scene in 1980s UK. The touring exhibition opens at Leeds Playhouse from 10-23 November,  Bristol Old Vic from 10-17 November, Belgrade Theatre Coventry from 17-22 November and Brighton Dome from 28-29 November.

The exhibition will also feature an open call in Leeds and Bristol, encouraging people to contribute their own collection of audio recordings, photos, posters, notebooks, flyers or other ephemera documenting female and non-binary artists' contributions to the UK Reggae scene, with a particular focus on reggae, dancehall and lovers rock sub-genres.

The exhibition is developed in partnership with Sutara Gayle AKA Lorna Gee and runs alongside the UK tour of her award-winning theatre show The Legends of Them, produced by Hackney Showroom. 

Female Pioneers of Reggae celebrates the deejays & singers who created the sounds and paved the way for future generations of artists, alongside the women who made the scene: those who frequented the blues dances, bought the records and wore their iconic looks.

The exhibition captures some reggae icons alongside Lorna Gee including Janet Kay, Miss Irie, Ranking Miss P, Carroll Thompson, Jane Eugene, Jean Adebambo and Juliet Roberts includes photographs by Normski, David Corio, Steve Rapport, Richard Braine, and Richard Saunders and Tim Barrow courtesy of urbanimage.

The exhibition also features Sutara's personal archive: photographs, ephemera and records that weave her musical journey. Her collection of flyers reveal the women she's shared a stage with such as Sista Culcha, DJ Elayne and Ranking Ann, to name a few.

Born and raised in Brixton, Lorna Gee made a name for herself on the male-dominated Sound Systems of South London, from Nasty Rockers to Saxon and Coxsone. She signed to Mad Professor's Ariwa Label with her first song Three Weeks Gone (Mi Giro), her hit single Got To Find A Way topped the reggae charts for 6 weeks in the UK, and she went on to become one of the UK's leading female figures in reggae and one of the Queens of Lovers Rock.

Nina Lyndon, the Co-Founder of Hackney Showroom said: “At Hackney Showroom we try to continue the conversation with audiences beyond the auditorium and create work that has a legacy. Sutara has spent her career championing women artists and when we discovered to what extent the legacy of the women in reggae was criminally underdocumented, we decided to take action. We're so thrilled to have the support of the Heritage Fund to unearth this fascinating and vital part of Black British history.”

Lisa der Weduwe, the Archives Project Manager of the Museum of Youth Culture said: “The Museum of Youth Culture is the first publicly accessible museum dedicated to the lives of teenagers and young people. Youth culture and subculture is vital in shaping the world we live in. The 1980s and 1990s Reggae scene wasn't particularly well documented by the media at the time and women's contributions were even less so as they were typically overlooked in a highly male dominated scene. For this exhibition, we were delighted to partner with Hackney Showroom and Sutara Gayle (or Lorna Gee!) who was renowned for wrestling the microphone off her male counterparts on sound sytems like Coxsone and Nasty Rockers. We want to showcase these powerful women and celebrate their incredible contributions to music and the youth scene with this exhibition.”

Museum of Youth Culture and Hackney Showroom present

Female Pioneers of Reggae

A visual and audio arts exhibition celebrating the women in the 1980s Reggae scene.

Inspired by Sutara Gayle AKA Lorna Gee's extraordinary treasure trove of photos, Female Pioneers of Reggae shines a light on the women in the scene: from dancehall to lovers rock, this collection celebrates the selectors, the deejays & singers and the women who went to the dances.

Curated by Museum of Youth Culture, Hackney Showroom and Sutara Gayle the exhibition features rarely displayed photography alongside personal archive.