Women Speak Volumes in Conversation throws the spotlight on the work of pioneering creative older women whose stories need to be told. Over the course of seven weeks we will present seven ground-breaking women who have forged careers across different art forms and whose stories are an inspiration to us all.
Wednesday 5 March 2025 from 7.00- 8:30pm
198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, 198 Railton Road, London SE24 0JT
£5
Born in Trinidad and Tobago and living in London since the late 1980s, Dominique Le Gendre is a groundbreaking composer who went from playing in church and composing calypsos as a teen to training as a classical guitarist in Paris. Dominique has worked with theatre companies and film collectives and, with her arts charity StrongBack Productions, combines literature and music in innovative projects. Her music commissions read like an international Who’s Who of organisations, from writing pieces for the BBC Radio 3 Proms to Canterbury Cathedral, from the Ensemble Du Monde (USA) to the Coro De Madrigalistas (Mexico). She has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including directors Adjoa Andoh and Lynette Linton at Shakespeare’s Globe. In 2022, she co-wrote the music and lyrics for the Birmingham Rep’s reboot of Mustapha Matura’s play The Playboy of the West Indies, hailed by the Guardian as a ‘bright calypso musical’ with ‘sweet duets’.
This is the second of seven talks in an initiative to showcase trailblazing black women in the arts. Hear about the work of this pioneering composer and musician who has changed the face of classical music through her Caribbean heritage. Dominique will be in conversation with literary activist Joy Francis, co-founder of Words of Colour.
These conversations are part of a wider project: Women Speak Volumes Between Generations. Produced in collaboration by Speaking Volumes, Words of Colour and the George Padmore Institute, in association with 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning and the University of Coastal Carolina.
This is the first of seven conversations running from 19 February to 14 May which will throw the spotlight on the work of pioneering older black women whose stories need to be shared.
The Women Speak Volumes project is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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