Programme Design | Research and Development | Content Design and Production | Communications
The Re:Map project explores the challenges in establishing music careers experienced by Black musicians and industry practitioners living and working in the Liverpool City Region (LCR). The brainchild of Yaw and Dr Mathew Flynn (University of Liverpool) the research seeks to address three key questions:
- Why recent Black music initiatives have had no sizeable impact on the opportunities for LCR-based black music artists?
- Why the Black music community remains underrepresented in the LCR’s wider music economy?
- What can be done to increase parity between LCR-based emerging and established Black music artists and their equivalents from other demographics?
Phase One of this project took the form of a short documentary film (see below) that explored the creative and career experiences of a number of Black artists from Liverpool who had previously been part of the URBEATZ Liverpool One project, which in 2011 identified them as having ‘industry potential’. Phase Two of the project, the ON RECORD x the University of Liverpool Re:Map survey was designed to generate a more complete picture of the current situation across the LCR. The survey draws upon themes emerging from the documentary, such as lack of performance opportunities and regional media recognition, underrepresentation of Black industry professionals in the LCR, and the challenges of overcoming structural racism and building a professional reputation within the region. The results of the survey will be put into a report and presented to the LCR Black Music Action group, with a view to informing the policies, recommendations and actions of the Liverpool City Region Music Board.
Yaw led on the concept and aim of the project, executively produced the short documentary and communications.
