Diaspora & I Talk with Sheila Maurice-Grey

Sheila Maurice-Grey, also known as Ms MAURICE, is a London based trumpeter, vocalist and visual artist. Her sound is influenced by 70s jazz, a touch of West African sonic seasoning and her London upbringing.
Central to Ms Maurice's music, is stimulated by her visual art practice where she aims to question her 'identity' as well as what it means 'to misrepresent vs to be misrepresented.' Her art provocatively explores the notion of ‘blackness’ and the hyper sexualisation of the black female body throughout history since the early 1800’s. In particular she is interested in the visual history and facts known about ‘Blackface Minstrelsy’ and ‘The Hottentot Venus - Sarah Bartmann.’

Ms Maurice is also bandleader of KOKOROKO and plays with jazz septet Nérija, who were nominated for Jazz Fm Breakthrough Act 2016 and Parliamentary Jazz Newcomer of Year 2017 winner. She has performed with the likes of SOLANGE, KANO on the ‘Jool’s Holland Show’ and ‘The Mercury Prize 2016,’ and features on Little SIMZ’s album ‘Stillness in Wonderland.’ For more details about Ms MAURICE visit: www.msmaurice.com

Photo credit: Denisha Anderson

Diaspora and I Talk Series
This talk series explores and discusses creative practices that are influenced by and document diaspora communities. At each talk, we welcome a creative to talk about their practice and how they draw from their diaspora. Following on from the talk, we open the floor for a discussion on the medium, style or theme in focus.

Light refreshments will be made available so stick around after. We look forward to seeing you there. #UCLdiasporatalk

Funded by UCL Culture as part of the 'Creating and Finding Voices: the role of community-led archives and oral history in the African diaspora' project. Supported by UCL Department of Information Studies. The Diaspora & I Talk Series is hosted by UCL Institute of Advanced Studies.