The Bogle-L’Ouverture / Walter Rodney bookshop, opened in Ealing, West London in 1975 and was one of the first Black bookshops in the UK. The bookshop was a central hub for community action and creativity, fueling the emergence of Black British art and culture.
The Bookshop also engaged with like-minded literary and political activists, such as John La Rose, of New Beacon Bookshop. Between them, with Race and Class journal, they created The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World.
The Bookshop was renamed after Walter Rodney, a prominent Guyanese activist and scholar, who was among the first to raise racial issues, most notably through his book How Europe underdeveloped Africa (1972), following his assassination in 1980.
Walter Rodney Bookshop
Renowned artist and curator Dr Michael McMillan along with sound and visual specialists, Dubmorphology produced the stunning Walter Rodney Bookshop installation, which sat at the heart of the No Colour Bar Exhibition. A fitting recreation of the original Bogle-L’Ouverture Walter Rodney bookshop, visitors could sit at the bookshop table installation and immerse themselves in a stunning multi-sensory, multi-visual experience including works of art, sculpture, photographs, paintings, letters and other artefacts.
Four films that were included in the touring digital installation are available to view via YouTube. Written and performed by Michael McMillan, and edited by Gary Stewart, themes, they are based on four narrative themes:
1. From Front Room to Front Line: Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications
2. Race, Revolts and Resistance: Britain in the 1970s and 1980s
3. A Day in the Life of Bogle-L’Ouverture Bookshop
4. The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books
More information about the bookshop can be found in the “Walter Rodney Bookshop” booklet, available for download.