Barby Asante. Declaration of Independence performance documentation

Declaration of Independence is a project from Art on the Underground by Barby Asante. Declaration of Independence was launched in September 2023 with a collective performance at Stratford Tube station.

The collective performance developed out of a series of workshops with Transport for London (TfL) employees producing a script for a new Declaration of Independence that was read and sung aloud to those congregated and passing through the station. Together, the newly written and performed declaration and station artworks foreground Black diaspora narratives of non-binary people and women. The work highlights the histories and divisions of labour that have impacted these narratives, capturing the scale and value of this work to London. Declaration retells stories of domestic and workplace labour connecting them to wider histories of migration as a legacy of colonialism. The performance demonstrates the importance of collective thinking; by holding public space Declaration gives voice to personal narratives and shapes future intentions.

Credits: Alexis Bailey, Baby Blue, Barby Asante, Carolyn Greene, Chiron Choir, Femi Oriogun-Williams, Foluke Taylor, Hannah Catherine Jones, Ijeoma Fenton-Agu, Joyce Bosa, Shirin Razavian and Tenesha Newman.

Documentation by Other Cinemas, 2023.