Love is Attention: a series of live music events celebrating Lewisham’s talent

Mercury Prize nominee and musician Dave Okumu has curated a series of live music events to celebrate Lewisham’s talent.

Love is Attention invites artists from Lewisham and beyond to perform in a series of live performances across the borough, as part of Lewisham’s tenure as London Borough of Culture.

Catford-born drummer Moses Boyd will bring his live show to the Albany and boundary-pushing sonic experimentalist Klein will take over New Cross club Amersham Arms for a hybrid club event.

Lewisham-based Aquarii Records will present an evening with Ezra Collective member and label founder Joe Armon-Jones and friends including Hak Baker and Fatima.

Rosie Lowe and Duval Timothy will present SON, an immersive listening experience at Lewisham Arthouse.

BRIT-nominated artist Jessie Ware will join a swathe of musical talent on stage for an all-star band “Lewisham Connections” event with multiple guest vocal performances, at Blackheath Halls – alongside Dave Okumu, ESKA, Yasmin Lacey, Rosie Lowe, Tiberius B and more.

The event will also focus on songs from Jessie Ware’s seminal album “Devotion” – produced by series curator Dave Okumu – a record celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

There will also be a classical music performance from Ruby Hughes in St Peters Deptford and Lewisham collective Steamdown will perform and present a weekly series of emerging talent at Matchstick Piehouse, enabling new talent to play alongside high-profile artists in an explosion of sounds from London’s most musical borough.

Dave Okumu said: “In my view, performance is an act of love through a particular attentiveness, and each artist I have invited to perform embodies this message via genres as varied as cutting edge pop, jazz, classical, electronic and experimental music.

“Having lived all over the world and in many other areas of London, I’ve been a Lewisham resident for over a decade, and I’ve never experienced a richer, more diverse sense of community anywhere else.

“In curating this series of performances in the borough, I want to celebrate and engender the vibrancy of our community through the wealth of talent that exists here.”

Love is Attention forms part of the Revolution Through Music programme which is split into different strands to reflect the rich variety of genres in the borough’s musical heritage.

Following Love Is Attention in March, May sees Linton Kwesi Johnson, Chares Hayward, Test Department, CURL, Worldwide FM, Saxon Sounds Unit 137 and Black Obsidian Sound System bringing to life Rebel Music.

They are set to trace the borough’s activist history and the importance of Sound System culture to Black, LGBTQIA+ DIY Punk Hardcore and Rave communities.

In August 2022, a series of global music events titled Beyond Borders will take over the grounds of the Horniman Museum and Gardens to explore South-east London’s contemporary and jazz scenes fusing the sounds of Lewisham’s global communities.

In October, MOBO Award nominee Novelist will curate Underground Lewisham, spotlighting the borough’s thriving grime, afrobeat and drill scene and the new genres of tomorrow, at venues and pop-up spaces across the borough.

 

Pictured: Mercury Prize nominee and musician Dave Okumu