July 16, 2025

Twenty undercelebrated non-fiction writers of colour selected for new hybrid exhibition

Twenty undercelebrated non-fiction writers of colour, whose critical ideas, lived experience and research have challenged mainstream British attitudes over 250 years, have been selected for a hybrid exhibition as part of a public engagement programme.

Keeping it Real, the latest exhibition from Museum of Colour, has commissioned portraits of six of the 20 selected writers to hang in the Holburne and Victoria Art Gallery in Bath as temporary exhibitions (alongside their permanent collections) until Wednesday 17th September 2025.

Trinidad-born historian, novelist and biographer Ron Ramdin, eighteenth-century abolitionist Ottobah Cugoano and pioneering Indian political leader and economic thinker Dadabhai Naoroji, painted by artist Naomi Shewa, will hang in the Holburne.

Artist Shannon Bono’s portraits of journalist and activist Claudia Vera Jones, Palestinian-born physician, academic and writer Dr Ghada Karmi and freedom-fighter and abolitionist Ellen Craft will be shown at Victoria Art Gallery.

The remaining 14 non-fiction writers of colour, among them science journalist Angela Saini and sociologist Professor Stuart Hall, will have their names reimagined as typographic collaging by illustrator Naki Narh and feature in the full Keeping it Real exhibition on Museum of Colour’s digital platform from September.

Curated by Samenua Sesher, Museum of Colour’s Director, and Joy Francis, Executive Director, Words of Colour, Keeping it Real amplifies the power of non-fiction by contributing to the growing canon and discourse on how best to archive the legacy of global majority artists and writers.

Samenua Sesher, Director, Museum of Colour and Keeping it Real’s Co-Curator, said: “For us, this is a beginning. There are many more non-fiction writers we would like to recognise and will do in the future. We are happy to be showing this work within existing collections. It speaks to our goal of bringing new perspectives to our shared history. Our experience of this work is that the British public is more interested and positive about this work than certain provocative and negative narratives would have us believe.”

Joy Francis, Words of Colour’s Executive Director and Keeping it Real’s Co-Curator, added: “The power of non-fiction by writers of colour to galvanise communities against injustice, fill gaps in knowledge and inspire change hasn’t been truly explored or celebrated. Yet non-fiction is one of the fastest growing genres with a direct impact on research, academia, the arts and the production of compelling documentaries and narratives that can inform policies and transform lives.”

Historian, novelist and biographer Ron Ramdin whose portrait is part of the temporary exhibition at the Holburne, added: “I’m very happy to have my portrait painted and placed alongside these distinguished, historical figures. By challenging the inequities, injustices, and revealing little known histories, the non-fiction writer must explore various archives, libraries and other repositories for evidence which tells the hidden stories. So, when dealing with the inequities and injustices in my non-fiction writings I’ve often posed, either implicitly or explicitly, three fundamental, historical-contemporary questions: Whose Britain? Whose culture?  Whose identity?”

Science journalist, broadcaster and author Angela Saini said: “I couldn’t be more honoured to have my name appear alongside such legendary figures. Some subjects need lengthy, in-depth analysis, and social inequality is one of those. I am a news reporter by training, but I found that to truly get to grips with why society treats people differently, why inequality feels so persistent, you need to take time seeing the problems from all sides. You can’t skirt over the complexities. You need history and science and the social sciences. You need to explore people’s life stories in depth. That’s why I write non-fiction.”

For more information on Keeping it Real at the Holburne, visit: https://bit.ly/KiRtheHolburne

The 20 non-fiction writers of colour selected for the Keeping it Real hybrid exhibition are:

  1. Hakim Adi, first African-British historian to become a professor of history in the UK
  2. Tariq Ali, political activist, journalist, writer and filmmaker
  3. Yemisi Aribisala, Nigerian essayist, painter and food memoirist
  4. Paul Canoville, Chelsea’s first Black player and children’s campaigner
  5. Ellen Craft, freedom-fighter and abolitionist
  6. Ottobah Cugoano, eighteenth-century abolitionist
  7. Paul Gilroy, sociologist and cultural studies scholar
  8. Stuart Hall, sociologist and activist
  9. Madhur Jaffrey, cookbook and travel writer
  10. Claudia Vera Jones, journalist, activist and inspiration for the Notting Hill Carnival
  11. Dr Ghada Karmi, Palestinian-born physician, academic and writer
  12. Dadabhai Naoroji, Indian political leader and economic thinker
  13. George Padmore, journalist and author
  14. Pragna Patel, founding member, the Southall Black Sisters, solicitor and women’s rights activist
  15. Mary Prince, first Black woman to publish an autobiography of her experience of enslavement
  16. Ron Ramdin, Trinidad-born historian, novelist and biographer
  17. Angela Saini, science journalist, author and broadcaster
  18. Edward Scobie, journalist, magazine publisher and historian
  19. Caroline Shola Arewa, spiritual guide, Master of Yoga and author
  20. Gary Younge, journalist, author and academic