PHIL MAXWELL

Exhibition: 1978 and the Anti-Racist Movement

Tonight at the Brady Arts Centre and Kobi Nazrul Centre in Hanbury Street an exhibition following the response to the murder of Altab Ali is launched. The exhibition will also include the Anti-Racist movement of subsequent decades. Artists include Dan Jones, Alice Sielle, Danielle Lamarche, Phil Maxwell, Tom Leamouth and Paul Trevor.

Brady Arts Centre and the Kobi Nazrul Centre, 4-20 May

Altab Ali Park is named after a 25 year old clothing worker Altab Ali who was murdered on 4 May 1978 in Adler Street by three teenage boys as he walked home from work. At the entrance to the park is an arch created by David Peterson, developed as a memorial to Altab Ali and other victims of racist attacks. The arch incorporates a complex Bengali-style pattern, meant to show the merging of different cultures in East London. The site formerly housed the church of St Mary which was destroyed in the blitz; all that remains of the former site are a few graves.

The Shaheed Minar, which commemorates the Bengali Language Movement stands in the southwest corner of Altab Ali Park; the monument is a smaller replica of the one in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and symbolises a mother and her martyred sons.

The entrance to Altab Ali Park, 2002

The entrance to Altab Ali Park with the Gherkin building in the distance, 2002

The Shaheed Minar monument, 2002

Old gravestone with the Gherkin in the distance, 2002

Old gravestone, 2002

The trunk of a tree in the park, 2002

Anti-racist TUC demo, Whitechapel 1994