An "artist activist" says he views art as a way to change the world for the better.
Tayo Aluko from Wavertree is an actor, writer and singer who says he finds himself applying his art as activism in struggles for peace and justice in the UK and internationally. The 61-year-old former architect was part of the design team on buildings across Merseyside, Cheshire and the Fylde Coast.
Now he says he focuses on artist activism as a way of bringing about change.
Tayo told the ECHO: "An artist activist is an artist who uses their platform and profile to promote causes that are of importance to them. The best example fresh in people's minds will be Harry Belafonte, who has just passed (on April 25).
“The news of his death was accompanied by much talk of his relationship and involvement with Dr Martin Luther King Jr and the modern civil rights struggle in the US. What wasn't spoken about as much was how instrumental he was in giving a platform to South African artists like Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masakela at the height of the Apartheid period. That exposure of the world to the situation in South Africa through art was crucial in mobilising public opinion against Apartheid.
“Harry always credited Paul Robeson as having inspired him to use his art (as Paul did) as a weapon in defence of all oppressed people of the world”.
Tayo added: “Since giving up a career as an architect to become a full-time self-produced actor/singer, I’ve toured nationally and internationally with two one-man plays; Call Mr. Robeson and Just An Ordinary Lawyer. Paul Robeson, at one time probably the most famous American alive, fell out of favour for being critical of the capitalist system, and lost his career and material wealth, but inspired generations of activists through his example".
Paul Robeson is Tayo’s main inspiration for his activism and his play depicting parts of his life has toured across the UK, USA, Australia, Jamaica and more. Tayo fights and protests using theatre, poetry and storytelling and was lead singer in a protest song by the Liverpool branch of the Don’t Pay UK campaign over energy bill rises.
He recently returned from the USA where he was part of a fundraising tour by musicians and artists for Keith LaMar, an African American prisoner who claims he is innocent of the convictions against him. Keith LeMar was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of fellow prisoners during a prison riot in 1993.
There has been an ongoing campaign to get the conviction overturned, calling for a retrial. Tayo said: "His love of music, arts and his charisma led to him being able to invite artists from around the US, England and South Africa to lend their talents to his cause”.
Tayo was the last person to perform at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre before its 2012 closure before a new theatre built in its place. He performed Just an Ordinary Lawyer, a one man show mixing politics, music and cricket for a tuneful portrait of a legal pioneer.
For information on his activism and 2023 performances in the Vauxhall Neighbourhood Centre and the African Caribbean Centre in Liverpool, visit Tayo Aluko and Friends HERE
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