When The Righteous Prosper The City Rejoices
a photograhic exhibition by Rider Shafique
11th -25th June
Wednesdays - Fridays 10am-3pm
Saturday & Sundays 11am-6pm
SVA, 4 John St, Stroud, GL5 2HA
Rider Shafique is a lyricist, poet, MC and recording artist from Gloucester. He is a prolific and versatile MC at both live events and recording, with countless features across dub, dancehall, hip hop, dubstep and drum & bass. Since 2015 Rider has focused on various creative forms of expression, including photography exploring identity, intensively and consciously redressing the current imbalance of positive Black representation.
Rider Shafique is a round the clock artist, creating visual & performance art to educate & inspire for his project I-DENTITY. This has included photography exhibitions, films, interviews, workshops & a radio interview series for Bristol-based Noods Radio called I-MC. He drew on his own experiences of alienation growing up in British society to create two tracks of spoken meditations on racial identity which were released on Young Echo Records in 2018.
Boomkat reviewed: “Sterling first volley from Bristol’s Young Echo Records, featuring Rider Shafique’s incisive, intimate reflections on I-Dentity in modern Britain. Perhaps best received as a clear response to the divisive, race-baiting politics of our times, in both parts Shafique presents an ice-cool yet impassioned dissection, his thoughts in a rooted, low-key style that resonates with the delivery & impetus of classic dub poetry from Linton Kwesi Johnson and Mutubaruka.”
Working with Khali Ackford and Jamell Ackford, Rider Shafique is now developing a safe creative space at the Trinity Centre in Bristol, that encourages people of African, Caribbean and Asian heritage to explore their identities.