‘I took on pub to give city a better cultural offering. It was just so boring here’ MAYPOLE IS NOW A THRIVING
VENUE FOR BLACK ARTISTS
THE landlady of a pub in Derby City Centre has explained how setting up her own business was her solution to Derby’s lack of opportunity for the black community.
Donna Briscoe-Greene, 51, of Darley, took ownership of the Maypole Inn in Brook Street two years ago.
Since then, she has helped create Derby’s first Black arts venue, highlighting the talents of Derby’s Black community.
But, before taking over the pub, Donna originally felt like there wasn’t enough of a cultural offer in Derby, and temporarily relocated to explore her opportunities.
She returned to the city looking for her own space, and came across the Maypole Inn in Brook Street in Derby City Centre.
She said: “You know, I’m 51 years old, I started my journey as an artist when I was 8, and I hadn’t been able to stay in Derby because there wasn’t much of a cultural offer.
“There was enough but there wasn’t enough to go round, so I moved elsewhere to get experience trying to live the dream.
“I wanted my own space so I’d been on the hunt for somewhere I could use as a space to programme what I wanted to programme, as in a Black arts focused work, that although it doesn’t exclude, it is focusing on the works of or the amplification of artists that are of colour.
“My whole point for taking this on was, it’s so boring here and it’s so unequal in its offer as a cultural city.
“I feel like the opportunities are here, people are opening their doors and people are more accepting of the change we want to see, and it’s more welcomed.”
Donna added that she feels like the rejuvenation of the Black Lives Matter movement last year helped support Black-owned businesses in the area.
Whilst she admits it was a traumatic experience for many people, she believes there were also benefits that came out of it.
“In some regards it’s incredibly sad, very traumatic,” she said.
“We had to make a decision as to whether it was going to be a collective change universally, or whether we would still be the underdogs.
“Sometimes the thinking of the Black man or woman is already fixed into believing that this is all there is.
“That’s culturally inherent in what we’ve had to deal with over centuries, but this time now, the pain ran too deep and so the trauma had to be realised by everyone.
“Some people have said to me that since then I’ve been in a good position and in some ways I understand but I’ve also said I’ve been doing this my entire life, trying to be seen.
“Without people opening their minds to listen, we could be banging on forever.”
Black History Month offers Derby’s Black community the chance to celebrate their heritage and culture, whilst being supported by a range of organisations across the city.
A number of events have been co-ordinated by Black Community Matters, in partnership with other cultural organisations across the city. Donna explains how Black History Month is the perfect opportunity for her to fully embrace her heritage.
She added: “I think although others are saying we shouldn’t really look at Black History Month as a month and should be 365 days a year, to me it is.
“To communities it is a month, and just being able to have that month of celebration and stand out, be enabled, supported, seen, amplified, I’ll take it.
“Throughout my lifetime, people I’ve known that are not Black when I’ve stood and been positive about my Blackness, it can offend.
“It’s not designed to offend because my heritage is not a weapon to be used in the negative, it’s just who I am.”
I hadn’t been able to stay in Derby because there wasn’t much of a cultural offer. Donna Briscoe-Greene