Arsenal is special. Its multicultural fandom reflects a changing city and a unique relationship with Black British popular culture. Thanks to its decades of fielding iconic Black players on the pitch and the storied and diverse histories of its terraces, Arsenal has emerged as a powerful symbol of what an organic and convivial multiculture can be.
From the earliest hints in the late 1960s that something remarkable was happening, up to Arsenal's ascendence as a global organisation,
Black Arsenal is the first dedicated exploration of the club's relationship to contemporary Black identity and culture. It sees the club's affinity with Black identity transcend football and spread across cultures: in the media, music, fashion, politics and everyday social experiences. Explored through a combination of stunning photography and rare archival images,
Black Arsenal examines how a new Black iconography emerged at Arsenal at key moments in British history that became crucial to the creation of new forms of Black identification.
With contributions including former legends Ian Wright and Paul Davis, critical appraisals from Paul Gilroy, Gail Lewis and Clive Chijioke Nwonka, and personal responses from Clive Palmer, Ezra Collective, Amy Lawrence and others,
Black Arsenal encounter the moments, stories and experiences of how Arsenal became an important and underexamined feature of modern Black British culture and identity.
Clive Chijioke Nwonka is a Lecturer in Film, Culture and Society at University College London's Institute of Advanced Studies. Nwonka's research centres on the study of Black British and African American film, with a particular focus on the images of Black urbanity and the modes through which Black identities are shaped by representations of social environments and the hegemony of neoliberalism within forms of Black popular culture. His most recent book was Black Film British Cinema II (2021); his next book, Black Boys: The Social Aesthetics of British Urban Film is due in 2023. Clive grew up in Brent and is a fan of Liverpool FC.
Matthew Harle is a writer and curator from Islington, North London. His work explores cultural histories, cities and identity in books, exhibitions, and events. He has worked at the BFI, Barbican, and is now Curator of Artistic Programmes at the Warburg Institute. He attended his first Arsenal game in the 1993/4 season.
Paul Gilroy is Professor of the Humanities and founding Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation at University College London. His books include The Black Atlantic, Against Race, Postcolonial Melancholia and Darker Than Blue. Gilroy's is a unique voice that speaks to the centrality and tenacity of racial orders and inequalities in the modern world. He first attended an Arsenal home game in 1966.
