Folk: Where are all the Black British folk songs?
Instrumental: Black British Trailblazers - April 2025
available to approx January 2026

A constant in centuries of storytelling, folk music is widely considered the sound of Britain’s past - but whose past are we talking about? Has the history of Black people in British folk has been overlooked?

Exploring a genre previously felt not for her, Mia Thornton asks if culture can be owned? And if so, who decides what to protect? Angeline Morrison discusses re-storying British folk music, and reflects on a shocking accusation made after the release of her album The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of The Black British Experience.

Musician and researcher Marie Bashiru challenges assumptions about folk instrumentation and traces the origins of the banjo back to West Africa. And broadcaster and music journalist Kevin Le Gendre examines how different cultural forms of folk music, like Calypso, have influenced and shaped the broader genre.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0krcb3s