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Gloucester Cathedral will be hosting a new exhibition 'Beating back the past,' curated by Voices Gloucester. The highlight will be the world's oldest surviving music manuscript from the voices of enslaved people on the sugar plantations of Barbados, usually housed in the Gloucester Archives.

Accompanying this significant artefact are new works by Gloucester-based artist Rider Shafique, of Bajan heritage, and British-Jamaican photographer Vanley Burke, both inspired by the historical slave song. Their displayed art will delve into the impact of the transatlantic slave trade from their perspectives as descendants of Caribbean enslaved people.

The exhibition is free to attend during Cathedral opening hours.

'Beating back the past' forms part of Threads 2024, an annual heritage textiles programme, now entering its third year. As part of it, another project showcasing community quilt makers: 'Belonging and Unbelonging' will be on display in the Cathedral. It aims to explore the ways in which the people of Gloucester have influenced the wider world.

A series of talks at The Folk of Gloucester, Museum of Gloucester and Gloucester Cathedral also accompany the exhibition. They aim to illustrate how textile art can tell provocative and reparative stories about identity, helping us interpret our place in the world.

Threads is a partnership project, curated/coordinated by Voices Gloucester and Jo Teague, and supported by The Folk of Gloucester, Gloucester Cathedral and the Museum of Gloucester.