Richer for mixing cultures

The first time I met Jay, it was in my hall of residence’s kitchen when we were both students at Goldsmiths College. I lived above Iceland in New Cross Gate and my housemate Will was in the same radio course as Jay. He had brought him over for lunch.

I remember he introduced himself saying that although he was born in England, his parents were from Nigeria and he related with black culture from around the world and he felt richer for that.

He also commented on the fact that London is famous for mixing races and cultures but in fact those communities were living side by side and not actually mixing. It was 11 years ago and I was new to London, I have come to agree with him. Apart for a few exceptions, his example for instance, communities seem to stick to their own.

At some point, it transpired that he loved movies, I think he was talking about an obscure festival that sounded really interesting. He even got the flyer out. I said I loved movies too and we agreed to go to the cinema one day. We swapped numbers, we stayed friends.

Adrienne Doyard