Speakers
& Host

Jamila Bolton-Gordon is the daughter of Rhodan Gordon, one of the Mangrove Nine. Her father came from Grenada in 1960 and became a central figure in the Black community of Notting Hill. Jamila has spent years researching the unresolved questions of the Mangrove Nine story alongside Yinka Innis. She is a Westway Trust co-opted trustee and holds a master's in environment management.

With Yinka she runs The Next Generation of the Mangrove Nine podcast and is working towards a museum honouring the Nine and other high achievers from the area.

Yinka Innis is the daughter of Elton Anthony Innis, one of the Mangrove Nine. Her father was a Trinidadian musician and percussionist whose involvement in the 1970 protest shaped the rest of his life. Yinka followed music herself, finding success as a rapper and singer in the 1980s and 1990s, including a hit with Love City Groove in 1995.

She later trained in law and works as a benefits adviser. With Jamila Bolton-Gordon she co-hosts The Next Generation of the Mangrove Nine podcast and campaigns to collect and archive local stories from Notting Hill.

Ansel Wong CBE was born in San Fernando, Trinidad in 1945 and came to Britain in 1965. A cultural and political activist, he spent the late 1960s at the heart of Black community organising in London — chairing the West Indian Students Union and founding the Black Arts Workshop.

He served as Principal Race Relations Adviser at the Greater London Council under Ken Livingstone and was instrumental in establishing UK Black History Month in October 1987. Former chair of the Notting Hill Carnival Board and founder of Elimu Mas Band, he was appointed CBE in 2020.

Allyson Williams MBE was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and came to Britain in 1969 to train as an NHS midwife. She spent thirty-five years in the NHS, retiring as Deputy Head of Midwifery, and was awarded an MBE for services to midwifery in 2002.

She married Vernon Williams, one of the founding members of Notting Hill Carnival, and in 1980 they founded Genesis mas band — designing and making over 400 costumes in their first year. For over four decades she has served as administrator, seamstress and board director of Notting Hill Carnival. Her autobiography, Tell Me Something I Don't Know, was published in 2023.

Eugene Dusauzay is a stand-up comedian whose family history is woven into the story of Black Britain. His father knew Michael X, one of the most significant figures in the Black Power movement in 1960s London. Eugene trained as a dancer and performed with the Cookie Crew before finding his voice in comedy.

He has reached the finals of So You Think You're Funny, performed at the Edinburgh Fringe New Comedian Award and appeared in the New Act of the Year Showcase. Mixed race and of Caribbean heritage, he brings a sharp, personal lens to questions of identity and belonging.

Zara Johnson is the founder of Goutebon London, a Caribbean supper club and pop-up rooted in the food traditions and flavours of the diaspora. The name Goutebon — taste good in French Creole — signals where she is coming from: food as culture, food as memory, food as identity.

Through her events she brings Caribbean food history to the table in the most direct way possible. At Carnival 60 she joins Eugene Dusauzay for a conversation about what being Caribbean means — and what it tastes like.

Full biography to follow.

Rosita Lynch is the owner of Portobello Shack, an authentic Caribbean restaurant and community space at 272 Portobello Road. Her godfather was Russell Henderson MBE — the Trinidadian steel pan musician who led the first Carnival procession through the streets of Notting Hill in 1965 and whose blue plaque stands on Tavistock Road.

Rosita carries that history in everything she does. Portobello Shack is a living part of the neighbourhood's Caribbean story — and a regular end point for the Carnival 60 walking programme.

Linett Kamala was born in Harlesden to Jamaican parents who had lived in Notting Hill when they first arrived in Britain in the late 1950s. In 1985, aged fifteen, she became one of the first female DJs to perform at Notting Hill Carnival, playing the Disya Jeneration sound system at Powis Gardens.

Four decades later she is still there — as DJ, producer and board director of Notting Hill Carnival. She is founding director of Lin Kam Art, which delivers creative programmes across education and community settings, and runs the Original Sounds Collective mentoring programme for women in sound system culture.

Robert Singh ran Grassroots Storefront on Golborne Road — one of the foundational Black activist centres in Notting Hill during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Operating on pan-Third World principles alongside the Mangrove and the Black People's Information Centre, Grassroots published the Black Liberation Front bulletin and provided vital community support to residents confronting discrimination in housing, policing and the courts.

Today there is nothing to mark where Grassroots stood. This conversation is part of restoring that history. Further details to follow.

Leslie Palmer MBE was born in Tunapuna, Trinidad in 1943 and came to Britain in 1964. Known as Teacher, he took over as director of the Notting Hill Carnival in 1973 and transformed it. He introduced static sound systems, brought costume bands from across the Caribbean, extended the route and made it a pan-Caribbean event rather than a purely Trinidadian one.

He went on to work as a repertoire executive at Island Records and founded the Brent Black Music Co-operative, providing training and opportunities for young Black Britons in the music industry. He was awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to performance and community. The October conversation is the final event of Carnival 60.