The Vault

Find articles from previous issues in our archives

We’ve put together a guide to the best parties happening during the Carnival week-end from Friday 27 August to Monday 30 August. From soca, bashment, r&b and hip top to electronica and soulful house, promoters have worked hard to bring you events worthy of the biggest outdoor party in Europe – the Notting Hill Carnival [...]

“I feel nervously excited. We’re dancers, we all love to perform. We just want to get out there and give 100%.”
I’m on the phone with Andre Oporia, a Canadian professional dancer who’s snatching a lunch break between rehearsals for the fourth season of award-winning dance production, Into the Hoods.
In addition to popping and locking in [...]

Hosted by Alice Gbelia, featuring Elizabeth, Aminata, Grace, Tope, Kazvare , Sharon and Gabrielle
Achebe’s Girls At War is not a well known collection of stories as Things Fall Apart has become the focal point of Achebe’s work and a seminal text when exploring African Literature. However as Achebe states himself in the introduction to the [...]

Glastonbury, Reading, Bestival, Creamfields, the Isle of Wight…sound familiar? They should do, as these festivals are hard to escape once summertime approaches.
Our country is renowned for holding some of the most famous festivals in the world and they are becoming more popular than ever amongst music lovers. If indie, dance, dubstep, drum & bass and [...]

Summer is well upon us and families with children are faced with the same recurring problem: what to do with the children? We have rounded up a list of fun activities to do with kids in London. True to our spirit, we have mixed the educational with the entertaining and have listed summer activities and [...]

Set in the heart of Dalston, Open The Gate, The Black Culture Café is a new venue dedicated to promoting African and Black culture – a centre offering visual art, film, poetry and literature, dance, music and other social activities as well as a café with authentic, homemade African and Caribbean dishes. Sandrine Herbert, one [...]

Whether it is a hot day in the park or evenings chilling in the back garden or a way to pass those hours on the way to and from work, a book is always the perfect companion. Now that London has been blessed with long hot summer days, we decided to give you a taste [...]

What would you be willing to do to make your dream a reality? It wasn’t until BBC 2 aired Welcome to Lagos a three-part documentary about life in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria that I considered the question more deeply. In the first part of the series I—like millions of viewers in the UK— was [...]

Is Black beautiful?  When faced with messages coming from the media and beauty industry that tell us that being black is not really beautiful unless it is packaged in the lightest shade of brown and accompanied by hair that lifts with the slightest puff of wind, it’s no surprise then that [...]

Benin City is a collective of spoken word artists and musicians hailing from the UK who have united to offer audiences a truly unique experience.  Catch A Vibe spent an hour with Josh, one of the band’s vocalists to discover more about Benin City and get a taste of some “Invisible Cake”.

CAV: Tell me about [...]

In the heart of Brixton, partially concealed amidst the thriving commerce beneath the railway bridge, an oversized blue door announces the entrance to Brixton Village.
Also known as Granville Arcade, Brixton Village is a sprawling indoor market that until late last year was slowly but certainly limping towards obsolescence.
The property company managing the market hadn’t received [...]

It seems too good to be true what with all the good weather recently in London. In a city like this, you need to enjoy the longer warm evenings – and perhaps a bit of relief from the heat – at a nice bar or summer terrace, with a good drink and company at hand. [...]

In keeping with the World Cup spirit, here is our totally biased Top 10 Sexiest Black footballers playing in the World Cup. Drool over the pics, check their pedigree, discuss their playing skills and tell us which one is your favourite!
In alphabetical order:

Carlton ColeAge: 27 | Club: West Ham United | Team: England | Playing [...]

At Catch a Vibe we like to read and we’ve reviewed the most exciting new voices in African  literature: Lola Shoneyin, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Chika Unigwe, Marguerite Abouet, Brian Chikwava, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and many more who have achieved critical success on the international literary scene.
But they [...]

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