I Am a Man and a Brother (2021-Now), with Chris Day and Gabriella Gay (EMPIRE LINES Live at V&A Wedgwood)

About this episode

Chris Day and Gabriella Gay discuss the histories of the Wedgwood Anti-Slavery Medallion and its connections to colonialism and abolitionism.

In this special episode, glass artist Chris Day and poet and creative producer Gabriella Gay join EMPIRE LINES live, to reflect on the complex histories of the Wedgwood Anti-Slavery Medallion, and the relationships between colonialism, abolitionism, and ceramics in the Midlands, through the collaborative research project, I Am a Man and a Brother (2021-Now). This episode was recorded live at the V&A Wedgwood Collection in Stoke-on-Trent in November 2025. Find all the information about the research project online , and in the first Instagram post: instagram.com/p/DPqjVMWjYwq/ Chris Day: Fragmented Truths was at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery and the V&A Wedgwood Collection in Stoke-on-Trent through 2025. Gabriella Gay’s poem, Black Man Cast in Clay (2022), is at the V&A Wedgwood Collection in Stoke-on-Trent, and available online . Magdalene Odundo: The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer is on display at the V&A Wedgwood Collection in Stoke-on-Trent until March 2026. Join Chris Day at Craft After Dark during Collect 2026 in London on 27 February 2026. For more about Josiah Wedgwood and Jacqueline Bishop, hear curators Jake Subryan Richards and Vicky Avery on…

People in this episode

Host: EMPIRE LINES

Guests: Chris Day, Gabriella Gay

Topics covered

• colonialism
• abolitionism
• ceramics
• Wedgwood
• art
• migration

Keywords

• Wedgwood
• anti-slavery
• ceramics
• colonialism
• abolitionism
• Chris Day
• Gabriella Gay
• art

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Fitzwilliam Museum

Books & works: I Am a Man and a Brother, Black Man Cast in Clay, The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer, Dal Puri Diaspora

Places: V&A Wedgwood Collection, Stoke-on-Trent

More episodes of EMPIRE LINES

• The Venice Lagoon, a legal person, Giovanni Pellegrini (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Ocean Space, Venice Biennale 2026) · June 4, 2026 · 22 min
• Nobody Told Me Rivers Dream, Superflux (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Klima Biennale Wien 2026) · May 7, 2026 · 17 min
• The Erasure of Palestine, Ahmad Al-Bazz (2026) (EMPIRE LINES x MuseumsEtc, Ibraaz) · April 23, 2026 · 25 min
• Human Being and Animals, Karel Appel (1949) (EMPIRE LINES x Galerie Max Hetzler) · April 9, 2026 · 16 min
• The Thing About Making Rocks, Sovay Berriman (2026), with Marie-Anne McQuay (EMPIRE LINES Live at Flamm 2026, Liverpool Biennial 2025) · March 26, 2026 · 57 min
• Revolutionary Roads. Destination: Comradeship, with Ahmet Öğüt (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Moderna galerija, Art on the Underground) · March 12, 2026 · 18 min