Rapper and singer-songwriter Ms. Lauryn Hill has curated a new site-specific commission by Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey for Piccadilly Lights, the digital billboard overlooking London’s Piccadilly Circus, timed to the U.K. debut of Hill’s Diaspora Calling! music and arts festival.
The commission, a short animated film drawing on the imagery and symbols of the global African diaspora, played on the screen on the night of August 5th for a one-night-only presentation, ahead of the festival. The project was realized in close dialogue with London-based curator Lisa Anderson. Hill and her former Fugees bandmate Wyclef Jean stood in the circus surrounded by fans. “The crowd was captivated,” Hill told the Associated Press. Jean called the moment “surreal.”
The unveiling comes as Diaspora Calling! marks its 10th anniversary and travels outside the U.S. for the first time. Hill launched the festival in April 2016 at Brooklyn's Kings Theatre, opening with a gallery co-curated with MoCADA, Nader Haitian Art, and the Haiti Cultural Exchange, and a concert featuring Machel Montano, Stephen “Ragga” Marley, and Mr. Eazi, among others. She has described the project as a way of foregrounding “a resounding collective voice” across the African diaspora rather than a single narrative.
The anniversary performance will take place Friday, August 7th, at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, hosted by Dave Chappelle, with Hill and Jean performing the Fugees’ “The Score” in full for its 30th anniversary, alongside sets from Erykah Badu, YG Marley, Zion Marley, Giggs, and Fireboy DML.
For Halsey, the Piccadilly Lights commission extends a run of major public projects. Her monumental sculpture park “sister dreamer,” presented by the Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) and curated by Christine Y. Kim, has been on view in South Central Los Angeles since March, with support from the Mellon Foundation and backers including LeBron James, Brad Pitt, and Larry Gagosian, whose namesake gallery represents Halsey.
In 2023, she realized a rooftop commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in 2024 she presented work as part of the 60th Biennale di Venezia. Halsey has also had solo exhibitions at the Serpentine in London (2024), the Seattle Art Museum (2022), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2021), and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (2019).In 2020, she founded the Summaeverythang Community Center, which distributes free produce in South Central Los Angeles.
Following Friday’s concert, Diaspora Calling! is expected to continue expanding internationally; Hill told the AP she hopes to stage further editions.
