The Front Room ─ Migrant Aesthetics in the Home

The Front Room is a unique study by writer/curator Michael McMillan of the position of the home in different migrant groups. Embodied in The West Indian Front Room is the experience of growing up during the 1960s and 1970s in a Caribbean family settling in Britain. McMillan examines how these rooms raise issues of class, migration, aspiration, religion, alienation, family and the transition From the colonial to the post-colonial.
The Front Room discusses the groundings of the Front room in Victoriana and colonialism, memories From first generation West Indians and second generation Black British. The book also expands to the contemporary living room of Moroccan, Indonesian, Surinamese and Antillean migrant groups in Holland and their diasporas.
With text From leading cultural theorist Stuart Hall, anecdotes From comedians Angie Le Mar, novelist Mike Phillips and artist Sonia Boyce amongst other; photographs of front room and living room installations and associated objected, this book presents a unique discussion of cultural studies.