TONY MONTAGUE tells the story of THE RENOWNED BILLY WATERS
THURSDAY, 20 MARCH 2025 | DOORS at 19:30, Talk at 20:00
This is a FREE EVENT
Journalist and cultural historian Tony Montague tells the fascinating story of Billy Waters, the first Black American performer to gain widespread fame. This multimedia presentation traces Waters’s roots as a freeman in cosmopolitan, late 18th-century New York, to his service in the Royal Navy at the climax of the Napoleonic Wars, to his musical career busking on London’s streets. By Tony’s reckoning, Waters represents a vital link in the development of African American music, a full century before the emergence of ragtime, jazz, and the blues.
Waters lived from 1776 to 1823. He was a cultural pioneer and, like generations of Black entertainers who would follow him, faced cruel exploitation and was ultimately destroyed by systemic racism.
About the Presentation
THE RENOWNED BILLY WATERS c1776-1823 is the fruit of extensive research over several years by Vancouver journalist Tony Montague M.F.A, who has written articles on Waters for the UK’s Guardian newspaper and Songlines magazine, as well as a chapter in the British Library publication ‘Beyond The Bassline – 500 years of Black British Music’. He advocated for Billy Waters to be acknowledged in the official records of the UK Parliament (2023), and for a plaque to be unveiled in London last November commemorating his extraordinary life.
This talk — which incorporates images, sound clips, and video — was first presented at the British Library in London, May 2024. It will run 50 minutes, plus Q&A.
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