Edson Burton

Dr Edson Burton is a writer, academic and compere.Edson’s academic specialisms include: Black Religiosity, Bristol and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Black History in the USA, Cultural Continuities between Africa & the New World, Race and Representation. He has been a consultant and coordinator for a range of history projects in Bristol including a study of Bristol’s Old Market ward, Vice & Virtue (2014) and Black South West Network’s Race Through the Generations.

Edson has maintained a parallel career as a poet (Seasoned, 2008) and writer for theatre, radio & screen. Among his radio dramas the afternoon plays Armour of Immanuel (2007), The Chosen One (2009) and Deacon (2017) have been selected variously as Radio 4 listening highlights. His most recent collaboration with Bristol Old Vic & Bristol’s Colston Hall involved curating speeches by the 19th Century African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass – along with writing new material – which was performed on the streets of Bristol by a cast which included Young Vic artistic director Kwame Kwei- Armah, chaplain to the House of Commons, Rose Hudson Wilkins, & theatre film actor Danny Sapani.

Edson is a regular commentator on local and national radio and television. His academic appearances include Countryfile (2006) Hairy Bikers’ series Pubs that Made Britain (2015), Books that Made Britain (2016), There is Black in the Union Jack (2017), Civilisations Stories: The Remains of Slavery (2018) and The Antiques Road Show (2018). Edson presented the Video Nation feature on Bristol’s multicultural high street, Stapleton Road (2010).