Posted in: Comics | Tagged: banksy, bristol, colstpn four, edward colston

Bristol Lines Up For Banksy Shirts To Help The Colston Four

Grafitti artist Banksy is making and selling T-shirts for £25 to support four people facing trial accused of criminal damage over the toppling of a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, which went on sale in the town today. The shirts depict the statueless plinth, the rope used to pull the statue down, and debris around, with the word "Bristol" above, as if it were a tourist landmark. The proceeds will be given to the four defendants being tried next week in Bristol crown court on charges of criminal damage "so they can go for a pint". The bronze memorial was pulled down during a Black Lives Matter protest on the 7th of June 2020, before being dumped in the Bristol Harbour and later recovered on put on display by Bristol city council.

Rhian Graham, 29, Jake Skuse, 36, and Sage Willoughby, 21, from Bristol, and Milo Ponsford, 25, from Bishopstoke are known as "The Colston Four" and are accused of "with each other and others unknown without lawful excuse" damaging the statue and plinth, a listed monument. They have all pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal damage

The news and details of Banksy's fundraising were announced on the local Ujami Radio Station, who posted the following;

We've been contacted by Banksy, who has a drop of T-shirts today that have been specially designed in support of the Colston 4 ahead of their trial next week.

As Banksy says on his website – all proceeds will be "shared between the defendants so they can go for a pint."
The T-shirt will be available ONLY in Bristol and ONLY from 5 local independent stores.
Banksy has given us the task of telling you all where you can buy them.
So, TODAY ONLY you can get an official Banksy Colston 4 T-shirt at;
FRONTLINE VIDEO in St, Pauls
HAKUNA MATATA on Stapleton Road in Easton
THAT THING on Stokes Croft
FRIENDLY RECORDS in Bedminster
and
ROUGH TRADE RECORDS in the centre.
Check their websites for opening times, each shop will have several hundred shirts available,
They are limited to one per person; so please do respect this as the retailers won't be able to change this.
T-shirts are £25 + VAT each [£25 KIDS, £30 ADULTS]

As you can see, the queues for Bansky shirts are rather large… here's Frontline Video:

Hakuna Matata:

And Friendly Reeords:

Edward Colston's legacy in Bristol had often been an issue for the city. Much of its wealth had been built on what was euphemistically called the "triangle trade" which kidnapped people in African, and transported them to the Americas as slaves, before shipping cotton and sugar from the plantations back to Britain as part of the industrial revolution, but managed to keep actual slaves away from Britain itself. While feted as a philanthropist, hence his statue, that philanthropy was built on the slave trade.

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