Cardiff's 1919 race riots made into online graphic novel

Artist Kyle Legall has created an artwork about the Cardiff race riots of 1919

Violent race riots that shook Wales in 1919 have been brought to life in an online graphic novel.

Artist Kyle Legall has created a work which examines the events through drawings and speech.

The riots happened over four days in Cardiff from 11 June that year. Homes were looted, hundreds injured and three died.

They saw ex-servicemen, residents and soldiers clash with Yemeni, Somali and Caribbean seamen in front of crowds.

Cardiff 1919: Riots-Redrawn comes in the wake of worldwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations following the death of George Floyd in US police custody.

At the time of the 1919 riots, the Western Mail reported the events as "an amazing orgy of pistol firing, window smashing, and skirmishes between white men and coloured men".

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Mr Legall, of Butetown, Cardiff, said the work consisted of 10 panels, each with voiceovers from newspapers of the time.

And it draws on accounts passed down through generations of Butetown communities.

"The Cardiff 1919 race riots were an explosive period for the people of Cardiff but, more particularly, the families that lived in Tiger Bay," he said.

"The race riots are a lived experience within my family and it is part of our folklore."

The novel is made up of 10 panels combined with voiceovers and music

The 45-year-old said his great grandmother had memories of the riots, speaking of covering babies and gathering bricks.

"Babies had to be covered because people would kick the prams if you had a brown baby," Mr Legall said.

Bricks were collected for protection in their homes, the father-of-two said.

"People were battering in doors and dragging people out during the riots."

The work has been funded by National Theatre Wales.

"When I think of the riots, my community and family 100 years ago, having had to defend their right to be in Cardiff, have families and work for a living, it fills me with disgust and then pride," Mr Legall said.

"The fact is that after fighting in the war, the people of Tiger Bay had to fight again for their lives, families and homes.

"They had to fight against racism."

Mr Legall said it disgusted him his community had to fight for their right to be in Cardiff

The artist remembered experiencing racism as a child and said he was appalled it still existed today.

"It's scary," said Mr Legall, National Theatre Wales' first artist in residence.

"I've spoken with racists and you cannot really educate them. If you have a generation that is coming through like that, then that is a big problem."

National Theatre Wales artistic director, Lorne Campbell, said: "Kyle has created a painfully timely and tragically timeless piece of work.

"With incredible insight, empathy and a deep connection to community, 'Cardiff 1919' has grown organically alongside Kyle's development as an artist."

Mr Legall's work, which features music by Chris Jenkins and voiceovers from Ali Goolyad and Mike Pearson, goes live on Thursday and can be found here.

Last year, he worked on Wild Scenes at Cardiff, a performance to marking the riots' centenary.