Most of us know the West Country as home of the Tolpuddle Martyrs and their struggle for trade union rights.

It is less well known that Dartington Hall in Devon is where the Labour Party manifesto ‘Let Us Face the Future’ was written. This set the direction for the 1945 Labour government, founding the NHS and establishing the UK’s modern welfare state. But Dartington Hall was already a centre for radical ideas. In 1930 the actor, singer and athlete Paul Robeson came to Dartington to rehearse Othello, which he was performing with Peggy Ashcroft in the West End. It was the first time in 100 years a black actor had taken the role.

Robeson was equally famous for speaking out against colonialism abroad and racism in his native US and his visit to Dartington coincided with a great flowering of creative and radical experimentation.

Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst, a wealthy Anglo-American couple, bought the estate in 1925 and developed it as a laboratory for new social and artistic ideas. The  ‘Dartington Experiment’ becamee a refuge for artists and activists fleeing fascist Europe.

In the years after his visit, Robeson went on to found the Council on African Affairs in 1937, and spoke uncompromisingly of the links between white supremacy and fascism. His unapologetic stance on social and civil rights resulted in him being blacklisted.

He was brought before the US House of Representatives’ Un-American Activities Committee in 1956 and charged with being a communist. In his eloquent and dignified testimony, he told the committee: “You are the non-patriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”

Now the history of Robeson’s visit to Dartington and the political ferment of the time are captured in a multimedia live art event, Here I Stand. Actor-producer Patrice Naiambana will explore Paul Robeson’s life and art with a group of Devon-based and international artists, including Harold George, choreographer and dancer of the multi-award-winning ‘Making Men’ dance film, and Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director of the Young Vic. Speakers, including renowned decolonial scholar Walter Mignolo, will join online from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Europe.

Here I Stand combines storytelling, diaspora dance, traditional West African instruments and live contemporary sound will unfold at Dartington’s Studio One on Saturday 8 April.

There will also be a traditional Syrian buffet and a chance to discuss, with leading decolonial thinkers, issues raised by Robeson’s life.

To book visit www.dartington.org