Remembering June Reid

Remembering the Mighty June Elise Reid (Junie Rankin, Nzinga Soundz) 10th June 1958 – 12th September 2025

The late, great Junie Rankin

Dear June, we miss you greatly.

Your enthusiasm, commitment, and love for the reggae sound system scene, for which you were a pioneer. I don’t have much experience with other music scenes – or research areas – apart from sound systems. But we know this one runs on good vibes – a deep love and appreciation of the culture. It was these vibes you brought in bucket-loads to Sound System Outernational of which you were a cornerstone member. It was these that created the positive energies to get things done. It was these vibes, combined with your understanding and authority, that enabled SSO to progress to SSO #8, encompassing the planning, selection of participants, and your role as panel chair. You were a such pioneer – ambassador even – for women’s sound systems. This was both as a practitioner – as Junie Rankin you were half of Nzinga Soundz with DJ Ade (Lynda Rosenior-Patten) – and as a researcher. In fact, you embodied the founding principle of SSO, that is, to bring practitioners and researchers together. Sound System Outernational and all our many attendees owe you a tremendous amount. We give thanks for your spirit.

June you and I go back a very long way, to the 1980s when you were a key member of the Ceddo Film and Video Collective. [1] It was around that time that we first met, but quite a few years later, at a reggae conference in Birmingham, that we met up again. I think it was there you broached the idea of your applying my MA Cultural Studies programme. Of course, I was very happy to welcome you to the course. I was very happy to get to know you again both as a sound system comrade and a student. In this later role, as a mature student, you made a huge impact on your fellow students, your wisdom, experience and sheer presence. And it was such a great pleasure to encourage and guide you through your studies, despite the health challenges you were already bravely facing. You were always so appreciative. Given a little longer, you would have been on to your PhD. We will be honoured to livicate SSO #8 Sound System Cultures Worldwide to you.

By Professor Julian Henriques (SSO, Goldsmiths)

[1] Rosenior-Patten, Lynda and Reid, June. The Story of Nzinga Soundz and the Women’s Voice in Sound System Culture. In Henry, William and Worley, Matthew. (Eds.) Narratives from Beyond the UK Reggae Bassline: The System is Sound. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021

[2] Chude-Sokei, Louis. Burning Illusions: The Ceddo Film and Video Collective. The Black Scholar, 54(4), 2024: 1-13, in which the author describes “the mighty June“ and her work in the collective https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.2024.2390204

June was always central to our operations, on the decks at SSO#5, Sounds of the City, Naples, Italy

June would call me ‘cousin’, or just ‘cuz’.

I know it meant family, and it certainly felt like a privilege—one I’m not quite sure how I had earned, but which I did my best to live up to. This, even though our meetings had become rarer in the last couple of years, due both to the deterioration of her health and to my spending little time in London.

Always on the move, she visited my hometown of Naples, Italy, in 2019, for a three-day Sound System Outernational (SSO) #5 gathering. The night before the kick-off, we had a late pizza somewhere downtown, and then she wanted to walk back to her BnB. At that time, Naples was still in the early stages of what would later become the mass touristification of its historic center. BnBs were springing up in the most improbable corners of a city that wasn’t necessarily safe to cross—especially at night, for a Black woman with dreadlocks and a marked London accent.

I suggested calling a taxi, but she insisted she wanted to walk and get a feeling for the neighborhood—not exactly the best one, to be fair. But I knew there was little I could do to change her mind, and in fact, I didn’t even try. I offered to accompany her to her accommodation instead, and we found ourselves crossing some sketchy alleys, her chatting about the program and her expectations with her usual energy. She sensed I wasn’t totally at ease as we walked through. She stopped, looked at me, and said: “Are you worrying about me? Nuh man, if anyone shows up with bad intention, I’ll give them manners!” At that moment, I prayed that no one would come near us. For their own good, I mean.

During SSO#5, June left a lasting mark on everyone present with her positive spirit, sharpness of mind, proud attitude, and a profound capacity to empathize, understanding precisely the context in which she found herself, even if it was new to her. Throughout the event she never held back, joining in all the activities it offered, from exhibitions to dub mix workshops. On the final night, she played a set on our sound system. Not long into her set, she looked at me and said: “Bring me a chair, darling”. I hadn’t known she had difficulty standing for long. Once seated, she commanded me to stay by her side and play the records for her as she went through her magnificent collection. Sharing the decks forged a sort of sonic kinship between us. After that, I became ‘cuz’.

This was June Reid aka Junie Rankin: half of Nzinga Soundz, one of the longest-running all-female sound system in the UK, and a proud member of Sound System Outernational, among many other things I had yet to discover. I salute you, cuz.

By Dr Brian D’Aquino (SSO, Goldsmiths)

Nzinga Soundz, DJ Ade (Lynda Rosenior-Patten) and Junie Rankin (June Reid) on NTS radio

Unapologetically stellar daughter of the Windrush generation,

June Reid left an irreplaceable mark in all the fields she was active in. In her work and activism with the Black Arts Movement, June centred Black art as a transformative tool for social justice. As co-founder of Nzinga Soundz with DJ Ade (Lynda Rosenior-Patten), one of UK’s longest running all-female sound system, she was not only a pioneer and revered reference point for the outernational sound system culture, but a source of liberation education and healing with the music she played always able to forge community around love and unity thanks to the sounds of the Caribbean and the African continent. In June’s words, whether live or on the radio, Nzinga Soundz sets are aimed at “providing listeners with a wider cultural experience.”

Black womanist researcher and writer who up to the very end devoted all her energies to leaving a written legacy of the impact of African Caribbean female sound system operators, paving the way for the next generation of “space invaders” and disruptors. To those blessed to be her friends, June has been a beacon of boundless love and inspirational wisdom on overcoming injustice with joy and integrity.

By Dr Oana Parvan

Nzinga Soundz at Between Two Worlds at the V & A. Source: Facebook

In Sonic Memory of June Reid.

I remember sitting eating breakfast with June in a café opposite Goldsmiths University in around 2018. We sat talking for over two hours long past our plates had been cleared away.

I remember us discussing Black history in relation to the strikes and student occupations that had erupted across campus, and what role sound systems play in contemporary activism.

I then followed Junie Rankin’s sounds from the lower ground floor of the Professor Stuart Hall Building, downtown in Naples, on NTS radio, at National exhibitions, to learn about herstory of rebellion and groove within sound system culture.

I’ll remember her generosity, activism, wisdom, humour and love of reggae music.

Love and respect to you and your family June Reid.

By Christxpher Oliver (Goldsmiths Alumni)

Flyer from the CEDDO collective June Reid was part of, 1986

June Reid on Space Invading DJ Scenes.

When June joined my Feminist Methods MA module in lockdown, all of our sessions were online. As we juggled cameras and settings, the class of feminists listened closely to one another. June carried her extensive experience of being cultural producer and female duo DJ of Nzinga Soundz, with Lynda Rosenior-Patten, since the 1980s, into the digital classroom on TEAMS. And for the unconventional assignment, June worked with black feminist thought, inventively working expanding the notion of ‘space invaders’ in the context of black female DJ’s across generations, for which she conducted interviews. I am pleased to say June’s conversation with DJ Chillz, which she edited whilst in hospital this summer, because she wanted to leave this as her legacy too, will be published in a Special Issue of the Journal of European Cultural Studies, on Re-Visiting Space Invaders (2025).

Once lockdown was over, I heard June and Lynda’s voice in my home city Coventry, as I attended the opening of the Turner Prize exhibition in 2021, recorded as a conversation with the Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S) installation. The first time I met June was when she travelled up from London to see and hear the exhibition. I frequented the Herbert Art Gallery numerous times, across the four months whilst the installation was place. If June’s voice sounded faint, I would give the volume a small tweak, as I knew June as a clear, assertive and considerate speaker. She brought creative force to being a female DJ space invader. Students don’t only listen to lecturers, we also listen and learn from our students, amplifying their distinctiveness when we can.

By Professor Nirmal Puwar (Goldsmiths)