Author Archive
Uncovering Black History Course
Four week course exploring British Black History with Linford Sweeney – contact 07932717907 for details
Wisdom Shared: Relearning the Past Together at the Harris in Preston: Oct 2020 – August 2021
Artist Bernie Velvick has been a member of Preston Black History Group since before it became a constituted group. The opportunity to create the Wisdom Shared artwork trail at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston in collaboration with the other members of the group has been an ideal way for us to celebrate our tenth anniversary and to reflect on the journeys we have made, both individually and together, to explore our shared history.
The full texts of everyones contributions and a video with Joseph and Bernie talking about the project is here on the Harris website https://www.theharris.org.uk/product/preston-black-history-group-wisdom-shared-trail/
In the artworks our group members words are in conversation with the Harris collections, the building, and the City of Preston through the gallery windows. The Harris have changed their labels in the displays about ‘Cotton’ and ceramics to widen the narratives and to include references to the cotton and sugar trades and the enslaved people whose contribution has been left out until now.
The Harris will be open to the public in May 2021 so you can visit our trail.
Here’s a preview.
CFP: The Anthropocene and Race Conference
Image credit: Jade Montserrat. ‘You’ll have to be on your toes to survive these parts.’
More info from IBAR https://ibaruclan.com/cfp-the-anthropocene-and-race-conference/
Feb 05 Friday
09h15-9h30
The University of Central Lancashire is hosting ‘The Anthropocene and Race’ conference in February 2021. The conference explores the connections among geology and culture, environment, ideology and inequality, memory and displacement, deep time and the far future.
Keynote addresses will be given by:
Professor Kei Miller, University of Exeter
Novelist, poet, author of Augustown and In Nearby Bushes
Forward Prize and OCM Bocas Prize winner
Syaman Rapongan
Novelist, essayist, Tao culture activist
China Times Prize for Literature and Golden Tripod Award winner
Taiwan Ocean Research Institute researcher
Dr Karen McCarthy Woolf, Fulbright All-Disciplines Scholar, UCLA
Ecocritic, poet, editor
Author of An Aviary of Small Birds and Seasonal Disturbances
We are witnessing climate crisis and mass extinction. The Anthropocene is the proposed name for a new geological epoch, created by human actions. The term encapsulates the total impact of human activities on Earth’s systems. As such, it is a crucial new development for the sciences, humanities and arts.
This conference brings together an international array of thinkers from geography, literature and culture.
The term Anthropocene remains controversial. Discussions among geologists are ongoing. Is the scale of ‘human’ activities really what is at stake here, or the activities of a few individuals, nations, corporations and governments? A subsistence farmer in Africa quite clearly does not have the same impact on the Earth as the chief executive of a coal mining company. Is the very idea of the Anthropocene western-centred – even racist?
The Anthropocene has been critiqued for being Eurocentric, human-focussed, capitalist and white-dominated. Karen Yusoff has challenged the Anthropocene’s ‘white geology’ for ignoring the enslaved and exploited black and brown bodies that the term obscures.
Environmental damage is a major driver of diaspora and new forms of exile, from climate change migration and the flight from polluted cities to ‘solastalgia’ (a feeling of distress caused by environmental damage close to your home.)
Topics will include:
*Theories of the Anthropocene, and what the concept means for different disciplines
*The Anthropocene and race across visual art, literature, music, social sciences and related narratives
*African Diasporan, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and LBGTQ+ perspectives on the Anthropocene, across disciplines
*Ecological imperialism, globalisation and capitalism, the ‘Capitalocene’
*Multi-species communities of resilience and resistance, the ‘Chthulucene’
*Geology, geological narratives, and what they imply for human beings
*Boundaries and border-crossings, human and nonhuman; migration of people, animals and plants (forced or voluntary)
*Oceanic studies and wider Pacific cross-cultural currents
*Cultural narratives about extinction, climate change, oceanic impacts
Black History Month Advent Calendar
Here’s a link to a fab Black History Month Advent Calendar of interesting people of African Caribbean heritage from the past and the present – you’ll be amazed – share with your kids.
https://ourhistoryissharedhistory.com/#
The pic on our site doesn’t work – follow the link to have some fun!
Some BHM resources
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b082x0h6/black-and-british-a-forgotten-history
Toppling Statues
Toppling statues and renaming buildings | The Black Lives Matter Movement and the history of slavery
Thursday 15 October | 2.15pm to 3.00pm
In honour of Black History Month, Liverpool John Moores University will be hosting a live lecture focusing on Black Lives Matter Movement both in the US and UK and the impact this had in Liverpool.
The Black Lives Matter movement has, in recent months, led to a resurgence of discussion around Britain’s involvement in the Transatlantic slave trade and how this should be remembered. Events in the UK (such as the toppling of Colston’s statue in Bristol, and calls to rename streets in Liverpool) have generally mirrored those in the United States, where there has been a widespread removal of monuments to people with links to slavery.
Speaker: Andrea Livesey is a lecturer in slavery and US history at LJMU. She has published on slavery in the United States and has provided commentary for BBC radio, the Guardian, and other media outlets on the memory of slavery in the UK and the US.
Details: Thursday 15 October 2:15-3pm via ZOOM. Targeted at pupils in Years 10-13. If this is not relevant to your subject area , please feel free to direct to colleagues in your History department.
To register for this event please email Outreach@ljmu.ac.uk
Alternatively, if you are unable to join us live and would like to receive a copy of the recording, please email us at the address above.
IBAR for BHM
IBAR is proud to announce our Co-Director Professor Lubaina Himid’s Memorial to Zong exhibition at the Lancaster Maritime Museum. This exhibition is the culmination of her engagement with the City of Lancaster and its slave trade history which began with the inaugural public meeting of the Slave Trade Arts Memorial Project (STAMP) in November 2003 and continued in 2007 with the display of her 100-piece overpainted ceramic dinner service, Swallow Hard: The Lancaster Dinner Service, at the Judges’ Lodgings. Due to COVID Restrictions, there is a delay to the opening of the exhibition to members of the public. However, accompanying the exhibition, during Black History Month, a series of videos and other materials will be shown on the Museum Facebook Page. These are related to the exhibition and to Co-Director Professor Alan Rice’s newly-designed Lancaster Slave Trade, Abolition and Fair Trade Trail, which is being launched to coincide with Professor Himid’s exhibition.
A 60-page catalogue, edited by Dr Andrea Sillis and Prof Alan Rice, has been produced to accompany the exhibition. It includes articles by Rice and Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier, Dr Ella Mills and Dr Anita Rupprecht. This catalogue is available for sale for £10 through the museum and IBAR. For details, please email Melanie Cookson-Carter: mcooksoncarter@lancaster.gov.uk
In another IBAR initiative for BHM, IBAR’s Jade Montserrat’s narration of the story of James Johnson can be accessed through the following link: Facebook
Best wishes from all at IBAR
Images from Lubaina Himid’s Swallow Hard: The Lancaster Dinner Service from her Turner Prize Exhibition at Ferens Gallery in Hull 2017. Photo: Bernie Velvick
Black History Month Events hosted by Grimshaw Community Centre
SUNDAY 11th Oct AT 7 PM
Is Black Hair Professional? – Black History Discussion
Online Event
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86730408209?pwd=dE1pcXcvM2dDZzAyc3V1b0dzTVVBdz09
Please contact info@grimshawcommunitycentre.co.uk for password
Join us as we tackle the stigma of black hair in the workplace.
Meet our Panelists
Laura Jeffers – fashion designer & entrepreneur
Business Owner – @AsikarabyLauraJane
Natural hair enthusiast
Thoko Chibowa – Mobile Hair Stylist Preston
Business Owner – @ladyteeslays
passionate about protective styling
Kia Curtis – Wife, mama of twin boys
Business Owner – @eden_to_eden
natural hair advocate
Grace Saka – Business Owner – @saka_luxe_beauty
All natural skincare and haircare
Abigal – Influencer – influencer – @afrohairtips
providing natural hair care tips
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2020 AT 7 PM
Getting Home Safely – What to do when stopped by police – Black History Month Discussion
Online Event
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86730408209?pwd=dE1pcXcvM2dDZzAyc3V1b0dzTVVBdz09
Please contact info@grimshawcommunitycentre.co.uk for password
What is the right response to being stopped and searched? Join the discussion.
More details to follow
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 AT 6:30 PM
Caribbean Cooking Class
Online Event
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86730408209?pwd=dE1pcXcvM2dDZzAyc3V1b0dzTVVBdz09
Please contact info@grimshawcommunitycentre.co.uk for password
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2020 AT 5 PM
Christian Movie Night – Streaming the film “Woodlawn”
Online Event
Online Event
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86730408209?pwd=dE1pcXcvM2dDZzAyc3V1b0dzTVVBdz09
Please contact info@grimshawcommunitycentre.co.uk for password
Streaming the Black History Film – Woodlawn based on a true story.
About the Film
A gifted high school football player must learn to embrace his talent and his faith as he battles racial tensions on and off the field
Watch the trailer
Salsa Line Dance and Excercise – Come and Join Uncle Phil
October 17th
https://www.facebook.com/events/1026320484475161
October 24th
https://www.facebook.com/events/971886126657274
October 31st
https://www.facebook.com/events/563839837669305
November 7th
https://www.facebook.com/events/744171806133194
November 14th
https://www.facebook.com/events/343052307045666
Salsa Northwest will be going through some fun line dances
Two sessions on the day.
Please select the time you will attend on the POLL in the event.
Beginners 12:00-13:30
Improvers 14:00-15:30
Fishwick Recreation Ground
London Road
Preston
PR1 4AP
These events are FREE to attend as they are sponsored by the Arts Council England and supported by Preston City Council, Curious Minds & UCLAN
We will start with a gentle warm-up and end with a relaxation
BRING DRINKS & SNACKS
BRING A HAND TOWEL
LIMITED TO 30 PLACES
SELECT GOING TO HOLD YOUR PLACE
DO NOT ‘DROP-IN’ WITHOUT CHECKING, AS YOU MAY INCREASE THE NUMBERS TO OVER 30
Everyone will be spaced across the field to allow for social distancing.
* There will not be any partner dancing.
* Please do not break distancing rules
*Bring something warm to put on afterwards
* The ground is predominantly flat, but please wear suitable footwear to walk across the field and exercise in.
*Please bring your own drink
Windrush Day 2020
On Monday 22nd June at 10am the newly designed Windrush Celebration flag was raised above Preston Town Hall to mark Windrush Day. The event celebrated the wide-ranging contributions of the Windrush community to the city.
The event was attended by PBHG Chair, Clinton Smith as well as many of our other friends in the Caribbean community and other Commonwealth neighbours.
Preston Mayor, Councillor David Borrow, commented “The raising of this flag on Windrush day recognises the struggle endured by the Windrush generation.
“It also marks the vast and continued contribution people from across the Commonwealth have made to Preston and the UK as a whole through music, food, business and their invaluable addition to our NHS and front line services.
“I am proud to be part of raising this flag and saying thank you to everyone who has added to the rich cultural tapestry of our city.”
Thanks to Tony Maiden for some great pictures.
Our good friend David Knight Collete Francis and Glenda Andrew The new flag over the Town Hall door Colette Francis Preston Mayor, Councillor David Borrow PBHG Chair, Clinton Smith and Seirina Johnrose join the Mayor Councillor Matthew Brown, Leader of Preston Council Clita Rathbone Zena Taylor A cheer for the Windrush Generation The mayor, the Leader of Council with Councillor Nweeda Khan Glenda Andrew, Co-Founder of Preston Windrush Generation and Descendants UK
