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Black History
Unlock
the past
Banish
ignorance and bigotry. Re-examine the past. Find new meanings. Relive
exciting stories of heroic men and women. Here are some events this
month that open an almost inexhaustible source of information about
Black History.
Information
supplied by the Science Museum and the PurehArt Services - Supporting
and Promoting British Diverse & Multi-Ethnic Images and Events.
Let
Paul Robeson Sing !
3
October 2001 - 6 October 2002
LET
PAUL ROBESON SING ! opening at the Theatre Museum on 3 October, celebrates
Black History Month. Highlighting Robeson's turbulent life and brilliant
career as actor, singer and film star, and his wide-reaching cultural
and political influence.
Robeson's artistry
and activism were rooted in his identification with the continuing struggles
of his people and those of oppressed peoples around the world, from
Welsh miners to Spanish Republicans. As he said in 1937: "The artist
must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I
had no alternative."
Shattered
stereotypes
His forthright stand on the central issues of the day helped open doors
for future generations of African-American artists. He was the first
concert singer to refuse to appear before segregated audiences, and
to explore and interpret Negro Spirituals as part of folk culture. His
dignified male image shattered the stereotyped image of black people
in American film and theatre.
Let Paul Robeson
Sing ! highlights key stages of his life including his formative years
in the United States, and his struggles and successes at school and
college. At a time when prejudice barred black students from most college
teams, Robeson became the first African-American to dominate sport on
the football field, despite being attacked by his own teammates.
Long
career
The exhibition reminds us of the breadth of Robeson's performance career,
his huge output as a concert and recording artist, and his commitment
to creating complex reflections of black experience and celebrations
of black heroes on the stage. It explores his appearances in films such
as The Emperor Jones (1933) and Proud Valley (1940) and his three major
stage performances as Othello (see below) and their changing personal
and social context, his role as Joe in Show Boat at the Theatre Royal,
Drury Lane, his choice to join Unity, the workers' theatre specialising
in socialist drama; and his legacy for black theatre in Britain. It
will also include extracts from some of the National Video Archive of
Performance's recordings of black performance such as the acclaimed
revival of Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun, Young Vic 2001, and
black performance in Shakespeare such as Ray Fearon as Othello in the
Royal Shakespeare Company 1999 production, and Talawa Theatre Company's
1994 King Lear.
Resource
persons
Consultants to the London exhibition include Colin Prescod, chair of
the Institute of Race Relations. Contributors include Stephen Bourne,
author of Black in the British Frame:The Black Experience, to be relaunched
in a new edition in October, black archivist Leon Robinson, and Paul
Robeson Jnr., whose first of a two volume biography The Undiscovered
Paul Robeson: An Artist's Journey, 1898-1939 is published by John Wiley
and sons, this year priced £21.50.
The Museum education
department will be running workshops relating to the exhibition with
a particular emphasis on the new curriculum subject of citizenship.
A resource pack will be produced with support from Unity Theatre Trust
and the American Embassy. There will also be a Study Day on Black Theatre
in England 21 October 11am - 4pm (bookings 020 7943 4808). Visitors
can leave their memories of Paul Robeson on the Reminiscence tree.
Robeson's Othello
performances are: 1930 at the Savoy Theatre, London, opposite Peggy
Ashcroft, 1943 in New York with Uta Hagen and José Ferrer, 1959
at Stratford-upon-Avon with Mary Ure as Desdemona, and Sam Wanamaker
as Iago
The exhibition is
jointly produced with the National Museums & Galleries of Wales,
Cardiff. The exhibition has been sponsored by the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport, the Home Office and the National Assembly for Wales,
and supported by Paul Robeson Jr. and The Council for Creative Projects.
See Archives for related information:
People are talking about... ...Paul Robeson and Black cultural arts
in Britain:
The
Science Museum
From
Mary Seacole, the brave Caribbean nurse, to dances and rhythms of Africa,
and from the fight to control the deadly effects of sickle cell anaemia,
and to highlight Black creativity and achievement this month's events
at the Science Museum bring together major themes of the past and present.
For more details, go to www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/celebrate
or e-mail c.eagleton@nmsi.ac.uk,
or phone (020) 7942 4208. Admission to the following events is included
in the Science Museum admission price: Adults: £7.95, Children
and Over 60's FREE
Mary Seacole
Saturday 6 October and Sunday 7 October
13.30-14.00, 15.30-16.00
Age: 6 and upwards, Making the Modern World exhibition
Both
Florence and Mary worked as nurses in the Crimean war and were renowned
at the time. So why do we remember them? This performance looks at
the life and work of these two amazing women.
Kill
or Cure? Naked Science Event for Adults
Sunday 14 October, 15.00 Admission Free
Voice, Dance and Rhythm
Saturday 6 October and Sunday October 7th 12.00-12.30, 14.00-14.30,
15.30-16.00
Age: 6 and upwards, Who Am I? exhibition
Exploring
personal and collective identity with poetry, drumming and dance with
Brother Niyi and Asafo Gyato.
Brother
Niyi is an international award winning poet who has worked with the
likes of Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jalal Nurridin of the Last Poets, Jean
'Binta' Breeze and Benjamin Zepheniah.
Asafo
Gyato is an experienced and exciting Caribbean community artist, who
has worked widely in schools, community centres and theatres nationally
and internationally.
Rhythm and Sounds
Saturday 13 October
Performances: 12.00-12.45, 15.30-16.15, Workshop: 13.00-15.30 Age: all,
Making the Modern World exhibition
In
the 1940s, Trinidadian musicians reused old oil drums to create instruments:
steel pans. Come and find out about steel pan rhythms, and investigate
how different materials sound when they're reused as musical instruments.
Politics
and Cure of Sickle Cell Anaemia
In the future, diseases like sickle cell anaemia could be eradicated
by prenatal screening and selected abortions, but is this right? Why
don't we put more money and effort into better treatment of the disease?
Come
along to a discussion and air your views about these issues surrounding
sickle cell anaemia.
Sunday
14 October 15.00 Admission Free Fellows' Room, North Entrance Science
Museum, Exhibition Road, London. SW7 2DD Nearest tube, South Kensington
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/letstalk
Chair:
Prof Elizabeth Anionwu CBE,
Head of the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice, Thames Valley
University and co-author of 'The Politics of Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia'.
Speakers:
Dr Chi Chi Opara-Mottoh,
Nigerian/British mother of a 19 year-old daughter with sickle cell
anaemia
Mrs
Stephanie Sulaiman,
Haemoglobinopathies counsellor in Southwest London Community Health
Trust
Dr
Norman E. Parker,
Consultant haematologist with special interest in sickle cell, Whittington
Hospital
Dr
Allison Streetly,
national co-ordinator NHS haemoglobinopathy screening Programme
You
can e-mail your comments before the event to adult@nmsi.ac.uk.
For
further information about this event and disabled access please ring
020 7942 4837 or e-mail adult@nmsi.ac.uk
Black Inventors
Museum trail
Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st October
13.00-13.30,15.00-15.30
Age: 6 and upwards
Lewis
Latimer was born in 1848, in Massachusetts, in the United States of
America. He developed a passion for science and grew up to be one
of America's most successful Black inventors. This trail looks at
objects in the Science Museum's galleries to find out about Latimer's
life and achievements.
Garrett
Morgan was an African American inventor at the turn of the century.
He talks about his life, work and inventions, the gas safety mask
and traffic lights.
Who
Am I?
Also coming up in the museum's Wellcome Wing is an update of our volunteers
case in the Who Am I? gallery.
Who
Am I? is the Wellcome Wing's exciting biomedical science gallery.
Contemporary biomedical science is changing our understanding of what
gives each of us our own identity as an individual and a human being.
Members of the public have taken part in a project…
A
volunteer of Jamaican descent took part in some of these biomedical
tests, including tracing distant ancestry through genetics. The results
of this project will be added to the gallery on Thursday 11 October.
For Further information please call the Science Museum Press Office.
Matt Moore 0207 942 4364, m.moore@nmsi.ac.uk
Nicola Osmond-Evans 020 7942 4357n.osmond-evans@nmsi.ac.uk www.sciencemuseum/org.uk/press
British Multi-Ethnic Images & Events
The
Public & Commercial Services Union-English Heritage Branch &
the Friends of PurehArt Services, Invites You To:
"London's Black English Heritage 2 Talks & 6 Walking Tours During
October, BHM2k1", in the City of Westminster.
Walking
tour 1 - the Beginnings of a black English Community.
Tuesday 9th, 23rd (11 am ) & Saturday 20th (3 pm) October 2001
- starting at Westminster.
Walking
tour 2 - black English Musician, Performers and Writers.
Tuesday 16th, 30th (11 am) & Saturday 27th (3 pm) October 2001-starting
at Russell Square.
Get
your ticket[s] and Walk with & Listen to Steve Martin on his walking
tours of 500 Years of "London's Black Heritage"!
Book your Place by E-mail at: purehArt@easynet.co.uk
Only 30 places per walk.
Ticket[s] cost £5.00 and the walks are approximately 1 hrs to 2 hrs
long!
+++ Plus Join +++
Merrick Hart, PCS Union-English Heritage Branch, {Researcher of black
peoples links with English Heritage properties}, and the other Friends
of PurehArt: - Jeffrey Green, Author of Black Edwardian's 1901-1914
and S.I. Martin, Author of Britain's Slave Trade & Incomparable
World.
For their evening talks In Westminster!
London's and England's Early Black Role Models,
10th Oct. 6.00 pm for 6.30pm to 8.30pm - Foreign and Commonwealth
Office.
Jeffrey Green, S.I. Martin & Merrick Hart
Black English or Black British Role Models, - what should they be
called?
18th Oct.- 6.00 pm for 6.30pm to 8.30pm at English Heritage.
S.I. Martin & Merrick Hart
Come
and have your say!
Tickets cost £5.00 or more information and to book a place, please,
E-mail: purehArt@easynet.co.uk
Additionally, Wednesday 3rd October @ 6.00pm
British Black Slavery - Lecture - Prof. James Walvin
Organised FREE by English Heritage
Scientific Lecture Theatre
23 Savile Row
Working in Partnership for October, Black History Month:
-
[PCS] - The Public & Commercial Services Union - The UK's Largest
Civil & Related Services Union!
-
English Heritage [EH] - The Lead Body for the Conservation of the
Historic Environment in England!
-
PurehArt Services - Supporting and Promoting British Diverse &
Multi-Ethnic Images and Events!
Merrick Hart
Museums and Collections Administrator/
PCS-EH Branch Secretary [non executives]
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