In the UK, October is Black History Month; a time to celebrate, honour and educate people about the contributions Black people have made over the centuries, not just to the UK but all over the world.
This year’s theme is ‘Time for Change: Action not Words’.
To get to a better tomorrow, we can’t just focus on the past. The past is in the past. We can acknowledge and learn from it, but to improve the future, we need action, not words. We need to come together around a shared common goal to achieve a better world for everyone.
- Black History Month
At Newcastle University, we are celebrating Black History Month through a series of events, but we also choose to honour and recognise Black History throughout the year. Our Black History Month Steering Group offers grants to support projects related to Black History. Visit their webpage to find out more and apply for the next round of funding.
Recently, the committee funded a Students’ Union BAME Welcome Pack. The 24 page booklet aims to support new ethnically and culturally minoritised students moving to the city and includes information about Food, Places of Worship, Hair and Beauty, Nightlife and Societies. The pack was created by Student Officers and aims to help students find the spaces outside of campus where they can find a sense of belonging and build support networks in places they identify with. The Welcome Pack was distributed during Induction week and is available at NUSU’s Support and Advice Hub for students to pick up at any time.
There are two exciting projects which are also launching this month which have been supported by this funding:
Listen to this story! Children's Books and Black Britain
Date: From 20 October 2022
Listen to This Story! Children’s Books and Black Britain’, a new exhibition celebrating the history of Black people in British children’s books, will open at Newcastle City Library and the Philip Robinson Library at Newcastle University on Thursday 20 October 2022.
A collaboration between Seven Stories The National Centre for Children’s Books, Newcastle University and Newcastle City Library, the exhibition will celebrate the rhymers and rebels, poets and publishers, who have helped Black British children see themselves on the page.
The exhibition is curated by Professor Karen Sands-O’Connor of Newcastle University (author of Children's Publishing and Black Britain, 1965-2015), and writer and producer Rufaro Faith Mazarura.
‘Listen to This Story! Children’s Books and Black Britain’ will be on display from 20 October to 1 Dec 2022 in Newcastle City Library. The second part of the exhibition - ‘From History to Our Story’ - will also open on Thursday 20 October on Level 2 of the Philip Robinson Library and will be on display until January 2023.
Further details and information can be found on the Listen to the story! website.
Follow the exhibition on Twitter.
Producers of colour and expanding knowledge: improving access to fairer resources and mapping curriculum diversity, School of Modern Languages
Date: October 2022 and ongoing
The School of Modern Languages is working with students and the University Library to make academic and non-academic resources more diverse and to map how they are used.
The team are developing reading lists for the different language and cultural areas taught in the School of Modern languages (Chinese [Mandarin], Francophone, Germanophone, Hispanophone, Japanese, Lusophone), which foreground texts and other formats of knowledge production by academics and cultural producers of colour.
They are developing a cross-school curated list focusing on race and coloniality from a variety of perspectives across the world, as well as specific lists related to cultural/language areas or modules taught in the school. The aims are to foreground multiple histories and accents of race and coloniality, to expose and challenge structures of inequality and to explore other future projects.
Three public events will be held, beginning with a project launch this month; a book festival in spring 2023 and a symposium to develop plans going forward in October 2023.
.png?width=1024&name=Blog%20In-body%20(2).png)
There are a number of Black History Month events happening on campus this month:
An Evening with Natalie Ibu, Artistic Director of Northern Stage
Date/Time: Wednesday 12 October 2022, 6.30pm to 7.30pm
Venue: Percy Building, Newcastle University
From starting during the pandemic to bringing the European premier of Claudia Rankine’s The White Card to Northern Stage, Artistic Director Natalie Ibu has brought the lights wonderfully back up at Newcastle’s beloved theatre. Join us to hear about her adventures in theatre so far, and her vision for the 2022 season, This is Now, which invites artists and audiences to join a year-long conversation about who we are and who we want to be; to think deeply about the important questions of our time, and to find refuge in coming together to imagine our way through the world we live in, right now.
Free event but booking required.
Lunchtime Concert - Hypothetical: Works inspired by the BLM movement
Date/Time: Thursday 13 October 2022, 1.15pm
Venue: King's Hall, Armstrong Building
A performance of Jazz/fusion works featuring original compositions by Zach Okonkwo.
Free event, no booking required.
FROM Newcastle: Podcast Episode - Black History Month Special: Decolonising the Curriculum, Dr Christina Mobley
Date: This episode will be released on 17 October. https://podcasts.ncl.ac.uk/fromnewcastle/
INSIGHTS Public Lecture: Black History Month Lecture - Why history matters by Professor Hakim Adi
Date/Time: Thursday 27 October 2022, 5.30pm
Venue: Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, Newcastle University
In this lecture, Professor Adi shares his own experience of Black History Month. He reflects on the struggles, over the last 40 years, to combat eurocentrism and develop what is often termed ‘Black British History’, and discusses his new book, African and Caribbean in Britain: A History.
Free but booking required.
Bookings for this lecture will open at 10.00am on 20 October.