ABOUT THE PROJECT
For many young Londoners, feelings of belonging, identity and even personal safety have been impacted by the recent rise in hate crime and an increase in nationalistic, xenophobic and islamophobic discourse. Unfortunately, few of them will be aware of the legacy of a generation which itself in the 1980’s demanded and struggled for its place in British society.
This project will use the Bernie Grant Archive to enable young Londoners to understand this legacy, and learn from it, as they face racially charged threats to their identity and rights as citizens and consider their options. The archive provides a rich source of material about the social conditions which drove the black community to enter representative politics as active citizens, the strategies they adopted, and the responses of the wider community to demands for equality and a shared identity. Focusing on the eventful years of 1983-1993 in London, the project explores this critical moment in Britain’s journey to becoming an inclusive society.
Built around four themes this project will use the archive and the example of Haringey to explore the social and economic conditions and pressures that helped to shape Black British identity at the time, the responses to those pressures, the impact that these actions had not only on the Black British community but also on wider society:
- Marginalised Black Britain
Evidence will be drawn from the archive about the reality of disadvantage for the Black community. This will include the facts about inequality locally and nationally in housing, education, the workplace and policing, using the many examples in the collection of how this affected individual lives.
- Black Britain: Marginalised no more
Using archive material, the focus will be on the way the Black community responded to these inequalities. Using the many examples present in the collection a range of responses will be explored e.g. self-help, artistic expression, community action, public demonstrations, seeking and gaining public office and civil unrest. Taken together these responses form the foundations for a Black British identity; fleshing out what it means to be Black and British.
- The Role of Leadership
Through the archive the concept and definition of leadership will be explored, and the importance of this for a marginalised community previously without recognised leadership. Numerous examples will be used to illustrate questions about the meaning of leadership, the personal qualities required, the risks and challenges, not least as regards transitioning into representative politics as a minority ethnic leader.
Also explored will be the impact of this new type of leadership for the community’s confidence in their identity and sense of belonging.
- Black Britain: 25 years on
What it is to be Black and British has changed considerably over the past 25 years. This theme explores this and encourages use of the material in the previous themes to promote discussion about the current challenges to identity and citizenship rights. Discussion of both similarities and differences between current threats to identity, and those facing the black community in the 1980’s, will be encouraged as well as the place of active citizenship in today’s context.
The project will be delivered across 3 strands of activity
Strand 1- Developing Schools Resources
This strand will work with teachers and students to develop a suite of curriculum linked resources that can be used by teachers in the class room as well as by students and learners as part of an independent study programme.
Strand 2: Developing Young Producers and Bringing Stories Alive
The project will enable 12 young people (18-25) to gain heritage skills in research and interpretation by getting up close and hands on with archive material, and creatively interpreting it. They will participate in a programme of activity that will see them receive training and support, to develop workshops, brief and commission artists and to then produce and manage public events that engage their peers and increase understanding and knowledge of the project’s themes. The young producers will work with Emergency Exit Arts on an intensive programme of skill-specific training focused on preparing them to work collaboratively with each other. Through learning how to commission and brief artists young people will learn essential skills such as communication, negotiation, and evaluation; building their confidence and knowledge to deliver peer-centred activities and creative workshops directly inspired by the archive.
Strand 3 Heritage Ambassadors
Finally, the project will train 30 people to be heritage ambassadors. These ambassadors will receive an introduction to the archive from the Trust’s lead archivist. They will also receive from the oral history society at least 4 days of training on conducting, recording and selecting interviews. Once trained the ambassadors will interview a cross section of people in Haringey and across London about their experiences or memories of exclusion and struggle during the period, about social action they were involved in, the leadership role of Bernie Grant, as well as their reflections on the position today. They will interview politicians such as Diane Abbott, Keith Vaz, David Lammy, Sam Gyimah and Chuka Umunna alongside former council colleagues and the wider community paying particular attention to people aged between 50 and 65, who would have been young people in the 1980s. Heritage Ambassadors will collect a total of 120 oral testimonies
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
1. Participants will have learned about the heritage/history.
- Participants will have developed research/heritage skills and knowledge.
3. Heritage will be better interpreted
4. Heritage will be better recorded
5. More people and a wider range of people will have engaged with heritage
GET INVOLVED
TAKE PART IN OUR SURVEY
‘Calling all teachers and educational professionals, The Bernie Grant Archive needs your help!
Please complete our short survey about how we can best support your teaching to develop relevant and meaningful educational resources’