B L AC K
H I S TO RY M O N T H 2 0 2 1
www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk .
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John Henrik Clarke was born on January 1, 1915, in Union Springs, Alabama, the youngest child of parents of African slave descent. With the hopes of earning enough money to buy land rather than sharecrop, his family moved to the closest mill town in Columbus, Georgia. He later became an American historian, professor, and pioneer in the creation of Pan-African and Africana studies and professional institutions in academia starting in the late 1960s. He stated that ‘History is not everything, but it is a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are but, more importantly, what they must be.’ These are powerful words and as we embark on our Black History Month programme at Canford over the next few weeks it is important that we all recognise we have a significant responsibility to better understand how those words apply not just to our own view of history and our own lives but to explore a wider perspective of history and to engage with open eyes, ears, hearts and minds as to how that very different and varied experience has shaped and developed the world in which we live. In the context of Black History Month this requires a focus on a whole range of issues surrounding politics and power, culture, society, our use of language and much more. Alongside a range of talks and activities which seek to develop a deeper understanding of the experience of Black people in both the past and the present, we will also be commencing work as a school community with FLAIR, an organisation
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which helps to raise awareness of issues surrounding racial inequality in schools and other institutions, and also to seek ways of creating a more educated, equal and mutually respectful environment. A survey will start this process and you will all be asked to complete this in the run up to half term. Please do engage in the Black History Month programme with purpose and a positive mindset, discuss actively the ideas and issues raised and let us all work hard to ensure that this important period of time helps us all to think hard and act more decisively to bring about the respect, consideration and equality of experience which everyone desires and deserves.
BEN VESSEY Headmaster
SCHOOL WIDE EVENTS
DORSET’S HIDDEN HISTORIES From Wednesday 6th October Layard Theatre This freestanding exhibition available to hire explores 400 years of the presence of black people in Dorset including African American GIs on Poole Quay and a Freed enslaved American living in Bournemouth.
SCREENING OF THE FILM ‘HARRIET’ Tuesday 12th October - 4.00-6.00pm, Egdon Based on the thrilling and inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, HARRIET tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.
SCHOOL WIDE EVENTS
FROM THE HEADMASTER
‘THE GOLDEN ERA OF WEST INDIES CRICKET’ A TALK WITH MR WILSON Wednesday 13th October - 4.30pm, Dassler ‘I’ve been a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago since birth and my family personally knew people associated with West Indies cricket, such as Richard ‘Prof ’ Edwards, Gus Logie and Tony Cozier. I’ve been to the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain and the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. The West Indies team has had many, many great players, not least the incomparable Garry Sobers and the great Frank Worrell (attached), the first black captain of the West Indies in 1960, but it is the West Indies team from 1976 to 1995 which ranks as the most successful and one of the greatest sporting teams of all time, in spite of the many obstacles in their path.’ – Mr Wilson
JOHN O’GAUNT’S DEBATE ‘THIS HOUSE SUPPORTS THE REMOVAL OF STATUES OF HISTORICAL FIGURES LINKED TO INSTITUTIONAL RACISM.’ Friday 15th October 4.45-5.45pm, Assembly Hall Please email Mr Redwood for a space in the audience.
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Friday 8th October - 3.10pm, Music School Angelina Osborne is an experienced independent historical researcher, writer and editor, having worked on a range of projects related to slavery, memory, citizenship and cultural heritage. She has a wealth of experience on the public history of slavery and emancipation, having worked on these subjects with museums, libraries and archives, NGOs, and community organisations, and presented programmes on slavery and the Black presence in Britain on radio and television. She received her PhD in History from the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull. Her book co-authored with Patrick Vernon entitled 100 Great Black Britons was published last year.
LOWER SIXTH BLACK HISTORY IN DORSET WORKSHOP Tuesday 12th October - 4.30-5.30pm, Ellsberg Miss Lines invites Lower Sixth to come to a workshop to learn more about the history of black people in our local county: Dorset.
BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES: Monday 18th October - 7.30pm, Layard Theatre – for A Level Drama pupils and ALL Shell, Fourth and Fifth Form Boarders One day. Six cities. A thousand stories. Following two sell-out runs at the National Theatre and a world tour, Inua Ellams’ acclaimed Barber Shop Chronicles comes to the Layard. Newsroom, political platform, local hotspot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium. For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling. Directed by Olivier award-winning director Bijan Sheibani and designed by Rae Smith (War Horse), Barber Shop Chronicles is a heart-warming, hilarious and insightful new play that leaps from a barber shop in Peckham to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra over the course of a single day.
EVENTS FOR SPECIFIC GROUPS
EVENTS FOR SPECIFIC GROUPS
FIFTH FORM TALK: DR ANGELINA OSBORNE - ‘PUTTING THE BRITISH INTO BLACK HISTORY’
SHELLS AND FOURTH FORM: PATRICE LAWRENCE MBE TALK Wednesday 20th October - 12.00-1.00pm, Assembly Hall Patrice Lawrence MBE is a British writer and journalist, who has published fiction both for adults and children. Her writing has won awards including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Older Children and The Bookseller YA Book Prize. In 2021, she won the Jhalak Prize’s inaugural children’s and young adult category for her book Eight Pieces of Silva (2020). More information on the contents of her talk will be available in the Festival of Ideas Programme.
FIFTH FORM AND SIXTH FORM FILM SCREENING - ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI Wednesday 13th October - 7.30-9.30pm, Egdon One Night in Miami is a fictional account of one incredible night where icons Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown gathered discussing their roles in the civil rights movement and cultural upheaval of the 60s.
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IN LESSONS ...
Shells will watch an episode of Black and British in their PSME session on Friday. Black and British on the BBC: bold, vibrant, provocative stories exploring what it means to be black in Britain today. Further episodes can be found on Canford Media.
the underground rail road, Sixth Form will study the use of open spaces for BAME communities, Fifth Form will investigate urban ghettoization, and the Fourth Form will investigate key Black Geographers.
TUTOR TIME DISCUSSION FOR LOWER SCHOOL Lower School pupils will spend some of their Monday tutor time discussing questions of race and discrimination in modern Britain.
GEOGRAPHY: Shells will be exploring
ART: We are looking at the following artists and exhibitions with different groups across the curriculum – Mark Bradford, Chris Ofili, El Anatsui and some of the culturally diverse artists from this current exhibition https:// www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/artexhibitions/mixing-it-painting-today. There will be others as the conversations about projects develop.
ENGLISH: Fourth Form ‘Outside of the Box’ short story reading competition
Fourth Form pupils will be researching short stories from a range of different cultures and presenting on these in an interclass competition. The aim of the event is to explore varied authorial voices and to celebrate black voices. Key short stories from Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa have been selected. National Poetry Day 7th October - All pupils in English will be exploring the theme of inclusion and exclusion through an anthology of Black British Poets. A display of poems by Black British poets will be up in the department. Pupils will be sharing some performances of the poems during the day.
SPORT/PE: We will be tackling theory
on ethnicity and sport in our Lower Sixth programme. It will cover barriers to participation and solutions to those barriers.
IN LESSONS
EVENTS FOR SPECIFIC GROUPS
SHELL PSME: EPISODE OF BLACK AND BRITISH
POLITICS: Black History Month will cover the section in the syllabus entitled Race & Affirmative Action in the ‘democracy’ section of the text. To compliment our teaching on the US from a limited republic to a modern democracy.
HISTORY: https://www.westminster-
abbey.org/learning/schools/secondary/alevel-history-masterclass Sixth Form pupils will be viewing a History Masterclass with Dr Miranda Kaufmann Africans in Tudor and Stuart Westminster.
CLASSICS: Shells (and other Latin
classes) will look at the diversity of Roman London - including some recent burials excavated which have people from Africa, Syria and Egypt. Greek includes the huge diversity of the empire and the competitors in the Olympic Games. Lower Sixth study the Aethiopian prince Memnon who fought Achilleus during the myth cycle about the fall of Troy. Upper Sixth study the warrior Queen Amenishaketo from Kush.
DISPLAYS TO LOOK OUT FOR:
Library display and reading lists Black British Poets in the English Department
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WORTH WATCHING: • Noughts and Crosses on BBC iplayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p082w992/noughts-crosses • The Living History of Slavery and Imperialism: Healing and Empowerment in the time of Covid https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/latest-events/the-living-history-of-slavery-and-
imperialism-healing-and-empowerment-in-the-time-of-covid-19-23-august-2020-6pm/
• Empire of Cricket the Story of West Indies Cricket https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/video/empire-of-cricket-the-story-of-west-indies-cricket/ • In Conversation with Lenny Henry https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/video/in-conversation-with-lenny-henry/
WORLDWIDE AUTHORS
• Windrush Generation: The Scandal That Shook Britain Explained and Debated https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/video/windrush-generation-scandal-shook-britain-explained-debated/
BLACK HISTORY (NON-FICTION) • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969) (Sixth Form) • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015) • Hope in a Ballet Shoe by Elaine DePrince and Michaela DePrince (2015) • The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. Edited by Clayborne Carson (1999) • 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup (1853) (Sixth Form) • Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama (2007) • Becoming by Michelle Obama (2018) • The Autobiography of Malcom X (1965)
• Akala – In My Opinion https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/video/akala-in-my-opinion/ • Roots (2016) – Can be found on Canford Media https://media.canford.com/View.aspx?id=74498~5t~O2DpRwCO6D • Alison Hammond: Back to School – available on Canford Media
WORTH READING: UK AUTHORS BLACK HISTORY (NON-FICTION) • What is Race? by Claire Heuchan and Nikesh Shukla (2018) • Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga (2016) • Black History Matters: The Story of Black History, from African Kingdoms to Black Lives Matter by Robin Walker (2019). It has been shortlisted in the 13 to 16 age category for the School Library Association Information Book Award 2020. • The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah: The Autobiography (2019) • Natives by Akala (2018) • Black, Listed by Jeffery Boakye (2019) • I Will Not Be Erased by gal-dem (2019) • Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (2017) BLACK VOICES (FICTION) • A Change Is Gonna Come by various authors (2017) • Bloodshot Monochrome by Patience Agbabi (2008) (Poetry) (Sixth Form) • The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta (2019)
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Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman (2001) (Audiobook available from Canford Digital Library) Unheard Voices collected by Malorie Blackman (2007) Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (2019) (Sixth Form) Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence (2016) (15+) Indigo Donut by Patrice Lawrence (2017) Small Island by Andrea Levy (2004) (Sixth Form) Liccle Bit (2015) by Alex Wheatle. Other Alex Wheatle books: Crongton Knights (2016), Straight Outta Crongton (2017), Kerb-Stain Boys (2018) Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah (2001) (E-book available from Canford Digital Library). Other novels and poetry are also available in the library.
WATCH & READ
WATCH & READ
• Black and British: A forgotten History by David Olusoga – can be found on Canford Media https://media.canford.com/View.aspx?id=73791~5o~hsexrfzfK2
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BLACK VOICES (FICTION) • The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (2018) (E-book available from Canford Digital Library) • Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (2018) (14+) • Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013) (Sixth Form) • Rebound by Kwame Alexander (2018) (E-book available from Canford Digital Library) • And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (1978) (Poetry) (Sixth Form) • Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2016) • Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (2016) • Augustown by Kei Miller (2016) (Sixth Form) • Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987) (Sixth Form) • Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (2017) (E-book available from Canford Digital Library) • The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds (2019) (14+) • Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes (2018) • Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D Taylor (1976) • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2017) (E-book available from Canford Digital Library) • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (2018) • The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982) (Sixth Form) • The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2016) (Sixth Form)
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Canford School, Wimbor ne , Dor set, BH21 3AD 01202 841254 office@canford.com