A Fresh Education CARGO, founded in Bristol, delivers multimedia learning resources that illuminate the achievements of the African Diaspora. And they’re completely free. Fourteen years ago Bristol-bred poet Lawrence Hoo and Creative Director Charles Golding began the creative collaboration that would become CARGO. Their aim was creatively to address the lack of substantive, inspiring narratives about the African Diaspora in our culture. It was clear to CARGO’s founders that the lack of positive representation of the African Diaspora in the UK curriculum robs young people of the many role models and inspirations there are to find in history. The Runnymede Trust Report for Bristol 2017, highlights ethnic minority disadvantages in education, which continue to have a knock-on effect in employment and lifestyle. It says of the curriculum: “The current curriculum is drawn up by people who are not able to create learning framework which caters for children from different upbringings and cultures. The standard school curriculum therefore favours children from a white mainly middle class background.”
CARGO’s core creative projects stem from the collection of poetry CARGO Lawrence published in 2019, which tells the stories of a centuries-long lineage of visionary leaders from the African Diaspora. The individuals that Lawrence shines a light on include Imhotep, Nanny of the Maroons, Marcus Garvey, and Carmen Beckford. To bring the power of these stories to the public, CARGO delivered a multimedia installation which sold out at the Watershed in 2018, before launching CARGO Classroom in 2019.
CARGO Classroom is a set of fresh learning resources CARGO are delivering in collaboration with a team of experienced teachers. The resources serve teachers with their depth and detail, and they draw learners in with beautiful illustrations, evocative films of poetry performances and other rich visual sources. All these resources are openly accessible on CARGO’s website and completely free for all. “Pressure is mounting on the government to review the national curriculum and make the teaching of black history mandatory for all pupils in schools in England.” - The Guardian, 8 June 2020 Since the first resources were made available at the start of 2020, the response has been overwhelming, with teachers and learners as far afield as Cape Town, South Africa, enjoying the resources in class. Because of its success CARGO was invited into a partnership with the National Education Union of 0.5 millilon educators nationwide, alongside Sir Lewis Hamilton’s organisation Mission 44.
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