Decolonising Memory

COMMUNITY NEWS Decolonising Memory: Digital Bodies In Movement written by Cleo Lake

Decolonising Memory: Digital Bodies in Movement is a Citizen Science project led by former Green Party Lord Mayor of Bristol Cleo Lake, Kwesi Johnson, Co-Founder and Creative Director of The Cultural Assembly, and Dr Jessica Moody, Senior Lecturer in Public History at the University of Bristol.

A team has now been assembled through an open call to research Bristol’s memory of transatlantic enslavement through historical and creative methodologies. The team will collaboratively research and design a new performance-based memorial intervention centring African diaspora history and culture that will counter sites in Bristol connected to enslavement.

Through this collaborative research and intervention the project aims to:

1. Find out more about how Bristol’s history and memory of enslavement, and its legacies connect to ‘place’ 2. Use creative methods to reach deeper into this meaning and connect past and present. 3. Build something positive together, for reflection, community and healing. The project will create new collaboratively designed digital memorials which challenge, counter and dialogue with existing sites of memory in Bristol in ways which both acknowledge the truth of these sites and Bristol’s history of enslavement and also bring new narratives to these spaces, valuing different forms of knowledge and understanding and centring African diaspora culture, history and experience.

The project began publicly in November with the first of a series of monthly ‘hybrid’ workshops taking place in person at the Malcolm X Centre and via zoom. The workshops will run through to summer 2022, culminating in dance-based memorials created by the project team which anyone will be able to view through an augmented reality app.

Cleo, who has a degree in Dance from Bath Spa University, a foundation certificate in Dance Therapy and has worked as a dance artist for almost 2 decades, has been interested in conducting mass participation dances for some time: ‘As a dance artist and dance advocate, I really understand the power of dance to shift personal and collective realities. It can be an incredible tool for healing as well as a way of making sense of past and present. The body carries a lot of information and just like song or drum patterns, it can actually also carry and transmit historical references. This is largely overlooked as a way of understanding as opposed to a say a traditional Western academic way of accepting knowledge, but it is incredibly valid. I am really hopeful of the energy and power that can also be produced by people joining together in dance.

What we understand as folk or traditional dance was a way in which communities and cultures connected themselves with each other, with nature and with the cosmos. Certain dances would be performed at certain times, whether that be at harvest time, at a funeral etc. Whilst many such dances are ‘historical', this new dance that we are creating attempts to chart history but also add in the contemporary and new aspects of the journey.’

The symbol for the project incorporates two West African Adinkra symbols. Adowo which represents peace, tranquillity, and quiet and Sankofa which represents going back to get something that is forgotten in order to go forwards. The wish is that the dance created can provide solace and healing. The project will feature guest tutors including UK African dance pioneer Norman ‘Rubba’ Stephenson, Haitian Dance artist Latisha Cesar, and lineage timeline educator Paul Eme.

You can stay updated on the project by following the social media and website blog.

https://decolonisingmemory.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/decolonisingmemory_ bristol/ https://www.facebook.com/Decolonising-MemoryDigital-Bodies-in-Movement-260885502450943/ https://www.blacksouthwestnetwork.org/culturalheritage/african-dance/25/8/2020 https://www.latishacesardance.com https://www.remixhistory.com

Not forgetting the much-loved Raking & Baking cooking & gardening course that teaches people skills as well as bringing them together.

This anniversary is about celebrating the local community, as it is the people that make this hub the vibrant space it is. Through the rest of the year, we will be compiling stories, hoping to capture your memories of the centre over the years and what you want to see in the future.

Tell us your moments, share your photos and let's celebrate the community at the heart of St Werburghs. If you are interested in taking part get in touch, we would love to hear from you.