Black History Month is a chance to focus our minds on the Black experience, but we work throughout the year to critically appraise what we do and engage with decolonising and diversifying our collections and services.
Here are some of our events, which draw on research and voices from around Goldsmiths and our wider communities.
Enigma of Arrival: the politics and poetics of Caribbean migration to Britain
Exhibition
1 October – 31 October
Library Social Learning Space, Ground Floor, Library (Rutherford Building)
This digital poster exhibition, created by EU LAC Museums Project, The University of West Indies and the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, aims to create awareness about the active migration crisis in Britain by having a specific focus on Caribbean migration from the 1940s to the 1970s. With the recent 70th Anniversary of the MV Empire Windrush landing, it aims to serve as a medium for informing the general public across the Caribbean and in the UK about the current state of affairs surrounding Caribbean migrants.
Using interpretive panels, the audience is introduced to the historical parameters and scope of Caribbean post-World War II migration to Britain and its legacy amongst later generations both at home and abroad.
https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=12821
Farrah Riley-Gray : Knotted
Exhibition
30 September – 4 November
Deptford Town Hall Building. Constance Howard Gallery, basement.
The Goldsmiths Textile Collection and Constance Howard Gallery are pleased to present an exhibition by the winner of the Christine Risley Award 2019, Farrah Riley-Gray.
Riley-Gray’s practice deals with misogynoir with a current focus on hair within black cultures. She is also interested in the rituals behind textiles and weaving, examining the way in which materials can convey relationships between culture, race and gendered product making, as well as their potential to hold diasporic stories absent from other historical or archival sources.
https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=12749
‘Pressure’
Film and Discussion
18 October
Library Social Learning Space, Ground Floor, Library (Rutherford Building)
As part of Goldsmiths Library’s celebration of Black History Month we have a special screening of Horace Ové’s 1976 film ‘Pressure’ widely hailed as the UK’s first black feature film. This screening will be preceded by a discussion with artist Zak Ové (son of Horace), actor Herbert Norville (Tony in the film Pressure) chaired by Professor Julian Henriques (Goldsmiths).
https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=12820
Buchi Emecheta Space Opening and Present Futures Exhibition
23 October – 6pm – 8pm
Buchi Emecheta Space, Second Floor, Library (Rutherford Building)
Join us for the opening of a new exhibition space in the Library for students, dedicated to Buchi Emecheta OBE.
On the evening there will be addresses by Margaret Busby OBE (Publisher, Writer, Editor, Broadcaster), Sylvester Onwordi (The Buchi Emecheta Foundation) and Leo Appleton (Director of Library Services, Goldsmiths, University of London) as well as readings from Emecheta’s works by Angelique Golding.
The space will launch with an exhibition by Present Futures:
‘Becoming an archive’ is part of an ongoing project presenting the archive as a space of becoming for women and non binary people of colour.
presentfutures.org/
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/launch-of-the-buchi-emecheta-space-tickets-74418956101
Windrush Conversation
30 October – 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Library Social Learning Space, Ground Floor, Library (Rutherford Building)
Both as a celebration of Black History Month and of 70 years since the arrival of HMS Windrush, Dr. Elizabeth Williams (Goldsmiths) will be in conversation with Professor William Henry (University of West London) to discuss Windrush in a historical, personal and current context.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/windrush-conversation-tickets-74419995209
Black History Month is a chance to focus our celebrations on Black achievements but we work throughout the year to critically appraise what we do and engage with decolonising and diversifying our collections and services.
For more information on our work around Liberating our Library and how to collaborate with us on this work please see our website.
https://www.gold.ac.uk/library/about/liberate-our-library/
We hope that you will enjoy some of our resources not just in October but to serve you throughout your studies and research with us.
Don’t forget to check out some of the other amazing events across Goldsmiths for Black History Month.
Here are a few of our favourites from the Students’ Union.
- The Colour of Madness: Discussing Black Mental Health in a University Context with Rianna Walcott (15th Oct)
- ‘The Conversation’ film screening and Q&A with cast and crew (17th Oct)
- ‘Voice, Power and Resistance: An Intersectional Approach’ with Dr. Claudia Bernard (23rd Oct)
- Boukman Academy presents: An Overview of Precolonial Africa (28th Oct)
Leave a Reply