BHS at ‘Charlie Phillips: The Urban Eye Exhibition’ – Saturday 20th April 2013

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On Saturday 20th April, Black History Studies went on a road trip to Nottingham to support our good friend Charlie Phillips with the launch of his ‘Charlie Phillips: The Urban Eye. Hidden Stories in the Rise of Modern Multicultural London’ photographic exhibition which opened at New Art Exchange, curated by Paul Goodwin. This was his first solo exhibition outside London in the UK.

The information on the exhibition is below:

Race riots, rogue landlords, street life, interracial relationships, fashion and images of bohemia are captured in Charlie Phillips’ latest exhibition Charlie Phillips: The Urban Eye. The striking ‘captured moments’ in his photographic collection not only form part of a constructed mythology of Notting Hill neighbourhoods in West London during the late 1950s and 1960s, but also trace the evolution and transformation of the migrant urban experience into the cosmopolitan cities we inhabit today.

The exhibition features key works from Charlie Phillips’s iconic Notting Hill pictures including some that have not been seen in a public gallery before. This will be accompanied by important documents and materials from Charlie’s personal archive illustrating over 40 years of his commitment, techniques and engagement with documenting hidden histories and communities in London and other European cities.

It was a lovely sunny day and there was a large turnout to support Charlie and his exhibition. A small group from London came up via National Express to support Charlie which was nice to see, as we must support our artists who document our story. Anyone who has the opportunity to sit and speak to Charlie will be amazed with the stories and views he has to share.

After the launch event, we had a lovely reception at The Chase Neighbourhood Centre with some Caribbean food and live music. Black History Studies hosted the screening of Rootical, a film about Charlie Phillips which was followed by an audience with Charlie Phillips, who had me laughing away at his stories and his interaction with the audience. To purchase the film and support his work, go to http://www.blackhistorystudies.com/shop/

Living in Nottingham or visiting soon? Visit the Charlie Phillips: The Urban Eye exhibition at New Art Exchange before Saturday 6 July.

About Artist Charlie Phillips

Ronald “Charlie” Phillips (born 1944) is a Jamaican-born restaurateur, photographer, and documenter of black London. He is now best known for his photographs of Notting Hill during the period of West Indian migration to London; however, his subject matter has also included film stars and student protests, with his photographs having appeared in Stern, Harper’s Bazaar, Life and Vogue and in Italian and Swiss journals. He came with his family to Notting Hill, London in 1956 and as a young man he travelled all over Europe. In 1968/9 he took photographs of the student riots in Paris and Rome. He had his first exhibition in Milan in 1972 where he showed photographs portraying the frustrations and difficulties of urban migrant workers. Returning to London after several years, he lived “a bohemian life of squats and pop festivals. During the 1980s, he took photographs documenting West Indian funerals at Kensal Green Cemetery and other cemeteries in London. In 1989 he moved to south London to run a restaurant in Wandsworth, Smokey Joe’s Diner, during which time he did not pursue his career as a photographer.
A revival of interest in his work came with it being featured in an exhibition in the Tabernacle in Notting Hill in 1991, coinciding with the launch of his book of photographs, Notting Hill In the Sixties, introduced by the writer Mike Phillips. In recent years his work has been seen and lauded in numerous high profile exhibitions at prestigious venues such as the Museum of London (Through London’s Eyes 2003; Roots to Reckoning 2006) and Tate Britain (How We Are: Photographing Britain 2007).

About Curator Paul Goodwin
Paul Goodwin is an independent curator, lecturer and urban theorist based in London. As a curator at Tate Britain from 2008-2012 he directed Tate Britain’s pioneering Cross Cultural Programme a multi-discpliniary platform exploring the impact of globalisation on contemporary art in Britain. He has curated and co-curated a number of internationally significant exhibitions including: Migrations: Journeys Into British Art, Tate Britain 2012; Thin Black Line(s), Tate Britain, 2011; Go Tell It On The Mountain: Towards A New Monumentalism, 2011 and Ways of Seeing, 2012, 3-D Foundation Sculpture Park in Verbier, Switzerland; Coming Ashore, 2011, Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon, Portugal, Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic, Tate Liverpool, 2010; Underconstruction, Hospital Julius De Matos, Lisbon, Portugal, 2009.
He is an Associate Lecturer, MA Curating, Chelsea College of Art and Design; a Research Fellow in urbanism at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths, University of London, a Trustee of Third Text journal (2011-2-13) and an elected Honorary Member of the Franco-British Inter-governmental Council. He was on the Board of Yinka Shonibare MBE Guest Projects in 2010-2011. Goodwin is currently Curatorial Director of the 3-D Foundation Sculpture Park and International Residency Programme in Verbier, Switzerland. He has been invited to give keynote lectures and chair conferences at universities and museums around the world including: University of Sydney and Australia Council, Australia; Museum of Modern Art, Rio, Brazil; the Sorbonne in Paris; Danish Centre for Art and Interculture, Copenhagen, Federal Agency for Civic Education , Berlin; Stedelik Museum Bureau in Amsterdam, Tate Modern in London.

 

The Black Market & Film Fesitval – Saturday 6th April 2013

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On Saturday 6^th April 2013, Black History Studies organised our second ‘Black Market’. The Black Market is an event to showcase, expose and connect Black cultural and creative entrepreneurs to the community and to provide a platform to sell their products, promote their skills and engage with the local and surrounding community.

The aim of the event is to:

• Showcase and connect Black cultural and creative entrepreneurs to the community
• Increase the exposure of Black cultural and creative sector’s participation in the wider community
• To provide a platform to sell their products, promote their skills and engage with the local and surrounding community.
• To raise the awareness of the importance and relevance of increasing your personal financial literacy and the benefits of developing and adopting an enterprising lifestyle.

We included a film festival this time and screened three independent documentaries The Black Candle: A Kwanzaa Celebration, ‘BURN: The Evolution of an American City’ and ‘Kickin’ It With the Kinks’ films which were followed by some brilliant discussions. We also had a presentation on Economic Empowerment in the Black Community delivered by Charmaine Simpson of Black History Studies.

We had over 300 people attend the event and we believe that the event went well. We received some good positive feedback form delegates and stallholders.

“I found the Black Market to be a very empowering event. I liked that every thing was so well organised. Me and my mum got there early so I could set up my stall. Everyone was so happy and it was great to see my black community working together.” – Nature from Nafasi by Nature Cards

“I really enjoyed the event from the point of view of a stallholder as well as being part of an ambience of good vibes. There are too few events where our creative businesses and community can meet. Great idea to combine films with the market. Well done Mark Charmaine and all those involved in making it happen! More! More ! MORE!” –Menelik Shabazz

“As always the BHS Team put together a fantastic event ensuring exhibitors, like myself, were catered to with all their needs and the public was catered to with great tasting (and smelling) food. The event was a great turn out, lots of great items being sold. I would recommend to any and everyone and I would definitely attend again… even if I wasn’t distributing. A huge well done to Mark & Charmaine!” – Nathanial from ISIS Magazine

You can read some more on our guestbook. We did receive some feedback regarding the price of the event and that the £10 entrance fee was too expensive. Delegates had access to three films, a presentation and access to over 30 stalls during the nine hour event with lots of networking opportunities and an opportunity to speak to a Financial Advisor provided by Talk Moneywise. The Black Market was not funded and sponsored by any other organisation or funding body so we have to finance our own events, hence the £10 entrance fee.

I believed that some missed the point of the event as the event was about doing for self and supporting our Black businesses and yes supporting Black business involves investing money in our Black businesses. We must come out of the freeness and funded mentality which has not got us anywhere. Let’s not wait for funding before we take action. Like African scholar, Dr. Claud Anderson says “the new orientation for Black America (and the UK too), within the framework of a national plan, is the practice of group economics. The primary goal of practicing group economics is to draw wealth, income and other resources into Black communities and to make them more economically self-sufficient and competitive.”

We do not want to pay £10 to enter an event so how will be afford our own buildings? WE DO NOT OWN BUILDINGS so have to rent them from non-African people. And the building we do have access to or have leases for are under threat. If we did have our own buildings, where would the funds come from to pay the costs to keep the building open (rates, insurance, security etc)?

Some more feedback received was regarding the creation of a brochure to circulate to the community from the event. Initially, we did have an idea of a brochure or event magazine but we chose to keep the costs low. Printing costs money and this will be made up somewhere (tickets will be £15). I have an idea, let’s all patronize Purple Pages (http://www.purple-biz.co.uk/thecompany.htm) and fundraise to give the director Cheryl Henry the £100,000 plus it will cost to print the brilliant UK Black links Business Directory that we used to have and love. Then we would not need to print a brochure because we will have a Black Business Directory in our homes.

Better still, lets encourage our businesses to advertise on the website so we have a central accessible directory to use 24 hours a day. Question, when was the last time you actually looked in your physical copy of the Thomson Local or it is in a cupboard under the stairs under some old shoes? Online is the best option, our next move will be to develop mobile phone apps (we need to finance this too). If you did not know about Purple Pages, then ask yourself why? We do not have the advertising budgets like Argos to promote and showcase our businesses hence the reasons for the events like The Black Market, The Black Baby Show, Uzima Expo, Natural November etc.

Other feedback received was that we should have shown films for children. All the films we screened were child friendly. A solution is to start to make and fund our own films. Do we have films made for our Black children on the importance of Black businesses to show? Or is this the role of the parents to take the children around to the stalls to speak to the stallholders on the importance of supporting black businesses or economics. I did not provide children activities as I did hope that this would be the case.

These events are vital to support businesses in the community, as we do not have the luxury of large marketing budgets to highlight our work so we need events like these to showcase the community talent and to encourage entrepreneurship and the circulation of the pound within the community.

We would like to thank Deniece from Platanos College, Sonia Scully, Bro Icha from JetBlackInk Multimedia, Cynthia Butare who is the director of Kickin’ It with the Kink’ and Basil from Pempamsie for their support with this event. I would like to thank Naomi and Rachel from UK Naturals for hosting the Q&A session of Kickin’ It with the Kinks and thank Izegbuwa for providing British Sign Language support to Kevin so he could also enjoy the event. We would like to thank LMQ events for decorating the hall and helping with the catering. We would like to thank our volunteers Mariah, Marchessa, Janese Samuels, Robert Curry, Leget Muhammed and Empress Jai. Last but not least, I would like to thank all our exhibitors who exhibited at the Black Market Event

Afro Fusion Designs, Afrocessories by J.M Prempah, AKIIKI, All Knightz Ltd, Anaisart, Asawala, Bespoke Binny, Blyssful Union, Cairo Cards / 3ms, E&G Designs, Foroyaa African Arts, Crafts & Jewellery, Greenshack Productions, House of Loulee, ISIS Empire Ltd, La Fashionista Ltd / Jewellery by Pauline G, LibRaw, Marcia Makeba, Nafasi Cultured Cards by Nature, Natalie Cooper Books, Onyinyedraws, Ooma and Yumi, Organics, Pieces by Keke, PositiveImageProject, Sistah Outlets – S.O Wyze, Skone Designs, Sun Ra Publishing, Talk Moneywise, Tanzanian Womens Association, The Calabash Hub, TomizCreations by Remi O, Uhzuri Designs, Yess Essentials, Yours Naturally

Watch our interviews of stallholders and delegates from the Black Market below:

BHS at The Black Baby Show

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On Sunday 31st March 2013, we attended the first Annual Black Baby Show.

The Black Baby Show is a children and baby expo devoted to parents, carers and those who are with child of African and Caribbean decent. Embracing all and excluding none, this Annual event will provide a diverse and unique cultural experience and an opportunity to engage with top quality specialists in multicultural fashion, health and wellness, parenting, maternity and childcare services, interactive adults and children’s workshops, seminars, arts & crafts, cultural toys, education and much more.

I had a brilliant time at the Black Baby Show and finally got to meet the amazing  10 years old young talent that is NATURE from Nafasi Cultured Cards by Nature and supermum Karlene who presented me with a wonderful Black History Studies customised card. I also got to meet the beautiful Onyinye Iwu of Oyinyedraws who is a freelance illustrator and an aspiring children’s book author. Her father was also present which was nice to see as my own father is a big supporter of my work at Black History Studies. Both Nature and Onyinye will be exhibiting at our Black Market event on Saturday 6th April 2013.

I was happy to see people from the Black History Studies network at this event as we must support our events and Black Businesses.

Well done to the organisers Shen Stephanie (who is 7.5 months pregnant and working hard), Heket Nedjety (or Charmaine Murray who is also pregnant) and Fée Uhssi who organised this wonderful event.

I am looking forward to the next event!

Live Performance by OMAR @ BAR 216

Charmaine Simpson and Omar

At the start of 2013, I made a decision to try relax, chill out and take more breaks so when I saw that one of my favourite soul artists OMAR was doing a rare live performance, I booked fast. On Saturday 30th March 2013, I headed down to BAR 216 in Herne Hill’s which is one of the newest vibrant live music venues in the area.

So who is Omar?

Omar Christopher Lye-Fook MBE (born 14 October 1968, London), known professionally as Omar, is an internationally acclaimed British soul singer, songwriter and musician. Omar grew up in Canterbury, Kent.. He learned his craft classically, playing the trumpet, piano and percussion.

Omar also spent two years at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, and the Guildhall School of Music in London. His most well-known song was his debut single “There’s Nothing Like This”. It reached #14 in the UK Singles Chart on re-release in 1991. Allmusic noted that he is described by some as the ‘Father of British Neo Soul’.

The opening act was the lovely mother of 3 Chardel (BUS RECS) and Pete Mello was doing his thang on the decks.

Omar’s performance was amazing and I was singing away to ‘There’s Nothing Like This,’ ‘Tell Me’ and ‘Be Thankful’ like I was one of this backing singers LOL. After his show, I managed to fight through the crowd to get a picture with the man himself. Could my smile get any wider?

BHS at the Day of the Goddess Event

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On Sunday 24^th March, I attended my third Day of the Goddess event but this time I went with my long-time friend from secondary school.  This was a beautiful uplifting day surrounded by true goddesses. There was some brilliant performers and informative speakers such as Leah Salmon who launched her new book ‘Budget Behaviour & Belief’ and the lovely Sandra Richards. The hot buffet was nice and the dessert was even better.

There were a number of stalls at the event exhibiting arts and crafts, clothing, books, herbs and spices.

Present was an amazing piece of art by Carl Gabriel that was on display titled ‘Amarna Princesss Akhenaton’s Egypt’. This is hand made out of mild steel galvanised wire.

I would recommend that all women should attend the Day of the Goddess as you won’t be disappointed. Check out their website http://www.dayofthegoddess.co.uk/

Black History Studies Research Trip & Short Break in Brussels

Black History Studies took a well-earned short break to Brussels in Belgium to recharge our batteries and also check out some of the museums in this city. I have always wanted to visit the Royal Museum for Central Africa from my research and activism surrounding the on-going genocide and conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 1898, King Leopold II of Belgium established the Musée du Congo in Brussels as propaganda to display to the world his colonial triumph in the Congo and ‘development and civilization’ in Congo. Under King Leopold II, between the years 1885 and 1908, an estimated 10 million Africans died from forced labour, executions, torture, disease and starvation.

Watch our video below from this museum visit

We also visited the Natural Sciences Museum of Belgium in Brussels where we located the Ishango Bone.

Africans pioneered basic arithmetic 25,000 years ago. The Ishango bone is a tool handle with notches carved into it found in the Ishango region of Zaïre (now called Congo) near Lake Edward. The bone tool was originally thought to have been over 8,000 years old, but a more sensitive recent dating has given dates of 25,000 years old. On the tool are 3 rows of notches. Row 1 shows three notches carved next to six, four carved next to eight, ten carved next to two fives and finally a seven. The 3 and 6, 4 and 8, and 10 and 5, represent the process of doubling. Row 2 shows eleven notches carved next to twenty-one notches, and nineteen notches carved next to nine notches. This represents 10 + 1, 20 + 1, 20 – 1 and 10 – 1. Finally, Row 3 shows eleven notches, thirteen notches, seventeen notches and nineteen notches. 11, 13, 17 and 19 are the prime numbers between 10 and 20.

Watch our video below from this museum visit

Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide lecture by Dr Hilary Beckles

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On Tuesday 26th February 2013, my princess and I attended the lecture of ‘Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide’, by Dr Hilary Beckles at the London Metropolitan Archives as part of the International Huntley Symposium. The event was organised by the Friends of the Huntley Archives. I was glad to people from the Black History Studies network at the event.

I have a number of the books by Dr Verene Shepherd and Dr Hilary Beckles in my library so I was excited to hear more about the subject and his new book which he stated took between 3-4 years to complete. Also, I had attended Emancipation, Slave Ownership and the Remaking of the British Imperial World’ Conference last year which was linked to this lecture.

Did you know that when colonial slavery was abolished in 1833, the British government paid £20 million to slave-owners as compensation? The enslaved Africans received nothing. They received nothing as they had no rights to life. Enslaved Africans did not own their bodies or labour and they were the property of others.

The lecture was informative and enlightening. However, the time allocated for the presentation was far too short as I would have loved Dr Beckles to have gone deeper into the arguements raised in his new book regarding reparations. I have ordered the book and can’t wait to read it. Buy your copy from the following link http://astore.amazon.co.uk/blachiststud-21?_encoding=UTF8&node=48

Another book on the list to get is ‘The Price of Emancipation: Slave-Ownership, Compensation and British Society at the End of Slavery (Cambridge Studies in Economic History – Second Series)’ by Nicholas Draper. Buy your copy from the following link http://astore.amazon.co.uk/blachiststud-21?_encoding=UTF8&node=48