It is clear how ethnic disparities within the labour market are linked to other disparities in policy such as housing, and influenced by national crises such as the cost of living crisis. Issues within the labour market leads to wage disparity between minoritised communities and their White counterparts.
The Telling Stories event on 22nd November 2022, was a powerful, social and introspective conversation about the art of storytelling. I know this because I was there. It asked critical questions that were extremely thought-provoking about how the UnMuseum project (as it stands today with this name) will tell stories. But it was also a general conversation for storytellers in all modes and forms, as well as an educational one.
A special blog by Gary Thompson of Cables and Cameras!
This blog post recalls my experiences on the day of the conference, sharing what is happening in the archival community in London and throughout the United Kingdom. I also want to express my thanks for the support from The New Black Film Collective and BSWN in giving me the opportunity to attend the conference.
Earlier last week, I had the absolute pleasure to sit down and have a conversation with Seeta Patel, an award-winning choreographer and dancer known for contemporary dance styles and the classical dance style of Bharatanatyam. Seeta was kind enough to make time in her busy schedule to tell me her story: how she went from Saturday dance practices, to taking a break from dance for medical school, to her eventual nomination for the prestigious Olivier award for Best Dance Performance – making her the first Woman of Colour to be nominated for such an award.
Every year, Black South West Network’s team and wider membership gather for our Annual General Meeting, a much-needed space to share our progress, our achievements, and to reflect upon changes in the South West and what it means for the communities we faithfully serve. This year was no different with our choice of venue being the newly-built EQ Bristol building.
This year’s Black History Month theme is ‘Reclaiming Narratives’. But what does this mean? And how can we relate this to the day-to-day lives of Black folk living in the southwest of England? The act of reclaiming narratives has always been central to Black South West Network’s mission. But we also understand that reclaiming narratives can mean different things to different people. After all, the community is seldom a monolith.
At the end of June the first Black-led, majority Black and people of colour (BPOC) organisation in Europe, Systemic Justice, who work with community partners for racial, social, and economic justice through strategic litigation curated an amazing space for all things racial justice! To support organisational thinking in the development of BSWN’s racial justice approach to its Access to Justice work strand, BSWN’s director Sado Jirde and Dr Barbara Brown attended the Community Visions for Liberation – Towards Racial, Social and Economic Justice in Europe Conference, which brought together researchers, creatives, activists, and racial justice practice from across all disciplines opening up learning, sharing research outcomes, creating new connects and building coalitions for action.
On a relatively rainy afternoon on Saturday the 20th of July, rays of sunlight emanated brightly from the Coach House in St Pauls. Whilst not forecasted by Bristol’s meteorologists, an intimate group of writers brought much needed light to the halls of our 19th century building through the sharing of stories, expressions of gratitude, and showers of joy and laughter.
On Thursday, 25th April 2024, we hosted a Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) Election Hustings at the Coach House. At this event, our community engaged with Avon & Somerset’s representatives from political parties running for the role of PCC: Katy Grant (Green Party), Benet Allen (Liberal Democrats), Clare Moody (Labour), and Mark Shelford (Conservative). We delved into their ideologies and plans, focusing on overseeing the local police force and ensuring they prioritise matters important to our communities. Our Associate, Rob Mitchell, led the event, facilitating discussions and guiding proceedings.
[BRISTOL, MARCH 2024] BSWN has been awarded £520,000 capital funding towards the refurbishment of the Coach House. Recently at risk of closure due to the need for urgent repair works, this funding helps to further its stated goal of transforming The Coach House into a regional Centre for Black Enterprise and Culture. The funding award from the Department of Levelling Up Homes and Communities comes with £50,000 of revenue funding to provide essential capacity to deliver the refurbishment project on time.
BSWN is one of the lead partners in a newly announced £3 million collaborative initiative, over 2 years, in the regions creative and culture sector with the Mayoral Combined Authority and the Arts Council England, bringing together 150 regional creative and cultural organisations to reimagine and transform access to the arts and culture has been announced. This investment will be used to open-up the sector to more diverse talent and build a more resilient West of England creative and culture sector.
[BRISTOL, NOVEMBER 2023] – On 3rd of October 2023, Bristol City Council’s Cabinet awarded Black South West Network (BSWN) a 125-year lease on the Coach House community asset building, located in Bristol, St. Pauls. The achievement carries great cultural meaning for Black and Minoritised communities in the City of Bristol, who are aware of the tight connection between their histories and this building. Positioned in the heart of Bristol’s longest-standing Black community, the Coach House was originally funded by the Transatlantic Trade of Enslaved Afrikans and then repurposed in the 1980s with Manpower Commission funding as a local Business Development Centre.
The Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) (Asylum-seeker Accommodation) Regulations 2023 seek to temporarily exempt asylum seeker accommodation from licensing requirements, due to complaints raised by Asylum Accommodation Service Contract (AASC) providers who raised concerns about overregulation. There are 6000 HMO properties accommodating 28000 asylum seekers (Shelter, 2023b). A lack of regulation will undoubtedly attract private landlords to AASC providers and lead to a decrease in housing conditions, housing availability and fire safety standards.
October is ADHD Awareness Month in the UK, a time to celebrate neurodiversity, share lived experiences, and increase understanding of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in both children and adults. It's also an opportunity to address the underdiagnosis of ADHD in female-identifying individuals and especially those from Black and Minoritised backgrounds. Receiving a diagnosis whilst working at BSWN has been a positive yet challenging experience for me. It's also been a learning curve for the organisation. Since my diagnosis, we have taken proactive steps, with the entire team attending neurodiversity training and engaging in broader conversations around neurodiversity.
Every once in a while, an experience comes along that leaves an indelible mark on our souls, shaping the way we view the world and our place within it. Such an experience happened recently when the BSWN team embarked on a transformative journey to Museum Zoma in the heart of Addis Ababa with colleagues from the Arnolfini and UWE who were kind enough to invite us to share this experience with them. In this blog post, we share some of our reflections on the impact of our visit and the profound lessons we learned about art, architecture, education, sustainability, leadership, and the celebration and preservation of heritage and tradition.
On Thursday the 5th of October, 2023, I was lucky enough to represent BSWN at the TTEACH Plaques Launch held at The Tabernacle in Central London. TTEACH Plaques – an acronym for Transatlantic Trafficked Enslaved African Corrective Historical Plaques – is a descendent-led initiative founded by Gloria Daniel with the support of the SOAS School of Law, Gender and Media. This incredible initiative aims at placing a much-needed spotlight on places and people ‘incontrovertibly tied to the transatlantic slave economy.’
These UnMuseum public events offered an opportunity for the diverse communities of Bristol and beyond to engage directly with a group of academics, activists, artists, researchers, and writers – all variously associated with BSWN. All involved with the conception, development and envisioning of just what an UnMuseum might constitute. The series of roundtable events, as public dialogues were not focused on the concrete aspects of the materiality of the UnMuseum itself as a physical space as such.
The Permanent Forum on People of African Descent aims to realise a dream that entails the full and uncompromising protection, promotion, and respect of the human rights of people of African descent, globally. This reflection will serve to draw links between the points made during the First and Second Sessions on the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent and the work done by BSWN throughout the years.
This is a summary of the Government’s recently passed Illegal Migration Act 2023 and its impact on migrants arriving in the United Kingdom. This summary will cover the Act’s estimated costs to the United Kingdom’s economy, its impact on incoming migration and asylum seeking, possible human rights implications, and the potential strain it may put on local governments and legal aid providers.
The influence of a public figure can often act as a canary in the coal mine, drawing attention to a distinct societal problem that not only plagues them, but society in general. The problem with this analogy is that the public figure afflicted with a societal ill is often the most prominent of those affected, but certainly not the first.
