Events Pick – 15 May 2019 Issue

Dear Followers,

I just wanted to thank those of you who have recently started following the blog and/or those of you who have e-mailed me directly to express your support for this resource – it is really appreciated. Apologies if I haven’t yet managed to come back to you directly. The success of the “decolonising events special & video” has exceeded my expectations, and I will obviously include more directly related content in future posts. Thanks also to my loyal international followers, who cannot necessarily access all the British-based resources and events. I guess you like to know what’s happening in the UK and continental Europe!

Best wishes,

Thushari

Thushari Perera

BLACK EUROPE RESOURCES

 

 

15-19 May 2019

FLAWA FESTIVAL (VARIOUS VENUES, LONDON)

“The Festival of Latin American Women in the Arts  (FLAWA), will be an exciting new festival in the British capital, showing the perceptions of women from Latin America in film, music, literature and arts through multiple events in a range of London venues between the 15th and 19th May 2019. London is home to a rich crowd of Latin American creators – an important diaspora in this city- which is blossoming, growing in size, and in creative force. Women are the drivers of this community. FLAWA will create a space to celebrate and honour what Latin American women do; cisgender, transgender, queer and non-binary creators. We have curated activities for anyone interested in the many angles and trajectories of Latin American culture. This will be an exciting space of reclaimed narratives, myriad perspectives, and swathes of opportunity where you are all invited to celebrate art, diversity and female empowerment.”

Find out more here

 

17-26 May 2019

BATH FESTIVAL 2019 (Reminder)

“The Bath Festival 2019; a celebration of music and literature with a diverse programme of more than 120 events over ten days…”

Please see Black Europe’s Selection here

 

17 May – 15 June 2019

THEATRE: KING HEDLEY II (STRATFORD EAST, LONDON)

“1980s Pittsburgh, a city in decay. Against the backdrop of Reagan’s America, King, an ex-con, is trying to rebuild his life and start a family. He’s got hopes and dreams of opening a video store and building a new life. If only he can get ten thousand dollars together, if only he can catch a break. In his dusty backyard he plots and plans with his friend Mister, but is this all a pipe dream? Featuring Lenny Henry as smooth-talking hustler Elmore, August Wilson’s touching and angry King Hedley II is a quest for redemption for one man and a whole community.”

Find out more here

 

19 May 2019 – 31 August 2020

EXHIBITION: LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE (TATE MODERN, LONDON)

“The first major survey of the celebrated London-based painter. Widely considered to be one of the most important painters of her generation, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is a British artist and writer acclaimed for her enigmatic portraits of fictitious people. Her paintings often allude to historic European portraiture – notably Thomas Gainsborough, Francisco de Goya, John Singer Sargent and Édouard Manet – yet in subject matter and technique her approach is decidedly contemporary. Through her focus on the depiction of imagined black characters Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings raise important questions of identity and representation. This exhibition will bring together over 80 paintings and works on paper from 2003 to the present day in the most extensive survey of the artist’s career to date. Yiadom-Boakye was awarded the prestigious Carnegie Prize in 2018 and was the 2012 recipient of the Pinchuk Foundation Future Generation Prize. She was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2013.”

Find out more here

 

21-25 May 2019

COUNTERPOINTS ARTS AT TATE EXCHANGE (TATE MODERN)

“Join Counterpoints Arts and The Open University along with artists and activists for the third year of Who Are We?”

Find out more here or here

Black Europe Resources’selection below:

21 May 2019

SYMPOSIUM MOVEMENT AND IDENTITY I (TATE MODERN, LONDON)

“This symposium brings together perspectives from research and arts to interrogate movement and identity through experiences of migration, citizenship, participation in the contexts of climate change, creative interventions into citizenship, violence and solidarity with refugees in a range of geographical and political contexts. All welcome to drop in for one session or the whole day! Free to attend.

For more information: whoareweproject.com

1:30 pm-2:30 pm: Picturing Climate: Participatory Photography and Narrative Storytelling for Climate Change Education

Agnes Czajka, Dijana Rakovic, Eva Sajovic, Corinne Silva in Conversation

Climate change has led to displacement, livelihood and food insecurities. While educational capacity building has often been top-down and focused on mobile technologies, this project uses creative, art-based methodologies which enable a more collaborative, bottom-up approach to knowledge creation with researchers and grassroots arts and culture organisations. The presentation will share findings from an AHRC funded research project exploring the use of participatory arts methodologies for climate change education. Part of a larger international project, the presentation discusses our work in Cuba with Samuel Riera at Riera Studio, an independent art studio focussed on the promotion of art produced by vulnerable social groups, including children and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities.

2:45- 4:15 Migration, Citizenship and Noncitizenism

Kesi Mahendran: There’s an ‘I’ in Unicorn: Citizen Worldviews on Europe and Beyond

Umut Erel: Migration, Citizenship and Creative Participation

Tendayi Bloom: Rethinking Noncitizenship?

Bojana Janković: Art and displaced identities

This panel looks at what citizenship means in this turbulent moment. It looks at how degrees of migration and mobility influences the dreams, myths and worldviews citizens have about the ways the world should be bordered. It poses the question of what we can learn about citizenship if we do not see migrants as outsiders, but as active and creative participants in shaping belonging and participation. Looking through arts practice and engagement with marginalised audiences, it interrogates migration and displaced identities. The panel also considers real-life cases of how different people relate to the state to suggest that a new political movement is emerging, one which calls for recognition of a ‘noncitizen’ relationship as an important and fundamental way in which a person can have a relationship with a State.

4:30 – 5:15 Envisioning Solidarity with Refugees against Hostile Policy

Evgenia Illiadou: Refugees’ Experiences of Violence

Marie Gillespie: Envisioning Solidarity in the Pikpa Refugee Camp, Lesvos

This panel explores refugees’ experiences in Lesvos, which since 2015 has been the epicentre of the refugee crisis. The panel explores refugees’ experiences of violence, through borders and the hostile response of the EU. It also raises questions and shows examples of solidarity through a participatory arts project in Pikpa refugee camp through a book of co-created photos and poems Communities of Solidarity: The Story of Pikpa Refugee Camp, offering radically different representations of refugees to those in mainstream media where they are frequently objectified. It shows how we can be in relation to others.

5:15-6pm Informal Discussion

Convened by Umut Erel and Agnes Czajka, Justice Borders Rights Research Stream,

Citizenship and Governance SRA, The Open University”

 

23 May 2019

SYMPOSIUM MOVEMENT AND IDENTITY II (TATE MODERN, LONDON)

“This symposium brings together perspectives from research and arts to interrogate movement and identity through exploring experiences of belonging and the law, Catalan political prisoners’ experiences, and the experiences of precarity of migrant artists. All welcome to drop in for one session or the whole day! Free to attend

For more information: whoareweproject.com

Still from The Lost Places.

Kate McMillan’s video poem translation of Deryn Rees-Jones’ “HOME”

12:15 pm – 1:15 pm Movement and Immobility: Catalan Political Prisoners

Georgina Blakeley, The Open University and Joan Soler-Adillon, Royal Holloway University in conversation with Clara Ponsatí, Saint Andrews University

This panel reflects on the situation of Catalan political prisoners, through Joan Soler-Adillon artwork ‘In Pieces VR’, an experimental documentary on the effects of political imprisonment and exile, based on case of the current Catalan political prisoners in Spain and in conversation with Clara Ponsatí who was the Minister of Education in the Catalan Government during the 2017 referendum. She exiled to Belgium and then moved back to Scotland.

1.30 pm – 2:30 pm Desire Lines

Robert Herian, The Open University and Lucy Atherton

Interweaving poetics of longing and bureaucracy, artist Lucy Atherton and legal scholar Robert Herian explore the phenomenon of desire lines within a landscape of post-industrial regeneration. Through film, photography, maps, and writing, Atherton and Herian describe how desire lines exist as more than direct or efficient ways around planned space, but as psycho-political imprimaturs, functions of recognition, and means of escape.

2.45 pm – 3.15 pm Tales of Precarity

Tim Butcher, The Open University

Precarious workers are defined by the International Labor Rights Forum as those who fill permanent job needs but are denied permanent employee rights. As labour markets transform, precarious work increases. To be seen to be independent and successful is becoming a necessity for many, but significantly affects worker wellbeing. Such precarity is something that artists have long experienced. Yet this does not necessarily mean that precarity is any easier for artists to live with or discuss. In this session Tim will present visual stories of seven socially engaged artists generated from discussions about their artistic practices in the context of their sense of precarity. During the presentation, Tim will discuss with two of the artists their experiences of the project, what they contributed to and gained from the research process, what might be learned from this study about how to pursue important work in increasingly precarious labour markets, and how and why we might seek to better understand precarious work.

3.15 pm-4pm Talking Transformations: Home on the Move

Manuela Perteghella, The Open University, Ricarda Vidal (KCL & Translation

Games), contributing artist Kate McMillan

A talk and pop-up exhibition exploring the changing notions of ‘home’ through poetry, translation and film art. How do we conceive of ‘home’, how do we define it? And what happens to this definition when people migrate, what happens to the memory of the old home they have left behind and to the new one they have made for themselves? How does ‘home’ travel? And how does it ‘arrive’? And how is movement received by those who ‘stay put’? The project is intended to be a platform for a positive debate around migration. Manuela Perteghella and Ricarda Vidal will present the project and walk through the exhibition, followed by a conversation with contributing artist Kate McMillan, whose work incorporates a range of media including sculpture, film, sound, installation and photography (www.katemcmillan.net). Convened by Umut Erel and Agnes Czajka, Justice Borders Rights Research Stream, Citizenship and Governance SRA, The Open University.”

Find out more here

23 May 2019

BUILDING THE ‘CITY OF REFUGE’ ARCHIVE (TATE MODERN, LONDON)

 

“Join us for a workshop exploring how cities change after the arrival of refugees and migrants. Digital makings of the City of Refuge is a comparative project exploring the ways in which urban communities – established and new – mobilise and manage change in the city after refugee and migrant arrivals. Building upon photographic footage and ethnographic stories across three neighbourhoods of Athens, Berlin and London, this workshop will explore the ways in which field research might be translated, transformed and re-narrated in a digital format for a public archive. City of refuge researchers, filmmakers and visual practitioners will join the branding and digital agency, TEMPLO, in this conversation.

Digital makings of the City of Refuge is led by the Department of Media and Communications, LSE, in collaboration with the Department of Sociology at the LSE, and with Proboscis and Counterpoints Arts; it is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation ‘Resilient Cities Programme’. This event is part of Who Are We?, a cross-platform event designed and curated for Tate Exchange (Tate Modern) by Counterpoints Arts and The Open University, reflecting on identity, belonging, migration and citizenship. The programme is shaped by co-creation, co-production and exchange among artists, arts and culture organisations, audiences, activists and academics.”

Find out more here

24 May 2019

POPULAR CULTURE AND THE BLACK ARCHIVE (TATE MODERN, LONDON)

 

“Join us for a workshop exploring the importance of archives for Black popular culture.

Black music – from Jazz, the Blues, Reggae, Hip Hop through to Grime – has dominated popular music and culture for the last century. But do we know what’s in the UK’s archive collections about Black popular culture? Who’s responsible for collecting this material, framing it and what are its sources? Where are the gaps and the buried and lost artefacts, and is this a fundamentally devalued and fragmented archive? Who has the right to collect, shape and re-frame the Black archive for the past, the present and the future? Why is this an urgent question for communities, artists and activists, and national and regional cultural organisations? What role can digital media play in making archives more accessible and to whom? This conversation takes place as part of Counterpoints Arts’ Pop Culture and Social Change Strand. This event is part of Who Are We?, a cross-platform event designed and curated for Tate Exchange (Tate Modern) by Counterpoints Arts and The Open University, reflecting on identity, belonging, migration and citizenship. The programme is shaped by co-creation, co-production and exchange among artists, arts and culture organisations, audiences, activists and academics.”

Find out more here

22 May 2019

BORDERING BOOK LAUNCH (SOAS, LONDON)

“This book is a systematic exploration of the practices and processes that now define state bordering and the role it plays in national and global governance. Based on original research, it goes well beyond traditional approaches to the study of migration and racism, showing how these processes affect all members of society, not just the marginalized others. Many ordinary citizens are now required by states to carry out border guarding activities in their daily interactions with others. These include truck drivers and airline staff evicting people seeking to cross state borders as well as employers, landlords and public service administrators filtering people within territories. The uncertainties arising from these processes mean that more and more people around the world find themselves living in grey zones, excluded from any form of protection and often denied basic human rights. This richly documented account of how bordering has become dispersed into the interstices of everyday life will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, anthropology, politics and geography and to anyone concerned with the changing character of governance and belonging today.”

Find out more here

23 May 2019

ETHIOPIAN MANUSCRIPTS: CATALOGUING, CURATING, EXHIBITING, AND DIGITISING THE BRITISH LIBRARY’S COLLECTION (THE WARBURG INSTITUTE, LONDON)

“The British Library has a collection of over 600 manuscripts in its Ethiopian collection, dating from around the fourteenth to the twentieth century. The collection was assembled over the past 266 years, firstly by the British Museum and India Office Libraries, and since 1973 by the British Library. The manuscripts were acquired through donation and purchase, and also from expeditions and private collectors. All aspects of Ethiopian literature are represented, notably Gospel Books, Apocrypha, ecclesiastical and civil law, Psalters, Saints’ lives, as well as letters, medicine, and philology. A particular strength of the holdings are the Ethiopian magical and divinatory scrolls. The Library is currently in the process of re-cataloguing and digitising 304 of its Ethiopian manuscripts, cover to cover, and uploading them to its searchable Digitised Manuscripts site.

Eyob Derillo is currently working at the British Library in the department of Asia and Africa Studies, where he has served as curator of Ethiopian collections. In 2018 he curated the British Library’s exhibition African Scribes: Manuscript Culture of Ethiopia which was the first exhibition to be held at the Library devoted entirely to Ethiopian manuscripts. He also co-curated the British Library’s highly acclaimed exhibition Harry Potter: History of Magic. Eyob is also completing his doctorate at SOAS (Department of Religions and Philosophies). His research focuses on the nature and historical development of the concept of Ethiopian ‘magic’ and its use within a specifically Christian context.

The Anglo-Ethiopian Society is affiliated to the University of London’s Centre of African Studies (CAS) and all of our events at SOAS are co-hosted with CAS.”

Find out more here

 

23 May 2019 (Reminder)

CONFEDERATES, RHODES & HONOR: OBLIGATIONS TO REMOVE ARTIFICIAL ARTEFACTS (ABERDEEN)

“This lecture will question whether states should remove public statues of people who engaged in serious rights violations. This the 8th Annual Philosophy Public Lecture, will be given by Professor Helen Frowe, Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Stockholm and Director of the Stockholm Centre for the Ethics of War and Peace. The lecture will be followed by a screening of the documentary The Silence of Others. Supported by the Royal Institute of Philosophy.”

Find out more here

 

24 May 2019

ANNOTATING COLONIAL HISTORIES: JOSÉ RIZAL AND THE RETHINKING OF THE FILIPINO IDENTITY IN LATE 19TH CENTURY ENGLAND (SOAS UNIVERSITY OF LONDON)

“To celebrate the launch of Sentro Rizal London, Philippine Studies at SOAS with the Philippine Embassy and the National Commission on Culture and the Arts presents a discussion of Rizal in London, rewriting Philippine history and the formation of the Philippine nation-state.

 

Abstract

Filipino reformist Jose Rizal was a minor celebrity when he arrived in London in 1888. His first novel, the Noli me Tangere, published in 1887, was praised by Spanish and Filipino liberals in Europe but condemned by the Spanish colonial government and the Catholic Church in the Philippines. His first homecoming that same year was cut short when the decision to ban his book by government censors was announced and made Rizal a wanted man in his own country. Carrying a letter of introduction from eminent scholar and India Office Library director, Reinhold Rost, Rizal obtained permission to use the library of the British Museum. It was here that he found a work by a Spanish government official, Antonio de Morga, which chronicled the early years of Spanish colonization in the Philippines. The discovery of Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas proved to be serendipitous to Rizal. He had been rethinking the idea of the Filipino not as a people who were equal to their Spanish colonizers but a people with a unique civilization that was destroyed by colonization. Rizal found the answer to his idea in Morga’s book and it was this work that he decided to reprint with his annotations.”

About the Speaker

JOSE VICTOR Z. TORRES is an Associate Professor at the History Department of the De La Salle University-Manila and an Associate Director for Drama and History at the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center in the same university.

Find out more here

 

25 May 2019 (Reminder)

THE EMPIRE SPEAKS BACK – WITH PRIYAMVADA GOPAL

(THE ADNAMS SPIEGELTENT, CHAPELFIELD GARDENS, NORWICH)

“The launch of Insurgent Empire; a timely discussion of empire and an alternative history of the UK’s tradition of dissent. Priyamvada Gopal is a senior academic and critical public figure who regularly draws attention to racism and sexism in Britain. Join her for the launch of Insurgent Empire; a timely discussion of empire and an alternative history of our country’s proud tradition of dissent. Priyamvada Gopal is University Reader in Anglophone and Related Literatures in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge and Fellow Churchill College. This event is part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival.”

Find out more here

 

28 May 2019

BOOK LAUNCH: AFTER GRENFELL: VIOLENCE, RESISTANCE AND RESPONSE (UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER)

“Speakers: Tony Walsh; Dan Bulley (Oxford Brookes); Nadine El-Enany (Birkbeck); Jenny Edkins (University of Manchester); Andreja Zevnik (University of Manchester)

4.30-6.00 (with reception at 6)

About the book: On the 14th June 2017, a fire engulfed a tower block in West London, seventy-two people lost their lives and hundreds of others were left displaced and traumatised. The Grenfell Tower fire is the epicentre of a long history of violence enacted by government and corporations. On its second anniversary activists, artists and academics come together to respond, remember and recover the disaster. The Grenfell Tower fire illustrates Britain’s symbolic order; the continued logic of colonialism, the disposability of working class lives, the marketisation of social provision and global austerity politics, and the negligence and malfeasance of multinational contractors. Exploring these topics and more, the contributors construct critical analysis from legal, cultural, media, community and government responses to the fire, asking whether, without remedy for multifaceted power and violence, we will ever really be ‘after’ Grenfell? With poetry by Ben Okri and Tony Walsh, and photographs by Parveen Ali, Sam Boal and Yolanthe Fawehinmi. With contributions from Phil Scraton, Daniel Renwick, Nadine El-Enany, Sarah Keenan, Gracie Mae Bradley and The Radical Housing Network.”

Find out more here

 

Until 17 November 2019 (Reminder)

YINKA SHONIBARE CBE (TATE MODERN, LONDON)

“The British Library [installation] highlights the impact of immigration on British culture and invites visitors to join in the discussion. Yinka Shonibare CBE was born, studied and lives in London, but grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 2019 and has added the title to his professional name. His dual identity as British-Nigerian has been the starting point for much of his work. This is particularly true for The British Library, which contains more than 6,000 books. Printed in gold on the spines of 2,700 of the books are the names of first or second-generation immigrants to Britain. Whether celebrated or lesser known, they have all made significant contributions to British culture and history. There are also books with the names of those who have opposed immigration. Other books are unmarked, suggesting that the story of immigration in Britain is still being written. The books are bound in African wax print fabric, the artist’s signature material. The history of this fabric reveals a complex relationship between colonialism, cultural appropriation and national identity. It was developed in the nineteenth century in the Netherlands as a mass-produced imitation of the batik dyeing process used in Indonesia, a Dutch colony at the time. The cheaper, machine-made textiles were poorly received in Indonesia. In West and Central Africa, however, they were quickly adopted and absorbed into local traditions. An important part of the installation is a website, which can be accessed from the tablets. It contains recent materials selected by the artist to present different viewpoints relating to immigration. You are invited to submit your own story, and a selection of visitors’ responses will be available to view on the website.”

 

Find out more here

Read about the installation on Artforum here

 

Until September 2019 (Reminder)

SLAVERY, CULTURE & COLLECTING (MUSEUM OF LONDON DOCKLANDS)

A challenging display investigating the relationship between European culture and transatlantic slavery.

“The latest display in the London, Sugar and Slavery gallery at the Museum of London Docklands highlights the connection to slavery of some of Britain’s oldest cultural organisations. See a map of how London’s Docklands are connected to slavery. Slavery, culture and collecting follows slave owner and art collector George Hibbert, a prominent member of a large subsection of British society which derived its wealth directly from the slave economy. These figures were often active philanthropists, and are commemorated in memorials for their associations with charitable causes, while their connections to slavery are invisible even today. Hibbert was instrumental in building the West India Docks which now house the Museum of London Docklands. This connection positions the museum as an important place to think about the relationship between slavery and cultural heritage. The wealth generated by slavery was used to create cultural institutions such as museums, universities, art galleries and charities. Advocates of slavery would then use culture in their arguments for the continuing use of enslaved labour, on the grounds that Africans needed the “civilising influence” of Europe. The display contains a short film, as well as objects from the collection to encourage further debate around this challenging issue. Slavery, culture and collecting is delivered with the support of the Antislavery Usable Past project at the University of Nottingham.”

Find out more here

 

Until 29 November 2019 (Reminder)

LANDE: THE CALAIS ‘JUNGLE’ AND BEYOND (PITT RIVERS MUSEUM, OXFORD)

“Lande: The Calais ‘Jungle’ and Beyond is a major temporary exhibition at the Pitt Rivers Museum, running from 27 April to 29 November 2019. The exhibition has been made in parallel with a book, also called Lande: The Calais ‘Jungle’ and Beyond (Bristol University Press), published to coincide with the opening.

The exhibition reassembles material and visual culture that survives from the ‘Jungle’ as it existed at Calais from March 2015 to the demolitions of 2016. It does so in order to make visible the landscape of ‘borderwork’ at Calais. These range from photographs and artworks made by displaced people and undocumented children to images made by activists and artists, and from the Calais cross salvaged from the Orthodox Church at the ‘Jungle’ to a fragment of border fencing. The exhibition includes a new commission, برد خواهد را ما باد (‘The Wind Will Take Us Away’), by Majid Adin. Everything on display is on temporary loan from displaced people, activists and volunteers who lived and worked at the ‘Jungle’ three years ago.”

Find out more here

Download the Open Access related book “Lande : The Calais ‘Jungle’ and Beyond” here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The listings included here are provided only for information, not necessarily endorsement. Please let me know if any links are broken. Where there is a link to other websites, no responsibility can be accepted for their content.

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