Tag: black history month

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Upcoming Events: Black History Month

This year for Black History Month York St John University are hosting a range of events. These are free events, open to the YSJ community and the public. Many of these are hybrid events, accessible in person or online. 

Image showing portraits of Black heroes by Nduka Omeife

We launch the events on Monday 14th October with Celebrating Black Excellence: Remembering the past, honouring the present, and shaping the future. This in-person event invites us to reflect on the rich heritage and legacy of Black culture, while also embracing the innovation, creativity, and resilience that will drive us forward. View an exhibition of Black heroes of the past and present by Nduka Omeife, an artist local to York. Enjoy music, dance, fashion and poetry.

Next on Tuesday 15th October is Discussing Decolonisation: A guest lecture by Dr John Narayan (KCL), a hybrid event. Dr Narayan’s lecture,  Survival Pending Revolution: The Revolutionary Theory of the Black Panther Party.  This lecture argues that Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton’s orientation of the BPP away from armed insurrection and towards survival pending revolution was not simply a pragmatic choice of strategy, but rather based on a theorization of what he dubbed reactionary intercommunalism. Come along to find out more.

We end the month on Wednesday 30th October with a talk by Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin. She was previously the chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and was the first black woman to become a Bishop in Britain. An honorary graduate of York St John University, she will be talking about ‘The Church’s Role in Challenging Racism in the Public Square’. 

Find out about these and many more events on our YSJ Events Page.

If you would like to review any events or books for the blog, please get in touch with us.

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Dr Sarah Lawson Welsh: Reflection on Black History Month and the Ones We Leave Out, Part 2

A display of books by Afro Caribbean writers with a picture and a Rasta Mouse toy
Caribbean Writing #BlackHistoryMonth Image (c) Dr Sarah Lawson Welsh

In the second of two blog posts looking back at Black History Month, Dr. Sarah Lawson Welsh discusses the importance of the representation of Caribbean writers and artists. She is an Associate Professor and Reader in English and Postcolonial Literature in the School of Humanities, and has written widely on this topic. You can read her first blog post here.

I think it is fair to say that the nationalist agendas of Caribbean writing and the role of black writers and thinkers in mid-twentieth century independence movements are much less well known than the American civil rights movement of the same era, even though there are some parallels between the two. Even such intellectual giants of the Anglophone Caribbean tradition, writers and thinkers such as Guyanese Wilson Harris (1921-2018) and Trinidadian C.L.R. James (1901-1989), are little known outside of specialist academic circles. Yet Harris, a former land surveyor who had worked in the Amazonian rainforest was writing about environmental issues and conceptualizing new ways of thinking about space, time and memory in relation to pre- and post-Columbian contexts as early as the 1960s. Even earlier in the century, in the 1930s Continue reading “Dr Sarah Lawson Welsh: Reflection on Black History Month and the Ones We Leave Out, Part 2”

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Dr Sarah Lawson Welsh: Reflection on Black History Month and the Ones We Leave Out, Part 1

a white woman with long blonde hair smiles at the camera
Dr Sarah Lawson Welsh

In the first of two blog posts looking back at Black History Month, Dr. Sarah Lawson Welsh introduces her choices for the display in the York St John library foyer. She is an Associate Professor & Reader in English and Postcolonial Literature in the School of Humanities, and has written widely on this topic. Read her second blog post here.

Every year the Library and the Learning services team put on a black history month (BHM) display with a new topic every week. This year, Marcia Sanderson, a former BA English and MA in Contemporary Literature student who works in the library, contacted me to ask if I had any black British and Caribbean book or film suggestions, based on my teaching and research specialisms in these areas. The topics the library and learning services had chosen were: hidden black historical figures, black authors speaking back to literature and film, staff picks – our favourite texts by black authors and black people in cinema and horror films. Continue reading “Dr Sarah Lawson Welsh: Reflection on Black History Month and the Ones We Leave Out, Part 1”

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LGBTQI+ History Month Display from our Library and Learning Services at York St John University

By Katherine Hughes, with contributions from Clare McCluskey-Dean and Thomas Peach (Academic Liaison Librarians at YSJ)

LGBTQI+ History Month Book Display 2020

Library & Learning Services are holding a book display in Fountains Learning Centre during Week 4 (17th-21st February) to celebrate LGBTQI+ History Month. There is also a display throughout the month of February of LGBTQI+ children’s books in our Schools Library on the First Floor. Continue reading “LGBTQI+ History Month Display from our Library and Learning Services at York St John University”