Happenings
GLC STAGES 'BLACK EXPERIENCE' ARTS FESTIVAL
The Greater London Council's Race Equality Units will stage the largest and liveliest black arts programme ever in London over two months, under the banner of "The Black Experience'. It will emphasise the artistic and cultural life of both the black and Asian communities through theatre, dance, photography, films, paintings, literature and seminars. These events will be organised and performed by black arts groups at dozens of venues around London.One of the highlights of the project, which starts in February, will be a tribute to Trinidadian writer and historian CLR James. His play, 'The Black Jacobins' will be staged at the Riverside Studios for three weeks.
"The Black Jacobins' was premiered at the Westminster Theatre in March 1936, with Paul Robeson playing the lead as Toussaint L'Ouverture, the Haitian liberator. This new produc- tion will be the first in Britain since, although it is regularly performed in the United States, Africa and the Caribbean.
An exhibition "Focus on CLR James" on James' life and works will also accompany the play, from his early life as a journalist, teacher and historian through to his resettlement in Brixton, where he has now retired.
Other projects in the programme include: An exhibition of the history of Black Resistance and Rebellion. A multi-media dance production, tracing the movement of black labour from the Caribbean to Britain with political and social consequences.
'Signs of Resistance' - a slide/tape presentation on London photographic murals with messages linked to universal struggles. Forces and Figures in Black History' exhibition on Afro-Caribbean and Asian peoples from history.
Reflections of the Black Experience' - ten photographers each portray their perceptions of the historical and contemporary struggles of black peoples.
Business Behind Performance - a three-day exhibition scenes at how black music with workshops, looking behind the is produced.
Struggles for Black Community' - film screenings of black and Third World films:
Film script competition.
Oral history project.
Plays by two young black theatre companies: Afro Sax Theatre and Double Edge Theatre Co.
Race and Labour History - Exhibition and Seminars;
Life and Works of Ranjani Palme Dutt 1895-1975 the outstanding Indian Marxist philosopher who transformed the political and intellectual climate in Britain;
Caribbean Labour in Revolt: The 1930s and its aftermath - exhibition on the most crucial decade in the Caribbean's collective history since the abolition of slavery;
Aurat Shakti exhibition ("Power for Women") exhibition showing the complex expectations and experiences of Asian women.
'Mother' of Ghanaian students dies
An English woman who was 'mother' to many Ghanaian students from the fifties has died in Birmingham.73-year-old Mrs Ethel Richards pro- vided a home for many Ghanaian students who came to the UK to study. She was a friend of the late Sir Edward Asafu-Adjei and was such a popular personality among Ghanaians who studied in the UK that the late President Kwame Nkrumah invited her as an official guest to the Republic Day celebrations in July 1960.
This picture (right) of her was taken in September 1963 on her arrival back in Birmingham after a seven week visit to Ghana. She had gone to visit friends whom she had known when they stayed with her as students. She met 12 of her former guests during that visit and said:
"They gave me a wonderful welcome. I remember the days when they were students in Birmingham and it made me very happy to see them working as barristers and businessmen in their own country."
She was pictured with Mr Matthew Archer, who was then a law student and staying at her home. He later became a member of parliament during the Second Republic and invited Mrs Richards to Ghana for another visit.
She passed away on December 23, 1985, at Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire.
Mr Charles Kotei, one of her former guests, currently living in London, with the family of Mrs Richards, are organising a memorial service at Stockland Green Methodist Church, Slade Road,Erdington, Birmingham, on Sunday January 26, 1986, at 2.00pm. All friends who would like to honour the memory of this remarkable woman are invited to the service.
The contact telephone number is Charles Kotei, 01-677 2483.
