Past Events http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org Past events, archived. daily 1 2008-04-15T08:33:43Z Jean 'Binta' Breeze London Launch http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/jean-binta-breeze-london-launch New Beacon, GPI, renaissance one and Bloodaxe books are delighted to present the London launch of 'Third World Girl', popular Jamaican Dub poet and storyteller Jean 'Binta' Breeze's latest poetry collection. No publisher Ayisha de Lanerolle 2011-05-31T16:05:00Z Event George Padmore commemorative plaque http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/george-padmore-commemorative-plaque One of the most influential political thinkers of the 20th century is to be commemorated this summer with a heritage plaque in North London. Cranleigh Street in Camden will be the site of the capital's latest blue plaque, where George Padmore lived at no.22 from 1941 to 1957 with his partner and collaborator, Dorothy Pizer. The address was a big part of the political landscape of pre- and post-war London, becoming focal point for anti-colonial activists from around the world. PRESS RELEASE

GEORGE PADMORE COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE

One of the most influential political thinkers of the 20th century is to be commemorated this summer with a heritage plaque in North London. Cranleigh Street in Camden will be the site of the capital’s latest blue plaque, where George Padmore lived at no. 22 from 1941 to 1957 with his partner and collaborator, Dorothy Pizer. The address was a big part of the political landscape of pre- and post-war London, becoming a focal point for anti-colonial activists from around the world.

George Padmore was born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse in Arouca, Trinidad, on the 28 June 1903. He worked as a journalist until 1924 then left for university in the USA, intending to study medicine. However, he changed his mind switching to political science and then to law at Howard University. However, he did not complete his degree, as the Communist Party, which he had joined in 1927, sent him to Moscow. There he served on the Moscow Council before being sent to Vienna then Hamburg on Party affairs.

However, with the lead up to WW2, the USSR’s politics on western colonialism changed and a disillusioned Padmore resigned from the Communist Party. He moved to Britain continuing his work as an anti-imperialist and pro-equality journalist writing for African, African-American and Caribbean newspapers, and publishing books and newspapers in the UK. In 1945, he was the main organizer the legendary Fifth Pan African Congress to campaign for independence for all colonies.

When Ghana became the first West African colony to gain independence in 1957 Padmore moved to Ghana to take up the position of Advisor on African Affairs to Nkrumah, now the first president of the independent country. George Padmore died after a short illness in London on September 23, 1959, where he’d gone to receive medical treatment.

The George Padmore Blue Paque was organized by the Nubian Jak Community Trust, in collaboration with High Commissions of Trinidad & Tobago and Ghana respectively, and Camden Council. It will be unveiled 98 years to the day that Padmore was born. The unveiling will be performed by His Excellency Garvin Nicholas - High Commissioner of Trinidad & Tobago, His Excellency Professor Kwaku Danso-Boafo - High Commissioner of Ghana, His Worship Councillor Abdul Quadir - Mayor of Camden, and Jak Beula, along with members of the public and press.

WHEN:- Tuesday 28th June 1:00pm. VENUE:- 22 Cranleigh St, Camden, NW1, 2BD

For more information contact:

Event and Marketing: 0800 093 0400

Mayor’s Reception:  Caroline 020 7974 1989

General Enquiries – Alison 07909 515 413

Plaque & Sculpture Scheme: Nu Jak Media - 0207 692 4880

 

]]> No publisher Ayisha de Lanerolle 2011-06-21T14:10:00Z Event Jayne Cortez 'On Culture and Politics' http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/jayne-cortez-on-culture-and-politics Jayne Cortez - ‘The Changing Nature of Black Cultural Politics 1960-2010’. The second John La Rose Memorial Lecture will be followed by a Discussion Forum with Jayne Cortez and Faro (Karl John), Kevin Hylton, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Michael La Rose, Kole Omotoso, Jeremy Poynting, and Joe Williams.

THE SECOND
JOHN LA ROSE
MEMORIAL LECTURE
Jayne Cortez ‘On Culture and Politics’

SATURDAY 2nd April 2011 - Doors open 1pm, for 2pm start.
LECTURE THEATRE A, THE ROSE BOWL,
LEEDS METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY, LS1 3HR
http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/study/100504_Full_Maps.pdf

This second of an initial series of three John La Rose Annual Memorial Lectures commemorates the life and work of John La Rose, (1927 – 2006). John was an inspirational presence in black British and Caribbean political and cultural activism who touched lives across all five continents. His many achievements included being a writer, publisher, cultural and political activist, trade unionist, founder of New Beacon Books and director of the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books. One of John’s major contributions was to take what he called a ‘mercilessly realistic’ approach, avoiding unrealistic idealism and grounding theory in action on a local and national scale. The cultural, educational and political campaigns that he was engaged with all his life remain relevant and will continue to be so for the
foreseeable future.
The Second John La Rose Annual Memorial Lecture will be given by Jayne Cortez on the theme of ‘Culture and Politics’. Jayne is a major international poet, who has long been active in the struggle for black social liberation and for radical, political and social change in the USA. She was a close friend of John and of the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books, where she often read her poetry, and where she also opened the 9th Book Fair in 1990.
Her lecture will be followed by discussion to examine further the issues raised. The First John La Rose Annual Memorial Lecture was given in March 2010 by David Abdulah, the General Secretary of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) in Trinidad & Tobago, the leading trade union in the Caribbean, who spoke on ‘Politics and People’s Power after Obama’.
The Third Lecture will be held in 2012 at the Caribbean Studies Centre at the London Metropolitan University. Organised by the George Padmore Institute in liaison with the Carnegie Research Institute of Leeds Metropolitan University

For further details contact the George Padmore Institute
76 Stroud Green Road, London N4 3EN
tel: 020 7272 4889/8915
email: info@georgepadmoreinstituteorg
www:georgepadmoreinstitute.org
Supported by
Carnegie Research Institute

]]> No publisher admin 2011-03-20T21:05:00Z Event Shaking Things Up A Poetry Reading by Jayne Cortez http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/shaking-things-up-a-poetry-reading-by-jayne-cortez The George Padmore Institute and the Free Word Centre are delighted to host internationally acclaimed poet and activist Jayne Cortez at her only London event in 2011. Introduced by the prize-winning writer Lawrence Scott, Jayne Cortez will read from a selection of her poetry which spans over four decades, and which tells of the struggle for black social liberation and for radical political and social change in the USA and beyond. Cortez’s uncompromising poems are also fiercely free form with jazz inflections that take the audience on an unparalled journey of music and words.

Jayne Cortez was born in Arizona, grew up in Los Angeles and lives in New York City. She is the author of twelve books of poetry and performer of her poems with music on nine recordings. Her voice is celebrated for its political, surrealistic, dynamic innovations in lyricism and visceral sound. Her most recent books are On The Imperial Highway and Jazz Fan Looks Back. Her latest CDs with the Firespitter Band are Find Your Own Voice, Borders of Disorderly Time and Taking the Blues Back Home. Jayne Cortez is president and cofounder with Ama Ata Aidoo of the Organization of Women Writers of Africa Inc. She is organizer of international symposiums and director of the films ‘Slave Routes: Resistance, Abolition & Creative Progress’ and ‘Yari Yari Pamberi: Black Women Writers Dissecting Globalization’. She is the recipient of numerous awards.

Lawrence Scott is from Trinidad and Tobago. He is the author of the novels Witchbroom, Aelred’s Sin and Night Calypso. He has also published a collection of short stories. His most recent publication is as editor of Golconda Our Voices Our Lives.

Wednesday 30 March 2011 from 6.30pm
At the Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA
Tickets £8.00

Tickets from the Free Word Centre at www.freewordonline.com Tel. 020 7324 2570 (Mon-Fri 9am-9pm)

There is a 50p charge for online bookings

]]> No publisher admin 2011-03-20T21:03:11Z Event Making History - Oral Testimonies - Trinidad, Guyana and Britain http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/making-history-oral-testimonies-trinidad-guyana Conversation between Lawrence Scott, Clem Seecharan and John Siblon. Plus London launch for Golconda - Our Voices Our Lives Lawrence Scott in conversation with Clem Seehcaran and John Siblon, at the London Launch of Golconda - Our Voices Our Lives, edited by Lawrence Scott.

While in Trinidad, (2006-9) novelist Lawrence Scott facilitated the Golconda Writing/Research Project, a community, oral history project among ex-sugarcane workers. Lawrence will be talking about the book that came out of this project glconda - Our Voices Our Lives, and of project's value at a time when Trinidad's sugar industry is being shut down.  He will be joined by Clem Seecharan and John Siblon, both researchers in the fieldsof Indo-Caribbean history. Clem will explore the sources that inspired him to enter this hitherto under-researched field, in the early 1980s.  Several of these sources are located in India and the Indian diaspora, but many are from the Caribbean, such as the great text by C.L.R. James, Beyond a Boundary (1963). John Siblon will focus on Britain: 'How I think about the past: statues, Monuments and the Black and Asian Presence', explaining that it is easier than we think to  become active participants in discovering aspects of the past, whether public or private.  He will outline his understanding of the term 'public history' and how public history methodology can be used to investigate public and private pasts. Using the landscape of the centre of London as a case study, he will show that as much can be learned about Britain's colonial past from what is absent than from what is present.

Lawrence Scott is a prize winning novelist and teacher of creative writing, from Trinidad. He currently divides his time between London and Port of Spain.

Clem Seecharan is Professor of Caribbean History and Head of Caribbean Studies at London Metropolitan University, and the author of many titles on Guyanese history and cricket.

John Siblon teaches History at City and Islington College. He is a member of the Black and Asian Studies Association.

 

]]> No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:53:29Z Event Voices Across The Wall http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/voices-across-the-wall Screening of short documentary on the West Bank, plus discussion with the film maker. GPI Generation hosts a film screening and discussion with the director Sam Liebmann.

 

Voices Across The Wall is a set of short stories and interviews exploring the Israel-Palestine conflict through the eyes of people on the ground - from an intifada veteran turned social worker to the leader of the Jewish National Front, from the father of a Palestinian suicide bomber to an Israeli survivor of an attack that killed her husband and children.

As we travel through the West Bank we see the ongoing colonisation of Palestinian land and hear from the occupied and the occupiers.  Through a series of personal accounts of the day-to-day impact of conflict and occupation, the film reveals some of the complexities often unseen by the the outside world that underlie this most intractable of political problems.

GPI Generation wanted to show this film because it has been made by a young film-maker, with the aim of giving people a clearer idea of some of the complicated aspects of the war and occupation.  We will watch the film (37 minutes) and then hold a q&a with the director.  

Sam Liebmann the director of Voices Across the Wall, is a young film maker and sports journalist from Finsbury Park. 

Facebook group: gpi generation

]]> No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:53:29Z Event Politics and People's Power after Obama http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/politics-and-peoples-power-after-obama THE FIRST JOHN LA ROSE MEMORIAL LECTURE David Abdulah talks on ‘Politics and People’s Power after Obama’ Saturday 20 MARCH 2010, 2.00 pm. Followed by discussion forums 4.00pm-6.00pm No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:53:29Z Event Young People and new ethnicities http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/young-people-and-new-ethnicities Roxy Harris will talk on ‘Black & Brown British youth: from ethnic outsiders to insiders’. He will be joined by Cise Barissever, a doctoral student at Kings College London, and Aisha Phoenix, a doctoral student at Goldsmiths, University of London. They will both discuss their research on young people and ethnicities. No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:53:29Z Event Ngugi wa Thiong'o event Sunday 1st November at the GPI http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/news/ngugi-wa-thiongo-event-sunday-1st-november-at-the Ngugi will be reading from and discussing his latest novel 'Wizard of the Crow' (2006). Set in the fictional Free Republic of Aburiria, 'Wizard of the Crow' dramatises with searing humour and piercing observation a battle for control of the souls of the Aburirian people. Fashioning the stories of the powerful and the ordinary into a dazzling mosaic, Ngugi reveals humanity in all its surprising intricacy. Ngugi  wa Thiong’o, is a distinguished novelist, playwright and essayist whose works include Weep Not, Child (1964), A Grain of Wheat (1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Matigari (1989), Decolonising the Mind (1986) and Penpoints, Gunpoints and Dreams (1998).  The impact of his play I Will Marry When I Want (with Ngugi wa Mirii, 1982) led to his year-long detention without trial at Kamiti Maximum Security in Kenya in 1978.  When in exile in London in the 1980’s, he worked with John La Rose on the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya.  New Beacon Books published his essay collection Barrel of a Pen: resistance to repression in neo-colonial Kenya in 1983.  His novels have been translated into more than thirty languages and he has received numerous awards including the Nonino Prize for Literature in 2001.

Ngugi is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California Irvine, and is director of the University’s International Centre for Writing and Translation. 

This event is being held in cooperation with Wasafiri, as part of their 25th Anniversary Celebrations 'Everything to Declare'.  See www.wasafiri.org

 

]]> No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:52:32Z Event A Reading and Talk by Olive Senior. Fee £5 http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/a-reading-and-talk-by-olive-senior Jamaican born Olive Senior is the prize-winning author of four books of poetry, three books of fiction and four non-fiction books on Caribbean culture including the Encyclopaedia of Jamaica Heritage and Working Miracles: Women’s Lives in the English Speaking Caribbean.  Her short story collections include Summer Lightning (winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize), Arrival of the Snake-Woman and Discerner of Hearts. Her poetry books include Talking of Trees, Gardening in the Tropics (winner of the F.J. Bressani Literary Prize), Over the Roofs of the World (finalist for Canada’s Governor- General’s Award and Cuba’s Casa de la Americas Prize) and Shell (finalist for the Pat Lowther Award).  She is the recipient of many other fellowships and awards including the Gold Medal of the Institute of Jamaica.

 

Olive Senior’s stories and poems have been broadcast widely, including the BBC Book at Bedtime and Radio 4 (UK), and CBC Radio, among others.  Her short story ‘You Think I Mad, Miss?’ was produced and performed as ‘Mad Miss’ by Theatre Archipelago May 27-June 12 2005 at Artword Theatre, Toronto.

 

Olive Senior will be reading and discussing her poetry and prose, including recent material from the new Tell Tales Volume 4 book, Global Village.

 

]]> No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:53:29Z Event 'Writing as Craft' with Olive Senior http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/writing-as-craft-with-olive-senior.-fee-a320 'Sable' presents this one-day writing workshop with Olive Senior. Fee £20 Olive Senior conducts writing workshops internationally and is on the faculty of the Humber School for Writers, Humber College, Toronto.  She has also been writer in residence at many venues including Bermuda’s Department of Community and Cultural Affairs and the University of Adelaide in 2009.

 

The aim of this workshop is to enable participants to rely less on ‘inspiration’ and more on developing their craft.  Through discussion and exercises, participants will be encouraged to see writing as a process which requires the constant feeding of the creative imagination together with the acquisition of tools and techniques.  Handouts will be provided to reinforce the salient information provided in each session.

]]> No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:53:29Z Event Film Screening by GPI Generation. Fee £3 http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/film-screening-by-gpi-generation The True Reggae Story GPI Generation is a new group at the GPI encouraging participation from young people in the activities of the Institute. In 2007 GPI Generation showed the film Dream to Change the World to a group of young people and held a discussion about their responses to John La Rose's legacy and their own lives and work.  Since then they have held a number of discussion meetings and accomplished a video of Irma La Rose speaking of her early life in Trinidad and Venezuela.

 

Today the group are screening The True Reggae Story a Nu-Beyond summer school project that involved six young women and four young men aged between 15 and 17.  In 2006, these young people interviewed 32 artist/dee jays for a study of Reggae Dancehall Culture during the 1970s and 1980s in London.  Most of the interviewees were artists who had operated Reggae Sound Systems during those two decades.

 

The film will be followed by a discussion with participation from Lez Henry, the director of the project, some of the young people who took part in the making of the film, and members of GPI Generation, many of whom are involved in the music business..

 

]]> No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:53:29Z Event Talk by David Feickert. Fee £5 http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/a-talk-by-david-feickert-china-and-the-rest-of-us China and the rest of us - from the economic, social, political viewpoints in the context of global sustainable development David Feickert is a consultant in mine safety, energy, and ergonomics, currently spending much of his time working as an independent consultant in China.

He worked for 10 years as an industrial worker in New Zealand (where he was born), Canada and Britain.  At Bradford University he worked with the Working Environment Research Group on technology and health and safety issues affecting lorry drivers, train drivers, bus workers and miners.  The Group produced a special report for the Executive of the National Union of Mineworkers on the impact of the new technology on the coal mining industry.  This was the basis of the NUM case before the Miners Strike 1984-1985.  He went on to work for the National Union of Mineworkers as their Head of Research for ten years from 1983.   Here he was particularly concerned with energy policy, the British government’s privatisation plans in the electricity and coal industries, the technological revolution taking place in mining and the way the international coal market is operated against the interest of miners in all countries.  In the 1990s, after leaving the NUM, he worked as the European representative of the Trades Union Congress.

 

David’s talk will start with a snapshot from history, run through the Mao period, on to 1978 and the start of the reform period, bringing us up to the present day.  Now in 2009, China is the third largest economy and on its way to becoming the largest once again - which it was until 200 years ago. He will illustrate recent times from his own experience, not just from working with the government, companies and others but from his own impressions of what the ordinary Chinese people are like and what it is that they want.

 

 

]]> No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:53:29Z Event GPI Christmas Fundraising Lunch http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/gpi-christmas-fundraising-lunch The Annual George Padmore Institute Get-together Come to the George Padmore Institute for the annual fundraising lunch and you can do your Christmas shopping at the same time!

 

Menu to include the usual favourites such as curry mutton, jerk chicken, macaroni cheese, prawn curry, jollof rice, , special fish rice and peas, lots of sweet treats and much more.

 

Tickets £12 per adult and £5 per child - special rates available for families. Book in advance or pay on the door.

]]> No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:53:29Z Event Book Launch by Cy Grant http://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/events/book-launch-by-cy-grant Cy Grant reads from his new book, 'Rivers of Time: Collected Poems' Cy Grant was born in British Guiana in 1919. He moved to England in 1941 to join the Royal Air Force. In 1943 he was shot down over Holland and spent two years in a prisoner of war camp. His war poem, ‘Retrospect’, was broadcast on BBC’s ‘Caribbean Voices’ radio programme and was an important catalyst in the development of Caribbean poetry, according to acclaimed poet Kamau Brathwaite. After World War Two, Cy Grant became one of the first black faces to appear regularly on British television, singing the news in calypso on ‘Tonight’ from 1957. He is best known as a singer and actor of stage and screen. Cy also set up the Drum as the first black arts centre in the UK and co-ordinated the Concord multi-cultural arts festivals.

 

The poems in this collection take the reader on the journey of Cy Grant’s life, from the early influence of colonial schoolrooms and their teaching of the English Romantic poets to the horrors of war; from the anger of the 1960s to the discovery and inspiration of Aimé Césaire’s work; from calypso and steel pan to an immersion in the ancient wisdom of Taoism and traditional African religions. The work shows Cy Grant to be a poet who is ‘delighting in spinning word-webs, creating alternative healing realities at the crossroads of so many different journeys’ (Ian Dieffenthaler). Join Cy to hear him read from his new book and as he reminisces on his incredible life story.

 

[In association with Naked Light Publishers]

 

]]> No publisher sharmilla 2011-02-27T21:53:29Z Event