Changing Britannia Archive Project

We are now nearly at the end of the three year Changing Britannia Archive Project which began in October 2002. Earlier in 2005 the Changing Britannia Archive Project Management Committee decided to apply to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), who granted us the money for this project, for a time extension. The HLF agreed, so the end date of the project is now June 2006. This gives us time to complete the work on the five collections we are conserving and cataloguing to the same high standards that we set from the time we started in 2002. We are pleased that our Project Archivist Sarah Garrod will be carrying on for this extra six months. We are also happy to say that, despite having more time to complete the project, we’re still working within our original budget!

Since last year Sarah has made great progress with the archives. She has finished working on four of the five collections in the project, and is now looking to start on the final one, the Black Parents Movement (BPM). Sarah has been helped with this collection by volunteers Zuleika Dobson and Sarah White, who have been sorting and cleaning the BPM archives prior to the cataloguing. Other volunteers who have helped generally in the GPI this year are Brian Alleyne, Janice Durham, Remi Harris, Wole La Rose, Milverton Wallace and new helper Margaret Chevis, Sarah Garrod’s Mum! Amelia Rampton, one of our archive consultants, has also been in. As ever, we would like to thank everyone for their time and effort, without which our progress would have been so much slower.

The major achievement of 2005 has been the move towards digitising some of our archives. This has been a really steep learning curve for all of us, trying to find out about the whole process and what would be the best for our material. Sarah Garrod has worked tirelessly on this, supported by the whole Management Committee but in particular by Brian Alleyne, whose technical knowledge has been of great help. Janet Foster, our archive consultant, also visited and gave us a thoroughly helpful ‘idiot’s guide’ to digitisation! In July we chose a digitisation service, UK Archiving based in Scotland, and the first batch of around 450 images have gone up to be digitised. At the same time the GPI purchased a new portable PA system and a digital recorder with minidisk for the meeting room, as well as a digital camera. It seems quite amazing that the GPI is striding so boldly into the 21st century digital age in such a short space of time, so thanks to everyone who has worked on it. Watch this space for news on how it all goes – fingers crossed!
Recently the GPI has agreed to be involved with the ALM (Archives Libraries and Museums) London’s Archives and Education Innovation Project, which aims to encourage the use of archives in London and to make their contents more widely known. Five institutions – the Royal Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Free Hospital, the Institute of Education and the GPI – will each have a selection of their archives chosen to go into packs that schools can use to help teach the Citizenship module of the National Curriculum. The project’s consultant, Roshi Naidoo, has already visited the Institute a few times and is very excited by the archives she has looked at.

Other news from the archives is that we have received some small donations of materials including some letters from Anne Marie Schader in Switzerland and papers relating to George Padmore from the Ceddert group in northern Nigeria. We have also been really pleased to welcome back David Govier to the Institute. David worked as our Archives Assistant in 2004 before going to Liverpool University. He has since completed his Archive and Library MA and is now back in London working for Toynbee Hall. He has also been attending our Changing Britannia Management Committee meetings and helping out at events. Finally, the Jerry Craig picture in the GPI archives has been loaned to Pilar Jaime of Camberwell College of Art for her MA in Conservation project. All the work she is doing on the picture to conserve it is being done for free.

Last but not least, building news. This year we have managed to install an art rail in the Institute meeting room and downstairs hall (see below for the exciting news on our first exhibition), have some shelves built into the meeting room to house the new recording equipment and – as this Newsletter is being written – to have the whole GPI repainted. You will need your sunglasses when you next visit; the whole place looks so clean and bright! Thanks to Sherwin Alleyne and to Jess Milne for all their work.

A Meeting of the Continents

We announced it in last year’s newsletter, and for the first few months of the year editors Sharmilla Beezmohun, Roxy Harris and Sarah White nearly tore their hair out, kept calm by the ever-reliable designer Glenda Pattenden. Finally, May 2005 saw the publication of A Meeting of the Continents: The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books – Revisited: history, memories, organisation and programmes 1982-1995. This tome runs to over 500 pages and includes information about how the whole Book Fair was conceived, organised and why it ended, as well as memoirs from participants and all the brochures from all the Fairs.

The book was given a proper welcome with not one but two launch parties. The first one was held at Camden Council Chambers in London. It was a trip down Memory Lane for everyone who attended, as this location had been the scene of many Book Fair events throughout its history. GPI Trustee Linton Kwesi Johnson MCed the evening which included readings and speeches by Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, Zena Edwards, Roxy Harris, Parm Kaur, Courttia Newland and Lawrence Scott, and music from Keith Waithe. Mogniss Abdallah also spoke, a surprise guest who had come over from Paris just for the event. Much enjoyment – and wine – was had by all! Ten days later a launch event was held at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, organised by GPI Trustee Ali Hussein, and old Book Fair helpers/organisers Max Farrar and Jeremy Poynting from Peepal Tree Press. Max introduced the readers and speakers: Manzu Islam, Gus John, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Marina Lewycka, Jack Mapanje and Rommi Smith. There wasn’t any space left in the room that night! Thanks to everyone who helped on A Meeting of the Continents and also to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, whose grant enabled the book to be published and who also financed the two launches.

With all the excitement of this going on, we haven’t had the time or energy to publish anything else this year. But we are hopeful that Changing Britannia Two – and maybe even Volume Three – will come out in 2006. We also hope to resume our work on the Black Supplementary Schools Movement next year.

Public Events

The last few months of 2005 saw a flurry of activity at the GPI. It all started in July with Kamau Brathwaite holding a workshop with 14 young writers. The following month there were two sell-out events. First, Carolyn Cooper, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies was in conversation with Linton Kwesi Johnson. She talked about her new book Sound Clash, provoking debate about dancehall culture. Then Jamaican poets Mervyn Morris and Mutabaruka brought the house down with their readings. In October a seminar discussion on Sudan After Garang was led by Ali Hussein. There were also two book launches. Pat Haward’s novel set in Uganda, Do I Have to Kneel? was celebrated in September, followed by a typically idiosyncratic poetry reading by Kamau Brathwaite in October to mark the publication of his new poetry collection, Born To Slow Horses. We have been really pleased with the turnout to all the events and are happy to see new people coming into the GPI thanks to listings on websites, email postings out and greater publicity. Thanks to everyone who has taken part in the events and who has helped with publicity.

Website

2005 has seen the George Padmore Institute website being brought to life. We purchased some website software which has enabled us to put photos onto the site and to update and edit it much more easily. Brian Alleyne trained Sharmilla Beezmohun, Zuleika Dobson, Janice Durham and Sarah Garrod to use the programme in the middle of the year and since then new information and pictures have been put up. Why don’t you take a look at the website at www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org and let us know what you think!

Finance

Financially the Institute is presently in a sound position regarding our archive work, thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund; and regarding our publishing work, thanks to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Hilden Trust, who donated money in the past for our work on the Black Supplementary Schools Movement. We do, however, need to start planning on how to raise money to continue financing our archive work after the HLF grant finishes in 2006.

Fundraising Lunch AND the First GPI Exhibition

In 2004 we raised over £1100 at the Christmas Fundraising lunch – a record amount. Thank you all so much – and particularly Errol Lloyd and Andrew Thorpe-Anderson who provided music in the book shop during the lunch. Everyone really enjoyed it.

BUT we don’t want to rest on our laurels, so please do come along to this year’s lunch on Sunday 4 December. We are also delighted to announce that our first exhibition will be ready in time for the lunch. We will be showing Photographs of Pearl Connor-Mogotsi, a stalwart supporter of the GPI, who sadly died this year. Milverton Wallace has been working hard on the exhibition to get it ready on time.

Other News

The Passing of Old Friends

The GPI is very sad to have lost the following friends and comrades in 2005: Gary Burton (January); Carl Kirton (February), Pearl Connor-Mogotsi (February), Christiane Keane (March) and Professor Yusufu Bala Usman (October). They will be missed. Our sympathies go to all the families.

Trustee News

Congratulations Roxy Harris on having his PhD thesis accepted for publication. The book is out in 2006.

Congratulations also to Linton Kwesi Johnson who was awarded a Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica this autumn for eminence in the field of poetry. Linton also gave the prestigious annual Ravenscroft Lecture at the University of Leeds in October.

Finally, Remi Harris has passed the first year of her MBA studies and has just started her second and final year. Well done, Remi, and good luck for this year.

The Bust Is Back!!

We have missed him, but the National Portrait Gallery have finally returned the bust of John La Rose to the Institute. See him in his old spot at the fundraising lunch!

And Finally…

The GPI always welcomes donations. Cheques should be made payable to the George Padmore Institute. Let us know if you are registered for Gift Aid. Thanks again for supporting the GPI this year. Wishing you all a Happy 2006.