To date our main publication work has focussed on the successful series of talks and conversations entitled Life Experience With Britain. In the first series of the talks in 1997, seven prominent figures in Britain’s social, political and cultural life gave us insights into their experience of life with Britain — a multifaceted story of engagement with Britain as new citizens with a history of struggle for freedom from political and cultural domination; for racial and social justice and of cultural activism and educational endeavour in the act of humanising and transcending the limitations of British society. This first series was published as Changing Britannia: Life Experience With Britain in 1999. Since then there have been two further series of talks which we will publish, along with other works detailed below.

Books Published by the GPI

Changing Britannia: Life Experience With Britain

edited by Roxy Harris and Sarah White (1999)

ISBN 1-873201-15-X

Contains conversations with:

• Pearl Connor-Mogotsi, pioneering cultural work in theatre and film
• Garth Crooks, footballer and broadcaster
• Linton Kwesi Johnson, reggae poet and recording artist, political and social activist
• Courtenay Griffiths, barrister
• Michael La Rose, expert in sound systems
• Alex Pascall, broadcaster of historic BBC radio programme Black Londoners
• Colin Prescod, academic sociologist and social analyst

A Meeting of the Continents: The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books

Revisited edited by Sarah White, Roxy Harris and Sharmilla Beezmohun (2005)

ISBN: 1-873201-18-4

Published with New Beacon Books with the kind assistance of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

From 1982 to 1995 there existed a unique ‘meeting of the continents’ — the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books. Held in the UK, at first in London and then also in other parts of the country, the Book Fair brought together people from across the globe to participate in debates, forums, readings, musical events, films, plays and other cultural productions as well as to browse through stalls from a multiplicity of publishers. Completely self-financing, the Book Fair relied on people paying for their own travel and staying in the homes of Book Fair organisers. Volunteers worked through the year to help to put together and publicise events. The twelve Book Fairs and Book Fair Festivals celebrated enormous cultural and political achievements, addressing the key issues of the times, with leading writers and artists participating in cultural events. These mirrored the achievements of black people in the outside world and, by the end of the Book Fair in 1995, there had been a visible transformation in British society.

Now the George Padmore Institute has published in full the twelve brochures accompanying the Book Fairs. A Meeting of the Continents: The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books 1982-1995 – Revisited also includes:

• The Origins of the Book Fair
• The Organisation of the Book Fair
• The Role of Founder John La Rose
• The Ending of the Book Fair
• Memoirs from people from all over the world who participated in the Book Fairs
• A comprehensive index of people, publishers and organisations who took part in the Book Fairs

A Meeting of the Continents is a snapshot of key years in the development of the black population of Britain, a chronicle of a period of tremendous change across the world. Since the end of the Book Fair there have been even more global economic, political, cultural and social transformations. Nevertheless, the challenges of obtaining equality and social justice for all still remain. The Book Fair tradition, advocating non-sectarian radical and revolutionary discussion and action in the direction of socialism and mass democracy is, then, more relevant than ever. As a unique record of this tradition, A Meeting of the Continents will allow future generations to build on the foundations laid down by the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books.

'The documents collected together in the current volume represent an archival treasure ... The volume represents an effervescent cultural and political history of a key moment, or conjuncture, of our recent history' - Bill Schwarz, Wasafiri Magazine

Future Publications of the GPI

Changing Britannia: Life Experience With Britain Series Two

edited by Sarah White, Roxy Harris and Sharmilla Beezmohun (forthcoming 2008)

Will contain conversations with:

• Dennis Bovell, accomplished musician, sound engineer, composer, band leader and producer
• Yvonne Brewster, actress and theatre director, founder of the Talawa Theatre Company
• Dr Aggrey Burke, consultant psychiatrist, a pioneer in his field in Britain
• Professor Gus John, leading educationist, writer, pioneering youth work analyst and staunch campaigner for racial equality and social justice
• Althea McNish, leading textile designer and artist
• Rt Revd Wilfred Wood, Bishop of Croydon
• Alexis Rennie, civil engineer, building contractor and managing director of Rennie Building Contracts Ltd

Changing Britannia: Life Experience With Britain Series Three

edited by Sarah White, Roxy Harris and Sharmilla Beezmohun (forthcoming 2009)

Will contain conversations with:

• Professor Harry Goulbourne, who has made major contributions in the fields of history, politics and sociology
• Errol Lloyd, painter, sculptor, pioneering children’s book illustrator, author and arts administrator
• Waveney Bushell, educational psychologist and campaigner in the Black Education Movement
• Yvonne Brown, solicitor in her own legal practice specialising in cases concerning children, education and mental health
• Neil Kenlock, photographer and founder/director of Choice FM London
• Gloria Mills, active trade unionist and Director of Equal Opportunities in the UK’s largest trade union, UNISON
• Shirley Thompson, composer of opera, symphonic and chamber music, music for film, TV and theatre, film director and lecturer in music

Recording the History and Development of the Black Supplementary School Movement

In July 2000 we wrote to many of our contacts who had played an important role in the history and development of the Black Supplementary School Movement, to seek their cooperation and involvement in an initiative from the trustees of the George Padmore Institute and Winston Best, one of the early education activists and founder of the Paul Bogle Youth Club in North London. The George Padmore Institute has committed itself to charting and recording the history and development of this movement, arising as it did from the nationwide concern among black immigrant communities from as early as the 1960s about the experience of black children in the British schooling system.

Four decades later black settler communities are still having to depend on supplementary schools to help Black British children develop positive and grounded self-identity and to compensate for the failure of mainstream schools to give children their educational entitlement. Lately the Black Supplementary Schools have become the subject of academic study by students who are mainly of the generation which the movement had within its focus. The product of many of these studies is often not only misleading, but perpetuates any number of gross factual inaccuracies, historical distortions and suspect analysis.

We believe that we, the founders, the early activists and those who were students within this major movement must embrace the responsibility of recording the authentic history of the movement, placing it in the wider social, economic, cultural and political context of the interface between black people and British society in the post war period. We have therefore embarked on a detailed study, which began with three sessions in September to November 2000. These concentrated on the origins and early development of the movement and involved a wide number of people who had been active in the early years of the movement. The materials from these sessions will be transcribed and there will be supplementary sessions and interviews to go along with these. Together they will form a detailed study: The Origins, Development, Present Status and Future of the Black Supplementary School Movement.