Young Black women aged 18-30 were invited to join an exciting new hybrid programme for budding archivists and curators.
Booker Prize winning author and literary activist Professor Bernardine Evaristo explains why she supported the initiative
“Women Speak Volumes Between Generations is a fantastic initiative highlighting the living legacy of older Black women artists and creatives, whose narratives continue to be underrepresented in the archives. There is a wealth of talent out there among the next generation of young Black women storytellers, archivists and curators, but there are still systemic obstacles to career progression that need to be overcome. This project is an important and creative intervention to redress the balance while celebrating Black women whose entrepreneurial work deserves attention.”
About Women Speak Volumes Between Generations
Women Speak Volumes Between Generations was a new hybrid project that aimed to amplify the neglected contributions of pioneering older Black women creatives and inspire the next generation to develop their own community archives.
Despite comprising 50% of the population, women only occupy around 0.5% of recorded history. And when it comes to Black British women, it’s significantly less.
To alter this inequality, we had 10 places for young Black women (aged 18-30) to be part of a new Women Speak Volumes Between Generations skills programme. Participants gained experience in the arts, publishing, heritage, digitising archives, curation, event management, interviewing and filming.
About the programme
Women Speak Volumes Between Generations was a flexible programme, spread out over eight months, from January 2025, where participants had the chance to:
1. Attend eight, two-hour archive workshops on topics such as storytelling, capturing oral histories, digital archiving, managing images, copyright and licensing.
2. Attend four, two-hour skills-based workshops on filming and recording events, film editing and captioning, digital storage and copy-editing and proofing books.
3. Try out their new skills at live events centring pioneering older Black women artists and midcareer Black women creative entrepreneurs.
4. Interview one or more older Black women of their choice in their community, which will be published on the Speaking Volumes website, with credit.
5. Receive industry mentoring from the award-winning Words of Colour.
6. Be awarded a Certificate of Achievement.
Why was Women Speak Volumes Between Generations been launched?
Despite making up 50% of the population, women only occupy around 0.5% of recorded history.1 Although some books are starting to tell these stories, such as the American history of The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis (2023), the proportion of that 0.5% representing Black women in the UK is miniscule.
As for inspiring the next generation, the 2022 report “It’s about handing over power”: The Impact of ethnic diversity initiatives on curatorial roles in the UK arts and heritage sector 1998-20212 noted that museums need to encourage school-age children to see their organisations as good places to work. It also recommended greater collaboration with the higher education sector to create stronger pipelines and training schemes.
References
Women Speak Volumes Between Generations is a Speaking Volumes initiative, in partnership with Words of Colour and the George Padmore Institute and supported by Coastal Carolina University and 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning. The project is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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